Ex Woods Services Counselor Gets State Prison Time
A former worker at a Bucks County agency where a severely autistic man died last summer after being left in a hot van has been given two to five years in state prison, followed by five years probation.
41-year-old counselor Stacey Strauss of Philadelphia pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and neglecting a care-dependent person. It happened during record heat at Woods Services, a Middletown agency that provides housing and various services for the disabled. Bryan Nevins, who was 20 years old but had the mental capability of a two-year-old, died from the heat on Saturday, July 24, following a field trip to Sesame Place. Investigators say cell phone records show that she spent more than three hours of her eight-hour shift talking on the phone and sent or received 71 text messages, all in violation of Woods Services regulations, and the victim probably died during a 44-minute conversation she had with her boyfriend over most of the noon hour. Strauss is barred from working with disabled people in the future.
