Sequel Youth & Family Services: Two Men Found Guilty in Restraint Death of Teen

March 17, 2023

KALAMAZOO, MI – Two former Lakeside Academy employees pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in the death of a student.

Zachary Solis and Michael Mosley, both former youth counselors, entered their pleas of no contest Thursday, March 16 in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court. They both had counts of second-degree child abuse and second-degree child abuse causing death at a childcare organization dismissed.

Lakeside Academy, 3921 Oakland Drive, was a residential youth treatment facility that closed in summer 2020.

Psychcrime note: Lakeside was owned and operated by Sequel Youth & Family Services, a chain of for-profit residential treatment centers for children. Due to years of bad publicity about abuses in their facilities, capped by the homicide-ruled death of Cornelius Frederick at Lakeside Academy, Sequel's owner changed the chain's name to Vivant Behavioral Health, with several of their facilities being branded as Brighter Heights (in Arizona, Maine, and Oklahoma) and Brighter Path (in Alabama).

Cornelius Fredricks, 16, died after a “grossly negligent” hold performed by Solis and Mosley on April 29, 2020, Kalamazoo County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Williams said.

Fredricks was held in a 10-minute restraint that resulted in a lack of blood flow and oxygen. He died May 1, at a Kalamazoo hospital of cardiac arrest.

It took 12 minutes before nurses and staff members began CPR and called 911. The Kalamazoo County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled his death was a homicide.

A no contest plea means there is not further criminal or civil liability, but the plea is treated as a guilty plea in terms of sentencing.

If there are no violations of the law or bonds for the next nine months, the men will not receive upfront jail sentences, Judge Gary Giguere Jr. said. The men are scheduled to be sentenced via video Dec. 19.

Fredricks was throwing food and staff told him to stop, but he didn’t, students told Kalamazoo Public Safety police in the videos captured by officers’ body cameras. He was placed in a supine restraint, where a person is put on the ground and their legs and arms are held down.

Supine is used when one staff member can’t safely hold a student, so they’re placed on the ground for other staff to help. One staff member held Fredricks’ right leg with a hand on each side of his knee, according to video footage.

Solis and Mosley maintain that they followed normal procedures, but they violated ordinary care, Williams said during the pleas.

Fredericks family filed lawsuits after his death against Lakeside Academy, school owner Sequel Youth & Family Services and employees. A settlement in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court was approved in December 2021, while the other was settled in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Michigan.

No details of either settlement are available.

Former Lakeside nurse Heather McLogan, 49, was sentenced to 18 months of probation for one felony count of third-degree child abuse in September 2021.

The Lakeside Academy property was bought by the Kalamazoo Country Club, which has plans to add a new golf course and add more buildings.

Source: Marie Weidmayer, “2 men enter pleas in death of Lakeside Academy student,” MLive.com, Mar. 16, 2023, URL: https://www.mlive.com/crime/2023/03/2-men-enter-pleas-in-death-of-lakeside-academy-student.html