Video shows therapist punching teen client with special needs, prompting CA lawsuit

A California parent filed a lawsuit against a behavioral therapist, saying he had been hired to provide treatment to her special-needs daughter but physically assaulted her.

The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 31 against therapist Kevin Yuen and his employer, California Pediatric and Family Services, or CAL-PEDS, says the 16-year-old girl, a nonverbal and autistic teenager, was “beaten and abused” by Yuen, who had worked with the teen for 18 months at the time of the incident.

The girl and her mother are not being named to protect their identities.

Yuen was criminally charged and fired from his job after the incident was reported.

The lawsuit says that Yuen’s behavior was discovered when the girl’s mother placed a hidden camera in her living room to record interactions between Yuen and her daughter.

She decided to do so after noticing her daughter’s reactions to Yuen — including “flinching, covering her face, and hitting herself with a closed fist” whenever Yuen came to their home — and seeing bruises on her neck and back, according to the complaint.

The mother reviewed footage recorded on the hidden camera immediately after a session on June 14, 2021. The footage showed Yuen attempting to grab the teen’s hand, rearing up to hit her, withdrawing his hand, then actually punching her, the lawsuit says. Yuen struck the girl between her nose and lip, sending her head backward, and then checked his hand for signs that he had punched her before continuing the session, according to the complaint.

“He continues the session as if nothing had happened before forcefully grabbing [the girl] at the waist and pinching her skin as she recoils from him in fear,” the family’s attorney said in a news release.

Yuen was arrested on June 24 and was charged with one count of felony child endangerment and one count of felony assault by means likely to produce great bodily harm, according to the attorney’s news release.

The charges were later reduced to one count of misdemeanor child endangerment, and Yuen was sentenced to four years probation and issued a protective order preventing him from harassing or threatening anyone involved in the case. He is also required to complete a year-long child abuse treatment program and is prohibited from working in childcare for the rest of his probation, the release said.

CAL-PEDS and Yuen’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

But in a statement provided to Fox 11, CAL-PEDS said it was “shocked and appalled” by the video, adding that Yuen had been fired, that the incident had been reported “to the appropriate authorities,” and that the business planned to comply with law enforcement, the outlet reported.

The lawsuit says that, as a result of Yuen’s actions, the girl suffered “severe and permanent injuries.” The complaint also accuses the agency of being complicit in Yuen’s “negligent and reckless” behavior.

The lawsuit seeks non-economic damages for “past and future pain and suffering,” economic damages for “past and future hospital, medical, professional, and incidental expenses,” and punitive damages for Yuen, the family’s attorney said in the release.

“It was frightening for the parents to not be able to ask her ‘hey, is anything bad happening to you?’” attorney Robert Glassman told NBC Los Angeles. “We are looking to reform the policies and procedures that were in place at this company that somehow allowed a man like this to slip through the cracks.”

This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 11:39 AM.