KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The attorney for the family of Cornelius Fredericks is calling the video of his restraint “horrific” and “graphic.”
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger held a press conference Tuesday afternoon where released the video showing 16-year-old Cornelius Fredericks being restrained by several staff members at Lakeside Academy in Kalamazoo on August 29th.
The video was supplied by the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor because Fieger said Sequel Youth and Family Services and Lakeside Academy would not provide the footage. A lawsuit has already been filed against Lakeside and the parent company. “Lakeside wouldn’t give us the tape. They tried to negotiate with us and say if we signed a confidentiality agreement, agreed not to disclose the tape,” Fieger said.
The 10 minute video shows Fredericks sitting at a the end of a lunchroom table. He tosses his sandwich to another nearby table and that’s when the staff member next to him pushes him to the ground and two other staff members begin to help in the restraint. As the video continues many of the teens at the facility sit and continue eating their lunches as they watch about seven Lakeside staff members hold Fredericks down.
“Cornelius urinated on himself during the time in which they were killing him…He’s not fighting at all because you’ll see his shoes and his feet are just lying there,” Fieger explained after reviewing the footage.
The video also shows the nurse, identified as 48-year-old Heather McLogan of Kalamazoo, does not do anything to help as Fredericks is lying lifeless on the floor. She eventually calls 911 several minutes later and then staff members begin performing CPR.
Fredericks went into cardiac arrest and passed away in the hospital two days later. His death was ruled as a homicide as a result of restraint asphyxia, according to Kalamazoo County Medical Examiner Ted Brown.
So far three people are facing criminal charges in Fredericks’ death. 47-year-old Michael Mosley of Battle Creek and 28-year-old Zachary Solis of Lansing are the two on his torso in the video. They are both charged with homicide-involuntary manslaughter and two counts of second-degree child abuse.
The third person is McLogan. She is charged with homicide-involuntary manslaughter and one count of second-degree child abuse for failing to seek medical care in a timely manner.
Fieger said Fredericks was also subjected to another incident back in January where he was also suffocated. “But suffocation was a form of discipline…the horrors that children have to endure have to be exposed,” Fieger stated.
He is calling on the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor to seek additional charges for other staff members involved in the restraint. “There are many more than two people suffocating him,” Fieger said.
Fieger explained that they have also been contacted by about four or five Lakeside children who witnessed the restraint. “One of the children was at the next table and has repeatedly advised us that Cornelius said ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,’” he said. Some of the children are now traumatized after the incident according to parents that have now contacted the attorney.
Fieger called the actions “sub-human behavior.” He says one employee has refereed to Lakeside as “death row Academy.”
The state has already suspended Lakeside’s license which means the facility cannot house any children, but now the department is working to permanently shut down the facility.
As a response, Sequel Youth & Family Services has released the following statement:
“We continue to mourn the senseless and tragic loss of Cornelius and are aware of the video footage released today. The actions taken by the staff members in that video do not adhere to the Sequel and Lakeside Academy policies and procedures related to the use of emergency safety interventions as trained in the JKM Safe Crisis Management system. Further, those actions are not representative of our core values of accountability, humility, and integrity. We take our obligation to meet the significant behavioral health needs of all our students very seriously and strive to improve the lives of those in our programs by providing excellence in clinical care, therapy, education, and support.
At Sequel, we emphasize de-escalation both with our staff and our students. The staff at Lakeside were trained in our de-escalation techniques. It is our policy to only use restraints as an emergency safety intervention in two situations: 1) when a student exhibits imminent danger to themselves and 2) when a student exhibits imminent danger to others, and in those cases to use the minimal level of intervention possible. Otherwise, a restraint is not an appropriate first response, and restraints are never to be used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience, or retaliation by staff.”