Following the filing of a civil lawsuit against a behavioral center in North Texas, a director, and an employee have been arrested in connection with the alleged assault of a nonverbal child with autism.
The North Richland Hills Police Department said 34-year-old Kiara Henry, the director and owner of ABA Interactive Therapy Center, was taken into custody Wednesday, Aug. 7, and charged with failure to report, a state jail felony.
On Aug. 8, the Lubbock Police Department arrested 31-year-old Ashley Moreno due to her outstanding warrant issued by the NRHPD.
According to the police department, two parents called them on Thursday, June 27, about an alleged assault on a 7-year-old boy that happened a week before at ABA Interactive Therapy Center.
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The child's parents, Prabesh Poudel and Ramila Chalise informed authorities that their son, a patient at the facility, had been viciously assaulted by a therapist.
In North Richland Hills police's new release and the civil suit, it was stated that one of the parents went to pick up the child from the center on June 20, and when they arrived, the parent discovered a large scratch on the child's face.
The parent was then asked to sign an incident report, which wrote that the child "engaged in maladaptive behavior where he began to have a tantrum and scratched the right side of his face," the lawsuit claimed.
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Sharing deep concern about their son's recent self-harm, as it was unprecedented, and their disappointment in the center's failure to inform them when the incident happened, Poudel and Chalise sought to learn more details.
The lawsuit said after not getting any concrete answers from Henry the parents were contacted by an employee at the center who claimed Henry was hiding the video.
A few days later, another employee obtained a copy of the video and showed it to the parents. The video, which NBC 5 has not seen, is alleged to show a therapist grabbing the child by his shirt and shoving him against a wall with her hands around his neck.
The therapist was identified in the couple's lawsuit as Ashley Moreno.
A wanted poster shared by North Richland Hills police said Moreno was wanted for injury to a child, a second-degree felony, since July 17.
Moreno's name was listed on the incident report as a witness to the boy's injury. The incident report, which was signed by the child's parent at the request of the behavioral center on the day they were notified of his injury, was included in the family's lawsuit.
North Richland Hills police said they learned of multiple unreported complaints against Moreno during their investigation but didn't elaborate further on the nature of those complaints.
Chalise and Poudel are seeking punitive damages of more than $1 million due to the reported physical pain, suffering, and mental anguish suffered by their son. They are suing the therapy center for vicarious liability, negligence, negligent hiring, training, supervision, retention, and gross negligence.
NBC 5 contacted ABA Interactive for a statement regarding the incident and lawsuit, but have not received a response.
