North Texas foster center’s history questioned after 11-year-old’s death

GREENVILLE, Texas — The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is investigating the death of an 11-year-old boy in foster care who had been living at a state-licensed residential treatment center when he died last November. 

The child, who court records refer to as O.R., had been living at Thompson’s Residential Treatment Center in Greenville for two weeks when he died during a group outing to a movie theater the day before Thanksgiving.

O.R. was found unresponsive and bleeding from the nose in his seat at the end of the film. The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined he died from complications with his intestines related to a surgery he’d undergone as a baby to fix a birth defect in his abdomen. The complication caused a bowel obstruction. The office determined he died of natural causes.  

Terry LaFon, a registered nurse and former inspector for Texas Health and Human Services, confirmed that while the complication the child experienced could be fatal, death could have been prevented with proper, timely care.  

“Bowel blockage. Totally preventable. Somebody wasn’t paying attention,” LaFon said. “That’s something you can monitor and correct.” 

Court records reveal that on the day O.R. died, he had complained of stomach pain and was showing physical signs of illness.  

“If the kid tells you he’s got a stomachache…he needs to have medical treatment,” LaFon said.  

WFAA requested the investigative documents from the Greenville Police Department, the law enforcement agency that responded to O.R.’s death, as well as the security camera footage, and was unable to obtain either.  

However, as part of the ongoing federal litigation surrounding Texas’s foster care system, the state is required to share information with the court whenever a child in permanent foster care dies.  

In a document shared with the court in February, federal court monitors revealed the law enforcement officers who responded to O.R.’s death told officials with the Texas Department of Family and Protective services that staff from Thompson’s RTC initially told them the child was “fine most of the day, except for a possible stomachache” and “walked in the movie on his own.”  

But when officers watched the theater footage, they observed the child to be “unsteady on his feet and not able to walk on his own.” They reported he “looked like he was about to pass out” and that staff “were dragging him along by his arm” before he fell to the ground. Law enforcement told state officials that staff from the facility dragged O.R. down the hallways, picked him up, and “forced” him into the specific theater where they were going to watch the movie they went to see.  

There were no cameras in that room.  

O.R. was dead by the time the two- and a half-hour movie ended.  

Greenville Police did not immediately release investigative documents to WFAA, instead requesting a decision from the attorney general’s office, citing that the case involves a child. However, the department confirmed that its criminal investigation into the incident was completed with no arrests or charges.  

DFPS and HHS are currently investigating O.R.’s death.  

On December 4, exactly a week after he passed away, HHS sent a letter ordering Thompson’s RTC to cease operations and informing the facility that its license would be revoked.  

However, court records and records obtained by WFAA through open records requests reveal that state agencies had more than a decade’s worth of documented violence, abuse and negligence at the facility.  

A young man, who WFAA is not naming, spent two years at Thompson’s RTC in Greenville. He aged out of foster care on his 18th birthday last summer.  

“The way the staff be treating them kids… I already knew it,” the former resident said. “They ain’t going to shut that place down until somebody really gets hurt.” 

He said that during his time at the facility he observed daily incidents of violence between the boys who lived there. Not only did the staff not intervene — he also said they participated 

“The staff just don’t care,” he said. “The staff would pay a kid to go fight.” 

He said the men who worked at the facility would use threats and violence against the children when they didn’t bring back good enough reports from school.  

“That’s all you had to do was slip up,” he said. “They just don’t care. That’s their way of putting you in line. If you didn’t bring home a hundred, you’d have to worry about [staff member] hitting you.” 

He said the facility was not safe, and he was afraid of the people who worked there.  

“What can you do? There’s no cameras. None of that. There’s nothing you can do behind closed doors. There’s nothing you can do but survive around that type of stuff,” he said.  

When asked if he was surprised that a child died in the facility’s care, he said, “I’m sorry, but that was going to happen.” 

A compliance history report for Thompson’s RTC that WFAA obtained through an open records request shows that since 2010, the facility has had 232 deficiencies. While some of those deficiencies were for minor issues with things like small fixes to the physical building, 155 of them were marked as either “high” or “medium high” risk level.  

Court documents and public records show documented “multiple forms of prohibited punishment,” staff being “physically aggressive with children,” instances of staff working with children without background checks and numerous citations for failing to adequately supervise the boys in their care to meet their individual care plans.  

