RELEASE: Statement from Town and Gown Players

ATHENS (MyFOX ATLANTA) - The three people we lost yesterday were a part of the rich 50-year history of this theater and, more than that, were vital members of the Town and Gown family.

Ben Teague, loving husband of UGA's Dr. Fran Teague for more than 40 years, was not only a friend but also a father figure to all at the theater. One would be hard pressed to find a Town and Gowner who had not learned at least one life lesson from this wise and kind hearted man. His wife wishes to say, "Yesterday Ben was murdered, which is hard to comprehend and impossible to accept. It was a beautiful day, however, and he was in his favorite place with the people he loved." Ben was a translator of German, Russian and English.

Marie Bruce was the binding force that held the Town and Gown community together. Having worked with Town and Gown for over 20 years, at one time or another she served in every capacity at the theater, artistically and administratively, from leading lady to president of the board to chief cook and bottle washer. A local attorney, Marie was the mother of two young children.

A gentle presence, Tom Tanner breathed life into every corner of Town and Gown through his quiet diligence and astounding creativity - most would call him genius. Father of an equally amazing daughter, Tom would tell you that while he enjoyed his work as director of the Regional Dynamics Economic Modeling Laboratory at Clemson University, his heart lived and thrived in the theater.

Ben, Marie and Tom were a part of our family, and as painful as their loss is for us, we know it is even more painful for their families. We want to extend our deepest sympathy to their immediate family and close friends outside the theater community. There are no words we can use to adequately express our grief.

We would like to thank the Athens Police department and the media for their respectful treatment of this tragedy. We want to thank the American Bio Recovery Association and A1 BIO-Clean Service for the generous donation of their services in our time of need. We also want to thank the Athens Community for their support. This tragedy effects everyone in the community in some way, and we know you share in our loss. We ask that the media continue to be respectful of our privacy during this difficult time.

Custodian’s stress-disorder suit restored

Meghann M. Cuniff / Staff writer
The Spokesman-Review

A custodian who sued her school district after being forced to clean up the bloody scene of a student’s suicide had her lawsuit reinstated Tuesday by the Washington Court of Appeals.

Debbie Rothwell, who still works at Lakeside High School in Nine Mile Falls, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a lawsuit filed in May 2007 by her lawyer, William Powell, of Spokane. The 16-year-old student shot himself in the head inside the school’s main entrance in 2004. The lawsuit was dismissed in January 2008 by Spokane County Superior Court Judge Greg Sypolt, who ruled the incident was covered by the Industrial Insurance Act.

But the Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, disagreed and reinstated the suit.

“There are people who do clean up the mess after one of these horrible murders or suicides happen,” Powell said Tuesday, referring to private professionals. “But the superintendent in this case chose not to do that. He should have known better.”

Along with former Superintendent Michael Green, now superintendent of the Woodland School District in Western Washington, the lawsuit names the Nine Miles Falls School District, Stevens County Sheriff Craig Thayer, two sheriff’s detectives and an unidentified man as defendants.

None was available for comment. Like most civil suits in Washington, the complaint seeks unspecified damages.

Rothwell’s complaints center around her task of cleaning up the suicide scene, then being asked to move a backpack she later learned belonged to the victim and contained a suspicious device that authorities detonated using a robot.

She stayed at work until after 4 a.m., cleaning the mess of blood, brain and bone alone, becoming “emotionally distraught and physically ill” before returning to the school less than four hours later at Green’s orders to serve cookies and coffee to grieving students and keep the media from the school, according to the suit.

At issue in the court decisions was whether Rothwell’s claim of post-traumatic stress disorder fell under the industrial injury act, which prohibits lawsuits based on industry injury or occupational disease.

Judges John A. Schultheis and Dennis J. Sweeney ruled it didn’t because it wasn’t the result of one work order. Her trauma grew over several days, according to their written opinion. Judge Teresa C. Kulik dissented.

Fennell, Coakley pushing new victims’ aid bill

LYNN-State Rep. Robert Fennell and colleagues are working to update compensation laws by broadening assistance to victims of violent crimes.

“This bill will provide critical financial help to those innocent citizens who have been victims of violent crimes,” Fennell said, crediting state Attorney General Martha Coakley with filing the legislation.

Fennell said the compensation bill parallels legislation he pushed for increasing mandatory prison time for domestic batterers to five years, up from 2 ½ years from the previous law.

The compensation bill updates the Massachusetts Victims of Violent Crimes Compensation statute by authorizing the attorney general to provide eligible victims of violent crimes and their families with expenses incurred as a result of a crime.

“The amendments proposed in this legislation are important and necessary updates that, if passed, will enable our office to continue to adequately respond to the needs of victims of violent crimes and their families without requiring additional funding from the General Court,” Coakley said.

Without raising the existing cap on victim compensation set by statute, the bill also authorizes compensation for eligible victims and their families for crime scene clean-up, up to a maximum of $1,500 and provides for the replacement, repair or installation of locks or other security devices to promote victims’ safety, up to $500.

The legislation also raises the current cap on funeral and burial expenses from $4,000, to $6,500 to reflect the increased costs of funerals and burials and adds a category of compensation for ancillary funeral expenses, such as grave markers and urns, up to a maximum of $800.

Additionally, The Victim Compensation Fund is a fund of last resort that assists eligible victims and their families with expenses that are not covered by other funding sources, such as homeowner’s insurance, renter’s insurance, automobile insurance or workers compensation.

“With the 25th anniversary of the Massachusetts Victim Bill of Rights and the federal Victims of Crimes Act, it is imperative that we continue to build upon the progress that has been made in this area. In drafting this legislation, we were careful to balance the diverse needs of victims who come to our office for help with the fiscal realities faced by Commonwealth,” said Coakley.

