Teenager found dead at Rock Hill psychiatric center

by Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
cwootson@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Saturday, Jun. 12, 2010

A 17-year-old who complained of chest congestion was found dead at a residential psychiatric treatment facility in Rock Hill on Saturday morning.

Rock Hill police identified the teen as Levi Snyder, of Lenoir.

He was a resident at the New Hope Carolinas treatment center, which treats emotionally disturbed adolescents, near Piedmont Medical Center, said Detective Kathy Harveston.

She said initial reports didn’t point to foul play.

“It looks like (the death is) going to be medical in nature,” Harveston said. “There’s no appearance of any foul play, of neglect, of improper treatment, anything like that.”

Harveston said Snyder had been to the hospital for chest congestion three or four days ago and was on antibiotics.

Police haven’t released a narrative of what happened in the hours before he died, but Harveston said he’d been complaining of chest congestion Friday night.

It’s unclear how employees at the facility responded to the complaints. No one answered the phone at the facility’s listed number Saturday.

The York County coroner is expected to conduct an autopsy this week.

New Hope operates out of the former York General Hospital off Ebenezer Road, near Rock Hill’s Fewell Park neighborhood.

The center has faced heavy scrutiny from neighborhood and city leaders since it began operating in the mid-1990s.

City officials and residents of the nearby Fewell Park neighborhood contend a facility that includes sex offenders among the patients doesn’t belong in a residential neighborhood. The opposition culminated in 2002 when Rock Hill and York County officials sought to have New Hope moved. The facility is licensed by the S.C. Department of Social Services.

Between 1995 and 2002, Rock Hill police responded to more than 200 calls at the New Hope address. More recent figures were not available. New Hope officials contend many of the calls proved to be unfounded.

Since 1997, there have been at least 39 reports of criminal sexual conduct, assault and battery, and missing persons at New Hope, police records show. Of those, however, 25 were dismissed for a lack of evidence.

Rock Hill Herald writer Matt Garfield contributed. Cleve R. Wootson Jr.: 704-358-5046
Editor’s note: Comments have been removed for this story due to multiple abusive reports.

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DIGNITY: In Honor of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples chronicles my life journey with ninety museum collected photographs created over thirty years. DIGNITY features eloquent writings from icons such as Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Native American Faithkeeper, Oren R. Lyons and celebrates Amnesty International, the Nobel Peace-Prize winning organization, during its 50th anniversary year.

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Why is it important to listen to the wisdom of the “ancient ones” – the ancestors of the planet’s first peoples? Faithkeeper Oren R. Lyons in his scholarly introduction to DIGNITY states, “A thousand years ago or more, the Great Peace Maker (of the Iroquois) came among our people.. .He said to us, ‘When you sit in council for the welfare of the people, think not of yourself, nor of your family, or even your generation. Make your decisions for the seventh generation coming so that they may enjoy what you have here today. If you do this, there will be peace.’ That is a profound instruction on responsibility that should be the basis for the world’s decision makers today.”

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STR/AFP/Getty Images

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Will she re-form the National League for Democracy?  Will she continue to advocate for democracy?  Will her release be for good this time, or will the government find another reason for imprisoning her yet again?  Only time will tell.

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