Third Little City Employee Charged With Punching Disabled Boy, 11

CHICAGO (CBS) — A third employee of a Palatine center for the developmentally disabled has been charged with beating an 11-year-old boy.

Kalia Coffey was charged with aggravated battery to a child for allegedly punching the special needs child in the face with a closed fist on June 17, 2016, at Little City.

The Cook County Sheriff’s office said the 11-year-old boy is the same child who was the victim of another attack on Dec. 1, 2016, when two other employees at Little City allegedly punched him and hit him with a bucket.

Cara Smith, chief policy officer for Sheriff Tom Dart, said the latest incident was not reported to sheriff’s police until Jan. 23 – by DCFS, not by Little City, which provides services to the developmentally disabled.

Ronkeia Harper, 22, of Forest Park, and Lisa Archer, 39, of Palatine, each were charged with aggravated battery in the most recent incident.

In response to the December attack, Little City spokesman Larry Heisler issued the following statement:

“Please know that Little City does everything humanly possible to preserve and protect the welfare of children and adults in our care, and that the callous and alleged criminal behavior shown by these two individuals is not representative of the Little City workforce.

We are committed to voluntary reporting, full transparency, and complete cooperation with investigatory and regulatory officials.

Once we learned of the incident, we immediately followed protocol and notified the DCFS abuse hotline.

DCFS is responsible for notifying law enforcement for such incidents while they conduct a concurrent investigation.

After being relieved of their duties, Harper and Archer were terminated.

Little City is vigilant in weeding out those individuals whose values and behaviors do not align with what our children, adults and their families deserve.

We support and applaud the efforts of the authorities, including the Cook County Sheriff and State’s Attorney, in helping us address matters like this so we can stay true to our mission of taking care of the most vulnerable members of our society.”

WBBM has asked Little City for comment on the June incident.

from CBS Chicago http://ift.tt/2lB3DhR