Authorities are investigating new allegations that Corpus Christi State School residents were continuing to fight each other - as recently as this week - while employees watched.
The latest fights allegedly took place on Wednesday and Thursday - amid an ongoing investigation into similar charges.
Less than two weeks ago, Gov. Rick Perry suspended admissions to the institution for Texans with mental disabilities following police allegations that employees organized fights among residents throughout the last year and possibly longer.
Bart Bevers, inspector general of the Health and Human Services Commission, said his office on Friday received allegations of two new fights.
One fight allegedly occurred on Wednesday night, with about nine state employees “standing around watching,” Bevers said. The second allegedly occurred Thursday night while two state employees were allegedly watching, he said.
In response, Bevers dispatched members of his staff to Corpus Christi on Friday, he said.
“They are there interviewing people as we speak,” Bevers said Friday evening.
Corpus Christi State School Superintendent Iva Benson said nine employees have been suspended as a result of the two allegations.
She said one allegation was brought to her attention by Advocacy Inc, a group that works to help Texans with disabilities. Benson then notified the Office of Inspector General, she said. She said none of the residents appear to have been injured and the alleged fights did not occur in the same dorm as the earlier ones.
“If someone says something happened, we have to report it,” Benson said. “I would hope that the public … would say that people are innocent until you get the facts to prove they are guilty.”
State Rep. Abel Herrero, D-Robstown, whose district includes the state school, said: “If it turns out the allegations are true, I’m gravely disappointed that (Department of Aging and Disabilities Services Commissioner Addie) Horn and her executive committee have been ineffective in properly addressing these dire circumstances.”
Meanwhile, officials continue to investigate the earlier allegations of fights organized and filmed by employees throughout the last year and possibly longer.
Corpus Christi police Capt. Tim Wilson said Friday that more charges could be filed in that case as early as Monday - misdemeanor charges against those who knew about the incidents and failed to report them.
Four former employees, Timothy Dixon, Vince Johnson, Jesse Salazar and Stephanie Garza, have been arrested and charged with felonies in connection with the earlier fights.
Two other former employees, Dangelo Riley and Guadalupe Delarosa, are wanted in connection with the fights and are thought to be out of state, Wilson said.
Videos of the fights were shown during a bond reduction hearing for Dixon Friday in Nueces County, Wilson said.
In one video, two residents repeatedly punched each other, while staff members cheered, according to the Associated Press. The residents tried to choke each other before one threw the other to the floor. An employee then kicked the resident on the floor.
When asked how it could be possible that more fights may have occurred on the same campus where the other fights were filmed, Jay Kimbrough, Perry’s chief of staff, said: “That’s a dang good question. We’re going to get an answer.”
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