Videos show disturbing fights at Texas school

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Cell phone videos allegedly taken by an employee at a Texas school show disturbing scenes of mentally disabled students fighting each other in bouts that prosecutors say were organized by the employees.

In one of the videos released Tuesday, two of the students at the Corpus Christi State School fight on the ground while a third person kicks them. A male voice can be heard egging on the residents.

In another scene, a student pins a peer against the wall and punches him in the face with an audible crack.

In March, police obtained the videos recorded on 16 days between late 2007 and early this year. Eleven former employees of the Corpus Christi State School are accused of organizing the fights.

Timothy Dixon, a 31-year-old former employee, is accused of filming the late-night fight clubs on his cell phone camera. He faces criminal charges along with Jesse Salazar, 25, Guadalupe De La Rosa Jr., 22, Vincent Johnson, 22, D’Angelo Riley, 22, and Stephanie Garza, 21. Garza faces the same charge but as a state jail felony. Garza was accused of failing to intervene.

The other accused employees were either fired or no longer worked for the agency at the time the scandal was revealed.

Police said in March that those charged were the ones who could be identified in fights where there were clear injuries.

The videos feature a cheerleading-type voice over commentary — “part two, part two” — as residents wrestle.

A man wearing a striped shirt holds a person down with a pillow over the face of another man. Footage shows as many as three people fighting each other at one time. People can be heard laughing as a resident sits on the floor and checks his lip for blood.

“The video is clear at how poorly people can treat the disabled,” said Bob Hilliard, an attorney for one of the former residents at the school.