Thread: NY:Cottage School teen charged w/rape UPDATED 7/10

Cottage School teen charged with rape is undocumented Guatemalan

By SHAWN COHEN
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: July 6, 2007)
MOUNT PLEASANT - A 15-year-old Pleasantville Cottage School resident charged with raping an 18-year-old female resident is a Guatemalan native with no known family ties in the United States who was found wandering the streets of New York City, police said.

"He is apparently in this country with no documentation, no family, no nothing as far as we are able to determine at this time," Mount Pleasant Lt. Brian Fanelli said.

Luis Flores was arraigned today on a felony charge of first-degree rape. Police say he came up behind the 18-year-old victim as she was walking up the campus driveway and threatened to set her on fire with a lit cigarette lighter unless she went with him into the woods. She did and police say Flores forcibly raped her there and then let her go.

Fanelli said Flores has been in trouble with police before but would not elaborate.

"We've definitely dealt with him on the campus several times since 2006," Fanelli said.

After being found walking the streets, Flores entered the court system and wound up at the residential treatment center for troubled children, Fanelli said. Police are working with Immigration Customs Enforcement, he said, to try to confirm his identity and age.

Jane Barowitz, spokeswoman for the Jewish Child Care Association, which oversees the Pleasantville Cottage School, declined to comment this afternoon on the investigation other than to say "we are distressed about this alleged assault, we have notified the police and are cooperating fully in the investigation. Our primary concern is the safety of the children, staff and community."

The alleged rape occurred between 7:30 and 8 p.m Thursday and was reported to police around 8:30 p.m. by a staff member of the campus' Edenwald Center. The victim was treated and released from Westchester Medical Center.

Flores was brought in late last night for questioning and formally arrested and charged at 3 a.m. today, police said. He was remanded to the Woodfield Cottage Detention Center, part of the Westchester County complex in Valhalla.

The assault was the latest in a string of sex crimes involving residents of two local residential treatment centers.

In March, a 12-year-old boy was accused of sexually assaulting another 12-year-old boy at the Pleasantville Cottage School. At the time, police had complained that officials there failed to notify the department of the incident. Instead, Mount Pleasant police were tipped off nearly four hours later by the Child Advocacy Center in Valhalla after the boy was taken to the Westchester Medical Center.

That incident came less than two weeks after officials at Hawthorne Cedar Knolls, another treatment center nearby, waited more than two hours to report an alleged gang-rape there. Three teenagers there were accused of beating and raping a 13-year-old girl after dragging her into a vacant building on that campus.

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs ... 023/NEWS07

I can't add much to this but to say "get these animals out of our country!" no matter what it takes!!!

Many questions raised with rape investigation at Pleasantville Cottage School
By GERALD MCKINSTRY
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: July 10, 2007)

MOUNT PLEASANT - Days after a Guatemalan native with no apparent family ties in this country was charged with rape at a youth residential treatment center in Mount Pleasant, the investigation is delving into the boy's background and record - and how he ended up in Westchester County.

"We have the same questions," Lt. Brian Fanelli of the Mount Pleasant police said yesterday.

Luis Flores is charged with first-degree rape, a felony. He is accused of coming up behind an 18-year-old woman as she was walking along the driveway on the campus of the Pleasantville Cottage School, raising a lit lighter and threatening to set her on fire unless she went with into the woods, and then sexually attacking her there between 7:30 and 8 p.m. Thursday, police said.

After the woman was let go, Fanelli said, she ran off and told Cottage School staff. A school employee called police about 8:30 p.m. The victim was treated at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla and released.

Fanelli said Flores was assigned to the treatment center by New York City's Administration for Children's Services after being found wandering the streets of the city. When that happened is still unclear, Fanelli said, and is part of the investigation.

Mount Pleasant police said last week that they had dealt with Flores several times since 2006. Yesterday, Chief Louis Alagno said Flores had left the campus several times without permission. He is also a possible suspect in other criminal activity. Alagno would not elaborate, saying investigations were under way.

Flores told police he is 15. Because he has no documentation or known family here, Fanelli said, investigators are trying to confirm that.

"That's one of our goals, to determine his actual age," Fanelli said. "We don't believe he is 15, but we can't prove it or disprove it."

Sharman Stein, a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children's Services, said she could not talk specifically about the situation because of confidentially issues. But she said the city works with the courts and nonprofit agencies on matters of child abuse and neglect.

Stein said the city contracts with organizations such as the Manhattan-based Jewish Child Care Association, which runs the Pleasantville Cottage School, to care for children and help them find foster homes.

Stein said the question of legal or illegal residence in the United States plays no role in the type of service offered or placement of a child.

"Immigration status has no bearing on our responsibility to care for children," Stein said. "Under New York state social services law, if a child is homeless or otherwise in need of care, we will provide for him or her."

Jane Barowitz, spokeswoman for the Jewish Child Care Association, would not comment on the investigation, but she said the association was working with police.

Barowitz said the school has 325 students, ages 7 to 18, on campus. Their stays vary from several weeks to a few years. The agency's goal is to help students develop vocational and educational skills and, in some cases, help them find families.

Many there have cognitive impairments and emotional problems, she said, and some are "terribly, terribly traumatized."

"These are kids. They are going to go out to the world," Barowitz said. "It's not a prison."

Flores remains at the Woodfield Cottage Detention Center, part of the Westchester County complex in Valhalla, Fanelli said. He is due in court at 9 a.m. Thursday. If convicted, Flores could face up to 25 years in prison.

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs ... 023/NEWS07