Releases

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Attorneys from the Corpus Christi, Texas-based law firm of Hilliard Muńoz Guerra are announcing a lawsuit filed against the Texas agency responsible for caring for the mentally disabled based on evidence that supervisors at the Corpus Christi State School routinely organized and filmed fights among disabled residents for entertainment.

Attorney Robert Hilliard represents Inez Hernandez, the mother of Armando Hernandez Jr., 21, in the state court negligence claim filed against the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services. According to the lawsuit filed March 25 in the 214th District Court in Corpus Christi, Mr. Hernandez suffered physical injuries and continues to suffer emotional trauma after being forced by supervisors to participate in the fights. Mr. Hernandez was a resident of the school between April 2007 and April 2008.

The lawsuit describes the serious personal injuries suffered by Mr. Hernandez during his tenure at the school, including severe humiliation, degradation and ongoing metal anguish.

"These special-needs residents are some of the most vulnerable and fragile members of our community," says Mr. Hilliard. "To think that the protectors of their welfare were turning them into tools for their own sick entertainment makes my blood boil. I put this at the feet of the agency itself, an agency that, time and time again, throughout this state has allowed systematic abuse of every kind to go mostly unchecked."

Prosecutors with the Nueces County District Attorney's Office already have filed criminal charges against six current or former school employees for organizing the fights, which were captured on video on at least one employee's cell phone. Mr. Hilliard has filed a subpoena in order to gain access to as many as 20 cell phone videos of the fights that reportedly were recovered by Corpus Christi police investigators. Local, state and federal authorities are continuing their investigations.

For more than 20 years, Hilliard Muńoz Guerra has represented individuals from across the United States in a variety of personal injury claims, including cases involving refinery explosions, trucking accidents, toxic exposure, and dangerous prescription drugs.
More information on the firm is found at http://www.hmglawfirm.com/.

For more information, contact Barry Pound at 800-559-4534 (office), 214-293-0860 (mobile) or barry@androvett.com.