Youth swept down creek dies

Youth swept down creek dies
June 1, 2006
By Gerard MacCrossan
Kerrville Daily Times

The 12-year-old former Star Ranch resident who was washed away by rain-swollen waters in Johnson Creek on May 6 died Tuesday in a San Antonio hospital.

Lenny Ortega of San Antonio was placed at Star Ranch by Child Protective Services. He was in a group of four Star Ranch residents on a bike ride with a house parent when the accident occurred.

Kerr County Sheriff's Chief Investigator Carol Twiss said the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office notified her Wednesday of Ortega's death. The boy had been taken off life support about a week ago at Methodist Children's Hospital in San Antonio, she said.

Donald Ehlers, a nearby resident, said the boys were playing and riding their bikes through a shallow water crossing prior to the accident. When Ortega was swept away by the current, Star Ranch employee Lisa Mariana went into the creek after him but was not able to prevent him being pulled under the Bluff Trail Road low-water bridge. Ehlers pulled Mariana out of the water to safety.

Twiss said her department investigated the accident with assistance from the game warden.

"We have determined it definitely was an accident," she said. "The kids were playing in the swollen creek. The current sucked him into a drainage pipe under the low-water crossing."

According to Twiss, it took about 15 minutes to locate Ortega.

Following the accident, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services removed the 19 children it still had at Star Ranch. The residential treatment center's state license still is intact, but only three privately-placed boys remain at the facility.

TDFPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said the licensing investigation is ongoing and no decision has been made on whether or not the license will be withdrawn.

Ortega's death comes after the December 2005 death of 15-year-old Christening "Mikie" Garcia, another boy placed by the state at Star Ranch. Garcia died after a staff member placed him in a restraining hold; a Kerr County grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing in the incident.

Prior to the December incident, no other child has died while placed at Star Ranch, according to ranch officials.