Local man takes cleaning one step beyond

Ipswich - A horrific scene was left behind when a man killed himself and 13 others in Binghamton, N.Y., April 3, and an Ipswich resident was on standby to go down and help "clean the scene."

For Tim Riley, dealing with the aftermath of such a dreadful crime at the American Civic Center is how he makes his living. In fact, the Washington Street resident was set to head to Binghamton but another company was able to manage the situation without help. It turns out his services weren't needed, but while his work would not be appealing to most, it's a highly specialized field in which he takes pride.

Riley, the owner of Crime and Death Scene Cleaning Inc., said scenes like the one at the Civic Center are health hazards and must be cleaned accordingly.

CADSC is a member of the American Bio-Recovery Association, a nonprofit group of professionals who specialize in biohazard remediation. Another member company, Bio-Recovery Corporation, was in the Binghamton area and was on the scene of last Friday's shooting first to begin the cleanup, Riley said. In fact, he said, the company offered its services for free because of the Civic Association's good work in the community.

"Other companies would have charged them upwards of $50,000," Riley said.

After assessing the aftermath of the killings, Bio-Recovery Corp. called Riley and told him they would be able to manage on their own and take care of it in a matter of hours.

Riley explained there are two kinds of ammunition, one that expands on impact and one that does not. All non-military handguns, such as those used by the Binghamton gunman, use expanding ammunition, which causes more extensive internal damage and is more likely to kill, but does not expel as much tissue from the body.

ABC News anthrax case

Had Riley been called to Binghamton, it would not have been his first job on a high-profile crime case. He worked with Bio-Recovery Corp. years ago.

"We worked together on the anthrax case at ABC News back in 2001," he said.

NBC News, Riley said, had a similar incident around the same time but dealt with it differently.

"ABC News and NBC News," he said, "went through polar opposite routes."

At ABC, Riley said, CADSC and Bio-Recovery Corp. were part of a five-day project that included cleaning and disinfecting the company's three-quarters-of-a-million cubic feet of space. It took 70 people to complete the cleanup, but they preserved pretty much everything in the building, he said.

NBC, on the other hand, had its building gutted and everything thrown out, including employees' personal items, Riley said.

"There was no rapid test in those days," he said.

While waiting for test results on the samples the New York City Board of Health collected, Riley said, he and the other companies involved with the ABC cleanup got to work. The tests came back positive as they were finishing the job. When they were done, more samples were collected and tested and they all came back negative, Riley said.

Biohazard cleanup

Riley's work as a crime scene cleaner is his second career. He had taught high school in Marblehead for many years, but left mid-year in 1998 because of differences with his principal, he said.

In order to support his family while he was a teacher, Riley also worked as an EMT. During 19 years of EMT work nights and weekends, he saw many crime and death scenes.

"I had good exposure to the gory side of life," he said.

When he left teaching, he read a story about a man who was doing biohazard cleanup work. Riley, who has lived in Ipswich for more than 30 years, decided to open his own company specializing in biohazard cleanup. He joined the American Bio-Recovery Association in 1999 and later served as secretary of the organization. He also wrote the curriculum for a training course based on a manual written by one of ABRA's founders.

It was a struggle at the beginning, he said, but since then the business has been solid for him.
These days, Riley said he gets anywhere from three to 10 calls a week from people looking for work.

Biohazard remediation is not general janitorial work, Riley pointed out. Procedures, work clothing and equipment are highly specialized.

"There are 400 diseases carried by blood," Riley said. "We treat every drop of blood as if it carries every disease, because we just don't know."

Many people, he said, think dried blood is not hazardous.

"Dried blood can carry hepatitis C in it for over a year," he said.

Training to deal with biohazards is ongoing, said Riley, who has two full-time and seven part-time employees. Workers are trained when they join the company. They get refresher courses each year and they have to be retrained every time a new technique is developed or a new chemical is discovered.

Individuals and companies like CADSC associated with ABRA have the expertise to handle biohazard remediation. ABRA now has about 525 people certified all over the world and has 72 member companies, Riley said.

Their job, when a tragedy such as the Binghamton shootings strikes, is to bring both knowledge and capabilities to bear in cleaning the scene thoroughly so there is no addition damage to human life or property.

"In this economy," he said, "anybody who does any sort of cleaning thinks they know how to do this, but they don't"

Cleanup completed at Civic Association

April 5, 2009

Cleanup has been completed at the American Civic Association building in Binghamton, where a gunman killed 13 people and injured four before taking his own life Friday.

The American Bio-Recovery Association, a non-profit international association of crime and trauma scene professionals, said Sunday that the bio-recovery cleaning was complete. The Ipswich, Mass.-based group provided the service at no cost.

Two member companies, Disaster Clean Up of Endwell and the Bio-Recovery Corporation of New York City, donated labor and supplies to remediate the scene with a crew of six technicians.

Bio-Recovery Corporation Aids In Binghamton Crime Scene Cleanup

PRESS RELEASE
April 5th 2009

Bio-Recovery Corporation of New York City and Diaster Scene Cleanup of Endwell, NY responded to the American Civic Association on April 5th 2009 at the request of the American Bio-Recovery Association to aid the American Civic Association and the entire Binghamton community with the cleanup of the crime scene left in the aftermath of Fridays multiple homicide, suicide at their offices located at 131 Front St Binghamton, NY.

At the request of Dale Cillian, President of the non profit American Bio-Recovery Association (ABRA), the two named companies above provided all the labor and equipment to complete this cleanup in one day at no cost to the American Civic Association. "I couldn't have done this without you guys," stated Andrew Baranoski, Executive Director of the non-profit American Civic Association.

The American Bio Recovery Association, an international association of Crime & Trauma Scene Cleanup professionals strives to make these services available to all that require it throughout the United States.