BROOKLYN — A second employee at the Park Slope group home for juveniles where three boys escaped and raped a woman in Chinatown last summer has been arrested — following an investigation that found the city and the children's home shared in the blame because they were negligent in their oversight.
The city's Department of Investigation said Thursday that the city's Close to Home program, which sought to house juvenile delinquents in locations closer to their communities, routinely failed to properly oversee employees and maintain facilities.
The DOI investigation excoriated the Administration for Children’s Services for failing to review surveillance footage and repair alarm systems in sites run by Boys Town, the nonprofit that ran the homes.
“This investigation showed a pervasive lack of oversight of City-contracted juvenile homes that resulted in a tragedy on June 1st of last year,” said DOI Commissioner Mark G. Peters.
“The City and ACS have an obligation to safeguard both the public and the juveniles entrusted to their care, an obligation they failed to meet for several years.”
Boys Town staffer Andrew Best, 23, was arrested on charges of falsifying records in which he lied about doing routine bed checks on the Boys Town residents, according to the Department of Investigation.
Best was on duty June 1, 2015 when three 16-year-olds at the facility, Eric Pek, Emanuel Burrowes and Sanat Asliev, escaped from the home at 289 Sixth Ave. and robbed, and raped a 33-year-old woman in a Lower Manhattan park, prosecutors said.
Boys Town employee Denzel Thompson wrote in the home's log that the boys were safe in their beds between 1:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. Thompson was charged 10 days later and his case his still pending.
The DOI investigation also uncovered surveillance footage of Crown Heights Boys Town employees lying on the floor of unoccupied bedrooms with pillows and blankets when they were supposed to be doing mandatory bed checks, according to investigators.
Soraya Delancey, 36, and Stanley Stephens, 23, employees at the 240 St. John’s Place location, have also been arrested and charged for failing to make checks and lying about it in their logs.
“While we cannot comment on any investigation, these allegations, if true, fail to meet the core values of Boys Town and our mission of caring for at risk children and families,” a spokesman from Boys Town said in a statement.
Boys Town has since shut down its Close to Home facilities.
A fourth staffer from the St. John’s Facility will be arrested at a later time. Best, Delancey and Stephens face up to one year in prison.
