- Aug 10, 2001
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<< MOUNT PLEASANT ? A counselor at a Mount Pleasant center for troubled teens was in serious condition at the Westchester Medical Center yesterday after surviving a savage attack by eight girls who police said beat her, set her afire and poured chlorine bleach on her face.
"I'm shocked by the viciousness of this,'' Mount Pleasant Police Chief Louis Alagno said of the assault at the Pleasantville Cottage School. "It's hard to believe that we're dealing with children here.''
Six of the eight girls ? two 16-year-olds and four 15-year-olds ? were arraigned last night on charges of attempted second-degree murder. The older ones, Takiyah Miller and Lidia Orellana, were sent without bail to the Westchester County Jail in Valhalla. The others, Latoya Barcliff, Mary Brown, Angenika Carter and Nicole Infante, were to be sent to the Woodfield Cottage juvenile detention center.
The girls giggled as they were led to the Mount Pleasant courtroom about 10:40 p.m., wearing orange jumpsuits and some in bright green handcuffs the color of children's jewelry. Once inside the courtroom their mood changed however, with several breaking into tears repeatedly.
"Look at me!" Town Justice Robert Ponzini shouted at Brown at one point, and he repeatedly admonished the others to listen to him during their brief appearances. All were denied bail, but he issued orders of protection to each on behalf of the victim if, he said, "God forbid, you make bail" in the future.
Alagno said the attack began shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday and continued for more than an hour inside Cottage 12, a girls residence at the 1075 Broadway complex run by the Jewish Child Care Association.
During her ordeal, the 32-year-old counselor was punched, kicked, stomped and scratched by the girls before "they doused her with rubbing alcohol and set it on fire,'' Alagno said. "They continued to beat her and then doused her face with chlorine bleach.''
They also cut her hair with scissors, beat her with a telephone and kicked her down two flights of steps, according to the charges read in court last night. >>
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