Pittsfield — Grand jury indictments have landed four more former Eagleton School employees in Berkshire Superior Court this week in a criminal abuse and cover-up scandal that isn’t going away after the school for boys and young men with autism and developmental delays was shut down by the state last month.
Former staff members Juan Pablo Lopez-Lucas, Peter Meadow, Brian Puntin and James Swift were arraigned today (April 26) in Berkshire Superior Court and charged with multiple counts of abuse or assault and battery on a disabled person, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and permitting abuse on a disabled person.
The four were originally arraigned for the same charges in Southern Berkshire District Court, and Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Fred Lantz told the Edge that those original District Court charges will eventually be dismissed and the cases tried in Superior Court.
Lopez-Lucas, 34, of Pittsfield, is accused of striking a “student’s head on a picnic table in the equine area” in August 2015. Swift, 54, of Pittsfield, was charged with an assault on a student on January 1. Meadow, 51, of Lenox, is accused of kicking a student with a “shod foot” in December 2015.
Two other former employees, Debra Davis and Roscoe Adams, were arraigned yesterday, April 25. According to police, Davis, 41, of Great Barrington, “knowingly and willfully destroyed video surveillance evidence of an assault and battery on a victim…carried out by James Swift.” Davis was also charged with intimidation of a witness after accusations that she “transferred staff to different buildings” at the school “who had made complaints of assault by other staff in attempts to keep them from reporting the assaults.” The school had 24-hour video surveillance.
Adams, 37, of Pittsfield, was charged with abuse, permitting abuse, and intimidation of a witness. Adams is the first new former staff member to be arraigned since the other five were charged in January after a massive law enforcement investigation by Great Barrington Police, the DA’s office, State Police and the FBI.
The school was shut down by the state last month after Great Barrington Police were called over the last two years to attend to a string of abuse complaints. The investigation and arrests kicked off a series of state interventions that led to students being moved and the school shut down after its licenses were revoked. The state said it found a systemic culture of staff abuse of students and subsequent cover-ups of that abuse.
The school’s licenses were pulled by the state’s Early Education Commission (EEC), which documented multiple incidents, among them students being struck while held in restraints.
The school’s 40 acres of land and buildings on Route 23 near the Monterey border are now for sale.
It is unclear whether criminal charges are forthcoming against Executive Director Bruce Bona or former Program Director James Yeaman.
