Mental-health client accused of beating agency employee he was dating (The Journal News)
MOUNT PLEASANT – A resident of a halfway house for psychiatric patients is accused of severely beating a staff counselor he had been dating, holding her captive in a car until the woman’s parents reached her by telephone, police said yesterday.
Hearing her terrified voice, the parents called 911, and police later discovered the bloody couple parked a quarter-mile away from the halfway house, Mount Pleasant Police Chief Louis Alagno said.
David Sanchez, a 21-year-old living at Sunset House in Thornwood, was charged with second-degree assault, a felony, and unlawful imprisonment and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, both misdemeanors.
The 25-year-old victim suffered a fractured eye socket, a lost tooth, a punctured eardrum and other facial injuries in the assault, which occurred early Friday, the police chief said.
The couple left her parents’ home in the Bronx the previous night. At that time, she asked her mother to call her at 5 a.m. to make sure she was awake in time for work at Sunset House at 11 Sunset Drive, a group home run by Albany-based Rehabilitation Support Services that prepares people with mental-health problems to return to the community.
When the daughter answered her cell phone the next morning, she sounded distressed, the police chief said. Her mother asked whether she was in trouble, and the daughter responded “yes.” The mother then asked whether she was going to work, and she replied, “I can’t.”
The parents, who spoke with her three times that morning, called police and provided a description of her car. Mount Pleasant officers found the Nissan on Lilac Place, with the bloody woman and Sanchez inside the car.
The woman was taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla.
Sanchez was placed under arrest. He is being held in the Westchester County jail with bail set at $50,000, pending an appearance Thursday in Town Court.
The home is licensed by the state Office of Mental Health, and the incident is likely to trigger an investigation by the agency, a spokeswoman said.
“Any romantic involvement between a staff person and a client of a program licensed by the Office of Mental Health is an ethical violation and a reportable incident,” said the spokeswoman, Jill Daniels. “Additionally, if a staff person involved in such a relationship is a licensed professional, that person could lose their license as a result.”
The incident had not been reported to the state agency as of late yesterday, she said.
The group home’s operator did not respond to calls from the newspaper yesterday.