In 2011, just two years after the center received its full permit, Thompson’s RTC received 14 citations after state inspectors found children choking and slamming each other, and that staff would “referee” the fights, making bets on who would win and sometimes fight the children themselves.” 

The former resident who spoke with WFAA confirmed that he observed this activity during his time at the facility, more than 10 years later.  

“That fighting scheme was still going on,” he said.  

In 2018, a child was hospitalized with injuries from how he was improperly restrained by staff members, records show. 

In 2022, inspectors wrote of several instances “where the behavior of the staff could harm children” and warned that the facility’s administration gave staff many chances when they violated policies.  

In November 2023, a year before O.R.’s death, inspectors noted that a staff member choked a child while cursing at home. 

In January 2024, a staff member reportedly pushed a child to the ground, causing the child to hit his head on a wall. The staff continued restraining the child even though there was no indication he posed a threat, according to records. 

“Why did a child have to die a year later?” Lafon asked. “Choking a child is a serious problem. What action did they take?” 

LaFon spent her time with HHS inspecting residential facilities, similar to Thompson’s RTC. WFAA asked her to review the report showing the facility’s compliance history.  

“Those are serious things. Those include things like abuse, children hurting children, staff hurting children. That’s major stuff,” LaFon said of the deficiencies she saw in the report.  

“If you’re having to go to the same place repeatedly for multiple things, somebody needs to be paying attention to that,” she said. “I don’t think anybody monitors this. Nobody is looking at trends. You can’t catch it before it happens.” 

Court records show that in response to deficiencies at Thompson’s RTC, HHS would increase the number of inspection visits to the facility.  

“You can see on the dates that they’re going back within a week to do a follow-up to make sure that whatever the facility said they were going to fix…they fix it,” LaFon said. “And then two weeks later, they’re back out there for the same stuff.” 

LaFon said she is not surprised by what she saw in the report, but she said cases like this one are the reasons she stopped working for the state.  

Thompson’s RTC was owned by former NFL linebacker Chaun Thompson, who played for the Houston Texans and Cleveland Browns.  

WFAA reached Thompson over the phone, who replied, “Nah, I’m good” when asked to talk about his former facility and the allegations made against the people who worked there.  

Court records show that HHS not only allowed Thompson to continue operating his facility in Greenville despite a documented history of abuse and negligence but gave him a permit to open another residential facility in Farmersville in 2020. It closed the following year after multiple allegations of physical abuse. 

In 2022, another facility opened at the location where Thompson’s Farmersville facility was located. The administrator of that facility was Thompson’s wife. It closed in December 2024 after facing similar issues to the other facilities, according to court records.  

Texas HHS denied WFAA’s request for an interview for this story.  

WFAA requested a statement explaining how and why the department responsible for regulating Thompson’s RTC allowed the center to operate despite more than 10 years’ worth of documented instances of abuse.  

A press officer with the department provided this statement:  

“Our top priority at HHSC is the health and safety of children in the childcare operations we regulate. All licensed childcare centers are required to self-report serious incidents to HHSC, including injury to a child. HHSC investigates allegations of possible violation of minimum standards, rules, or law and, if applicable, cites a deficiency for any minimum standards, rules, or law violated.  

When citing deficiencies, HHSC requires the operation to achieve compliance and will complete follow-up inspections to ensure compliance. HHSC may also increase monitoring frequency through expedited monitoring inspections and/or may offer a voluntary provider plan of action if a pattern of non-compliance is identified. HHSC works with the provider to develop a plan to reduce risk and improve the operation’s compliance with licensing statutes, administrative rules, and minimum standards.   

If HHSC determines the provider is not able to mitigate the risk identified, HHSC may recommend and impose an enforcement action in accordance with TAC §745 Subchapter L. 

HHSC determined Thompson’s RTC posed an immediate threat to the health or safety of children and on Dec. 4, 2024, HHSC notified the operation they must cease operating, through statutory authority in Human Resources Code 42.073. 

Meanwhile, DFPS was not able to provide information on this case as the department is still investigating.

If you have a tip related to the Texas foster care system or residential treatment centers, contact WFAA’s investigative team.