‘She can’t help you.’ Coral Gables autism therapy center worker faces child abuse charges
A registered behavior therapist at a Coral Gables therapy center has pleaded not guilty to a child abuse charge the day after police released a video of the alleged abuse.
Coral Gables police also released an arrest report that says Prism Early Advancement Center’s Nicholas Gomez was “demonstrating pain compliance techniques” as he twisted the boy’s right arm. Some guidance given to law enforcement says to avoid “pain compliance” tactics when dealing with people on the autism spectrum.
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Gomez, 25, has been charged with one count of child abuse without great bodily harm. The Kendall resident was arrested Tuesday afternoon outside Prism, 245 Catalonia Ave., and released on his own recognizance on Wednesday.
The Behavioral Analyst Certification Board says Gomez gained certification as a registered behavioral therapist on Feb. 17, 2022. That was set to expire Saturday, but the certification status already was listed as “inactive.” No discipline cases are listed for Gomez.
Prism didn’t return an email and phone message from the Miami Herald.
Details of the case at the Coral Gables center
The video, from Aug. 8, shows Gomez and the boy sitting at a semi-circular table. Gomez grabs the boy’s right arm and bends his hand downward so that the hand is almost touching the forearm. After Gomez releases the arm, the boy rubs his forearm. Gomez later grabs and twists the boy’s arm in a similar manner that’s partially blurred in the video.
A woman identified in the arrest report only as “Witness 2” says Gomez was “demonstrating pain compliance techniques on the victim. This involved bending the victim’s wrists against his will, causing him pain and/or discomfort.”
The report says she told Gomez to stop doing that as the boy looked at her.
Gomez “told the victim, ‘Don’t look at her. She can’t help you,’” the arrest report said. Then he told the woman “he has to learn that no one is going to help him.”
The boy’s mother brought police the video. Police didn’t interview the boy, the report said, because he’s unable to communicate verbally.
In 2009, 20-year healthcare safety and security professional — and father of an adult with autism — Joel Lashley wrote “Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Special Needs Subject Response Guide for Police Officers.”
“Pain compliance will not work reliably, either because they can’t feel it, or because they can’t make the causal connection between your actions and the pain,” Lashley wrote.
“Wrist compression come-along tactics may injure the subject without ever achieving the desired result of compliance,” Lashley wrote. “When you crank down on the wrist, they might not wince or cry out even if you break their wrist! Because they are often hypotonic (low-muscle tone) they are even more susceptible to this type of injury, as are children and elderly persons.”
A look at Prism
State records say Miami’s Christopher Malek started Prism in January 2021 with offices stated to be in a two-bedroom condominium in The Axis on Brickell’s south tower. By March 2022, Prism had moved to its current address, in a commercial neighborhood about a quarter of a mile south of Miracle Mile.
This story was originally published February 15, 2024 at 3:25 PM.
