A drunken 33-year-old Green River man is accused of repeatedly choking and roughing up a nonverbal, 35-pound, wheelchair-bound 14-year-old boy, sarcastically mocking him with “oh, life is so hard” and then pulling down his pants and flashing his genitals at the boy’s siblings.
Correy James Simmons had his initial court appearance Monday on six felony child abuse charges, including one alleging aggravated abuse.
A Rock Springs Police Department detective reports that Simmons was watching the disabled boy and his siblings, ages 8 and 11, on Sept. 4 and 5 while their mother was out of town, who got a call about Simmons reportedly being drunk.
She had friends go by the home to remove him and watch the kids, wrote Det. Tony Anson in an affidavit of probable cause outlining the elements for the child abuse charges.
When the mother returned on Sept. 7, she noticed the 14-year-old “was not acting normal and not moving his left arm as he usually does,” the affidavit says.
Her other children also told her “about how Simmons was drinking, being mean, and (that he) pulled his own pants down, flashing the children,” Anson wrote.
The 14-year-old could not fight back or defend himself from the alleged abuse, which includes a broken left arm and bruises consistent with being choked, the affidavit says.
The boy “suffers from total disability, was nonverbal and was unable to provide any type of care for himself,” according to the document. “(He) weighs only 33-35 pounds, spends most of his time in a wheelchair he must be strapped into so he does not fall out, and requires numerous medications for seizures and heart conditions.”
Simmons is a paraprofessional at a Green River elementary school, where he “would routinely work with (the boy) at school and care for him,” the affidavit says.
Concerned about the accounts she got from her other children about Simmons, the mother checked security cameras she has installed in her home.
Over the course of four hours on Sept. 5, the video shows numerous interactions an angry Simmons has with the disabled boy, mostly when the other children aren’t around, the affidavit says.
What The Video Showed
The mother “reviewed her security cameras and found several disturbing clips of Simmons violently handling and choking (the 14-year-old) when the other children were not looking or in the room,” the affidavit says.
In one clip, Simmons is seen “gripping the back of (the boy’s) neck very tightly,” the affidavit continues. “Simmons is telling (him) to stop, then hands him a tablet computer and says, ‘F*** you and your bullshit.’”
When he releases his grip from around the 14-year-old’s neck, “the child immediately starts coughing as if the grip had been choking him,” Anson wrote. He also “thrashes in the chair and hits his head against the padded headrest.”
During the exchange, Simmons is heard on the video telling the boy “things like, ‘Oh, life is so hard’ and continues to mock the child,” the affidavit says.
At least three other video clips show similar interactions, with Simmons allegedly grabbing the boy by the neck — sometimes with two hands and appearing to lift him.
At one point, the teen “begins coughing and sounds like he is gasping for air like he was choking from the gripping,” the affidavit says. “Simmons lets go for a moment as (the boy) leans over in the chair.
“Simmons pushes (his) head back and looks like he was either going to grab the child’s neck again or do something else, but (the boy) starts thrashing his own head around again, which causes Simmons to let go and take a step back.”
That’s when the Green River man allegedly mocked the 14-year-old again, sarcastically taunting him with, “Oh my God, my life is so over.”
In the last video interaction, Simmons grabs the boy “by the throat and back of the neck with both hands, driving (him) back into the chair, and gets face to face with the boy again,” the affidavit says. “Simmons tells (him) to stop and, ‘You’re not going to do that shit.’”
Pants Come Down
In addition to the accusations of abuse against the disabled teen, Simmons also is charged with grabbing the neck of one of his siblings and “squeezing as hard as he could, and she felt pain of 9 out of 10,” the affidavit says.
The girl also reported she was crying and felt like she couldn’t talk or breathe.
The other children also related another interaction with the man where he allegedly “pulled his pants down and exposed his private parts at some point,” Anson wrote.
While he didn’t witness the alleged abuse of the wheelchair-bound 14-year-old, a younger child told police about the flashing incident, according to the affidavit.
Anson wrote that the boy said he was “outside playing ball and did not see what happened with (his siblings), and also talked about Simmons being in the doorway at some point and pulling his pants down, exposing his genitals and saying something like, ‘Look at this.’”
The younger boy also said Simmons was “being mean to everyone” and made comments to the effect that “his disabled brother had a bigger penis than him,” the affidavit says.
Simmons remains at the Sweetwater County Detention Center on a $150,000 cash or surety bond.
The aggravated child abuse charge carries a maximum penalty of up to 25 years in prison, while the five child abuse charges each are punishable by up to 10 years.
That means if convicted of all charges, and given max penalties and ordered to serve consecutively, Simmons could potentially get 75 years in prison, and up to $60,000 in fines.
He’s scheduled for a Sept. 24 preliminary hearing, where a Sweetwater County Circuit Court judge will determine if there’s enough evidence to support moving forward with the felony charges.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
