Dad furious after video shows staffer dragging son by genitals at NYC-funded autism center

A case worker at a Dutchess County center for autistic students grabbed a 19-year-old from Queens by his genitals and squeezed them in his grip while dragging the teen as he howled in agony, horrifying video shows.

Garnet Collins, 50, is charged with brutalizing the youth at the publicly-funded boarding school run by the private Anderson Center for Autism in upstate Staatsburg, about 10 miles north of Poughkeepsie.

Sparking even more outrage, the Anderson Center swiftly fired the whistleblower who recorded the smoking-gun video and then alerted the teen’s parents.

Collins is charged with brutalizing the youth at the publicly-funded boarding school run by the private Anderson Center for Autism in Staatsburg, New York. Obtained by The New York Post

The horrific case casts a spotlight on the prominent 100-year-old institution, which collects millions of dollars in state and city taxpayer funds to educate and house students with severe autism.

The state pays the Anderson Center $651 a day per resident for room and board alone.

“Our son has been traumatized,” said the 19-year-old’s father, a financial consultant from Forest Hills.

“I want justice for my son, and justice for the other kids in that home.”

The whistleblower’s video, first published by Fox 5 New York, gave prosecutors smoking-gun evidence.

“You hear my son screaming at the top of his lungs,” the dad said.

“The abuser is yelling, ‘Go to your room! My son says, ‘I don’t want to! I want to call Mommy!’

“The perpetrator then grabs my son by his penis and by his scrotum, through his clothing, and drags him 20 to 25 feet into another room, where he shuts the door. My son continues to scream inside that room.” 

The video captured 28 seconds of what the whistleblower described as 30 minutes of “torture,” the dad said, asking to be identified only by his first name, Anil, to protect his son’s privacy.

On Aug. 11, the parents brought the video to state police, who arrested Collins.

He is charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of an incompetent/physically disabled person, a felony.

The second count stems from a different video recorded by the whistleblower which shows Collins hitting another Anderson Center student with a hard notebook binder and reveals red marks on his forehead.

A classmate looks on “with abject terror in his eyes,” Anil said.

Anil is upset that Collins, under a possible plea deal, may get sentenced to no more than six months in jail — if any time behind bars — with five years of probation, the Dutchess County DA’s office told him.

Anil also accuses law-enforcement officials of failing to fully investigate and prosecute higher-ups at Anderson Center who oversaw the aides and allegedly “turned a blind eye” to misconduct.

“What happens at Chestnut House, stays at Chestnut House,” the whistleblower told the parents his supervisor had warned him, referring to the unit where he worked.

In a statement to The Post, an Anderson Center spokesperson rebutted, “We have no reason to believe that was ever said.”

The dismissed whistleblower, a young man from Malawi recruited to live on-site and care for the autistic residents, was left at risk of losing his J1 visa for a work exchange program.

The aide, who’d been paid $1,000 a month by Anderson Center along with housing, dreaded deportation and was “physically afraid for his life,” Anil said.

Anil rented a Brooklyn apartment for the aide to help him stay in the US – and keep him as a witness in the case against Collins.

An Anderson Center representative said the whistleblower was terminated for “unrelated conduct,” but would not specify the reason.

“We continued to offer housing and a living stipend so he would be available for any questions during the investigation,” the spokesperson said. 

The video captured 28 seconds of what the whistleblower described as 30 minutes of “torture,” the teen’s dad said. Obtained by The New York Post

Anderson Center’s history highlights dysfunction in New York’s care for the disabled.

The parents of Jonathan Carey, an autistic 13-year-old, transferred him out of Anderson in 2003 after learning the center had withheld food from the boy to punish him for taking off his shirt at the wrong time. 

Jonathan suffocated to death in 2007 while being restrained in another facility, since closed.

In 2010, Anderson Center agreed to pay the family a $6 million settlement. His family pushed the state to pass “Jonathan’s Law,” which gives parents access to their children’s records in such facilities.

Two months ago, Anderson Center agreed to pay $440,000 to the family of Johnathan Ballard, 23, who got sick after ingesting latex gloves at the facility, court records show.

“There is plainly a culture of abuse and retaliation at Anderson,” charged Ilann Maazel, a civil rights lawyer who won the Carey case and now represents Anil and his son.

The Anderson Center said, “Over the last century we’ve developed a global reputation as a leader in caring for individuals with autism and developmental disabilities. The allegations of reprehensible conduct are entirely contrary to our values, and we are actively cooperating with the state authorities in their thorough investigation, which is still ongoing.”

Collins’ lawyer, Elton Igunbor, did not return calls for comment.