A worker at a Camden County residential home for young children faces criminal charges after he allegedly assaulted a 10-year-old Egg Harbor Township boy who was living there.
Salome Bey, 42, is coordinator of residential services for YCS Cedar Brook, a nonprofit group home housing 10 boys and girls ages 5-10, according to its website.
He is charged with aggravated assault after leaving the boy — identified in court papers at B.M. —with several abrasions, including one that appears deep and several inches long across his neck, according to photos BreakingAC was provided by his mother.
BreakingAC is not publishing the photos or the woman’s name to protect the minor’s identity.
The boy has autism and has attempted suicide, so he was admitted to YCS Cedar Brook to stabilize him and keep him safe, his mother said.
“It was supposed to be safe,” she said.
But on Jan. 18, she found out her son had been injured.
According to the affidavit, it started when B.M. refused to get up because he was tired after the staff talking had kept him up the night before.
Bey was called to get the boy up, B.M. told the investigator. When he still refused, Bey “grabbed him by his shirt collar and dragged him into the bathroom (with) his thigh and butt … being dragged on the floor,” the affidavit reads.
When they got to the bathroom, the boy said Bey kicked the back of his right knee, sending him to the ground.
Bey then asked three times if the boy needed help getting ready. When he finally answered, “No,” the boy said Bey “grabbed him by the neck with his right hand and threw him on the floor.”
An investigation led to charges being filed April 5. He was released from the Camden County Jail on Wednesday, following a detention hearing.
He was given conditions that include no contact with minors.
Bey is currently suspended without pay, Chief Operating Officer Philip DeFalco told BreakingAC.
“We won’t stand for anything like this, but we also recognize someone is innocent until proven guilty,” he said.
He noted that many of the kids they deal with are “difficult kids,” some of whom have histories of self-inflicted injury.
DeFalco said they usually make sure to have another staff member close by to witness anything but that doesn’t seem to have happened in this case.
He said Bey would have been the one who decides what staff are working where.
A woman at YCS Cedar Brook said they would not comment on the case.
The boy’s mother said she took him to urgent care as soon as she learned of his injuries and has kept him home with her since.
