Inclusion Daily Express -- Video Captures Care Provider Smacking Man With Down Syndrome

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Video Captures Care Provider Smacking Man With Down Syndrome
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
January 10, 2008

PORT ORANGE, FLORIDA--The father of a 17-year-old boy that has cerebral palsy had recently grown concerned and suspicious of his son's paid care provider after he noticed unexplained bruises on the boy.

So, he installed a video camera to record how Rabha El Assal Merlino interacted with the boy.

What the father found, however, was more than startling.

The video, reportedly recorded over the weekend, shows Merlino bringing another one of her clients, a 42-year-old man with Down syndrome, into the room to sit on the sofa next to the teenager.

After hollering at the older man from another room, Merlino is seen coming into the room and striking him more than a dozen times on the head, while yelling "bad!" and "no!"

"Everyone who has seen these tapes has been very upset," said Port Orange Police Captain Frank Surmaczewicz. "This is so sad for the victim, who could not defend himself."

Merlino was arrested Thursday and charged with abuse of a vulnerable adult. She was being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail on $3,500 bail.

The state has suspended her license, police said.

[Editor's caution: I found the video recording quite disturbing and difficult to watch. -- Dave]

Related story with video clip:
"Caretaker Caught On Video Repeatedly Hitting Disabled Man" (WFTV-TV)
http://www.wftv.com/news/15023902/detail.html

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