An immigrant school aide caught on tape grabbing and dragging an autistic Queens student by his testicles has pleaded guilty to a felony and faces possible deportation.
Garnet Collins, 51, tortured the teen at the Anderson Center for Autism in upstate Staatsburg, about 10 miles north of Poughkeepsie, where NYC and state taxpayers paid his tuition, room and board.
It was one of the worst cases of abuse of a disabled youth at a New York institution in years. The Anderson Center collects millions of dollars in state and city funds to educate students with severe autism.
“My son is going to have PTSD for years,” the teen’s outraged father told The Post. “He’s suffering. He remembers. He calls out, ‘Garnet, no, no no!’”
The whistleblower who recorded the abuse testified that similar assaults occurred frequently in the residential center, but that supervisors “turned a blind eye,” said the dad. He has called on authorities to investigate possible criminal negligence, and state lawmakers to mandate surveillance cameras in public areas of such facilities.
In a Dutchess County criminal courtroom Wednesday, Collins first told Judge Edward McLoughlin, “I hold him by his waist, your honor.”
The judge stopped him: “My understanding is that in an attempt to control this person with this condition, you grabbed him by his genitals and you hurt him. Is that fair?
“Yes, your honor,” Collins admitted. He pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of an incompetent person.
In a video recorded by a fellow aide, Collins is seen gripping the youth’s crotch and yelling, “Go to your room!” while the youth screams in pain, crying, “I want to call Mommy!”
Collins also admitted hitting another autistic student in the head with a laptop, bruising him. That charge was dropped as part of his plea deal.
The whistleblower who recorded both incidents and alerted the teen’s parents was fired.
As Collins sobbed in court, muttering “Jesus, Jesus,” the judge told him, “I can’t imagine how upset and hurt and distraught the families of your victims were when they found out what happened to their loved one. I understand it’s a bad day for you. It might be a lifelong issue for them.”
Collins said he is not a citizen but “a permanent resident.” However, his guilty plea may result in deportation, and he could be paroled to immigration officials at any time after starting his prison term, the judge said.
Collins, jailed after the hearing, faces one to three years behind bars.
“The sentence is much too lenient,” said Ilann Maazel, the dad’s lawyer. “It’s part of a pattern of law enforcement not taking seriously the abuse and neglect of disabled people.”
