FORMER EMPLOYEE OF THE ARLINGTON DEVELOPMENT CENTER
SENTENCED TO 37 MONTHS IN PRISON AND
THREE YEARS SUPERVISED RELEASE

WASHINGTON, D.C. - R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, and Terrell L. Harris, United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, announced today that a former employee of the Arlington Development Center, a Tennessee state mental facility, was sentenced to 37 months in prison and three years supervised release for repeatedly beating and physically abusing a severely mentally retarded patient.

Leon Cecil Bratcher, formerly an aide at the Arlington Developmental Center, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee in October of 2003, to conspiring to deprive patient James Johnson of his federal constitutional right to be free from abuse by state employees. The plea followed a trial before the Honorable Bernice Donald. That trial resulted in a hung jury on October 7, 2003. A second defendant, Tovi Brewer, also a former employee of the Arlington Development Center, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 31 months imprisonment on February 20.

“Today’s sentence sends a strong message to those who would betray the trust placed in caretaking positions and abuse those left in their care,” said Assistant Attorney General Acosta. “Residents of development centers have every right to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their condition, and we will not tolerate those who behave with such callous disregard for their humanity.”

In their plea agreements, Brewer and Bratcher admitted that in 1997 and 1998 they routinely slapped and punched the victim in the head and chest. The abuse, Brewer and Bratcher conceded, was intended to get Johnson to follow commands and to punish him for engaging in impulsive behavior caused by his disabilities. Brewer, Bratcher and others covered up the abuse to protect one another.

The admissions were consistent with the evidence the government introduced at trial. According to witnesses, Brewer and Bratcher slapped, punched and kicked Johnson, and threatened to assault him with electrical cords. Investigation into the abuse began when, on June 8, 1998, Johnson was reported to have sustained bruises and lash marks on his back, buttocks and hip.

The case was investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and jointly prosecuted by Trial Attorney Seth Rosenthal of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, and Assistant United States Attorney Steve Parker of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee.

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