The Associated Press
April 27, 2007
CLEVELAND, Ga. --Six employees charged with murder and child cruelty in the death of a camper at the Applachian Wilderness Camp in northeast Georgia face trial June fourth.
The employees maintained in pre-trial motions in White County Superior Court this week that they had acted as they had been trained when dealing with 13-year-old Travis Parker at the camp for troubled boys near Cleveland.
Five of the employees are accused of taking turns restraining the five-foot-seven, 159-pound boy by holding him down for an hour and a half until he lost consciousness and later died while another employee - Paul Binford - authorized their actions.
Through their attorneys, the six maintained that the restraint was applied correctly. The restraint consisted of holding the boy down with workers securing his arms, hips and legs.
The employees have pleaded not guilty to the charges. In addition to Binford, the others are: Ryan Chapman, Mathew Desing, Phillip Elliott, Johnny Harris and Torbin Vining.
The boy stopped breathing when he was being restrained April 20th, 2005. The next day he died at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston.
District Attorney Stan Gunter has offered all six workers plea bargains, but none has yet expressed interest.
The boy's grandmother - Golden Griffin of Douglas County - had raised Travis since he was a toddler. She says she wants the workers to serve prison time.
Camp director Tim McMahon testified in a hearing Wednesday that his review of the case found the workers properly restrained the boy and did NOT use excessive force.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation found the boy died of irreversible brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen because of inadequate blood flow to his brain.
