Lawsuits & Legal Cases

Brooke Parker's August 2026 complaint alleges that New Lifehouse Girls Academy and related defendants abused, neglected, and exploited her while she was a minor resident, including by coercing unpaid labor. The complaint asserts federal forced-labor and trafficking claims. These are allegations, not findings.

Mariam J. Kamara filed a putative class action after Devereux disclosed a network intrusion in November 2025. The complaint alleges that files containing personal and health information were accessed and copied and that Devereux failed to safeguard the information. It asserts negligence, implied-contract, and related claims. These are allegations, not findings.

Lauren Bence's July 2026 complaint alleges that New Lifehouse Girls Academy and related defendants abused, neglected, and exploited her while she was a minor resident, including by coercing unpaid labor. The complaint asserts federal forced-labor and trafficking claims. These are allegations, not findings.

The second of two family lawsuits filed in June 2026, alleging the school failed to provide adequate medical care to a teenager, resulting in serious injury and health complications.

A mother alleges staff ignored her son's warnings that he was not safe before he was attacked at the facility and suffered a jaw injury and brain bleed, and that medical care was delayed. Utah licensers sanctioned the school over the same incident in June 2026. Paris Hilton publicly supported the family and called for the school's closure.

Plaintiff Landen Giovanni Liparote alleges that during a three‑month placement at Discovery Ranch for Boys in Utah, he experienced repeated sexual assaults, forced unpaid labor, food deprivation, and other mistreatment. The defendants, including the facility operators and a therapist, are accused of negligence, fraud, and violations of federal trafficking statutes. The complaint seeks compensation for psychological injury and other damages resulting from the alleged conduct.

A civil rights lawsuit brought by nine former residents (Jane Doe 1 and John Does 1-8) of the Maine Youth Center against the Maine Department of Corrections and various facility officials and staff. The plaintiffs allege severe physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, unreasonable and excessive use of solitary confinement and physical restraints, and deliberate indifference to their serious medical and mental health needs during their confinement in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Two former residents sued Kansas City Girls Academy and unidentified entities. Their December 2025 complaint alleges that, as minors at the faith-based program, they were abused, exploited, and compelled to perform unpaid labor. The complaint seeks damages and alleges federal trafficking violations and state-law claims. These are allegations, not findings.

Jane Doe S.P. alleges that she experienced sexual abuse as a minor while in the care of Devereux-affiliated programs and brings claims against Devereux entities and related defendants. The complaint was filed in New Jersey state court on December 1, 2025 and was included in a federal filing on January 5, 2026. These are allegations, not findings.

Class action complaint for child labor trafficking and abuse. Jessica Fuller, a former student, alleges that Hyde School operated as a cult-like system of forced labor and psychological abuse disguised as character education. She claims students were emotionally and physically abused, denied medical care, and forced into unpaid labor benefiting school leadership, including work at Seguin Island and the Eustis wilderness center. Filed under the federal TVPRA and Maine state law; seeking class certification and injunctive relief. Plaintiff counsel: John Steed (Island Justice Law), Kelly Guagenty and Kimberly Dougherty (Justice Law Collaborative). A defense motion to dismiss was filed 10/07/2025. The case could set national precedent for holding private residential programs accountable under federal trafficking laws.

Two Florida parents, Jane Doe L.Y. and June Doe A.D., filed a proposed class action on October 11, 2024 in federal court in Asheville against Trails Academy, Trails Carolina and their Oregon parent companies doing business as Family Help & Wellness. They seek to represent everyone in the United States who bought residential program services from the defendants, with a Florida subclass, and seek repayment of tuition. The complaint alleges the companies misrepresented the Trails Momentum program, which their son attended in 2021, as safe and therapeutic, pressured families through an admissions salesperson, and charged a 3,900 dollar enrollment fee plus 585 dollars a day, 24,570 dollars for the first 42 days. On December 30, 2024 the defendants moved to dismiss or compel arbitration under the family's enrollment agreement; the documents do not show a ruling or a class certification decision.

A young man identified as John Doe M.D.Y. sued Trails Academy, Trails Carolina and their Oregon parent companies, which do business as Family Help & Wellness, in federal court in Asheville on October 11, 2024. He enrolled at 18 in the Trails Momentum young-adult wilderness program and stayed 93 days, from March to June 2021 (the defense gives March 3 to June 3, 2021). The complaint alleges an invasive strip search on arrival in which a staff member touched his genitals, two weeks isolated in a cabin, censored letters and a single muted phone call home, unpaid cleaning, cooking and landscaping work, days in freezing weather with frozen boots and limited food and water, threats that he would be arrested if he left, and little mental health care, and says his mental health collapsed afterward, including a suicide attempt in October 2021. It also alleges an admissions employee misled his parents. The plaintiff asked for a Rule 9(j) extension for any medical malpractice claims, which the defendants opposed, and on December 30, 2024 the defendants moved to dismiss or compel arbitration under a March 2021 enrollment agreement; the documents do not show rulings on those motions.

Markel filed a declaratory-judgment action concerning insurance coverage for the Sherman class action. The complaint asks the court to find that Markel has no duty to defend or indemnify the Trinity defendants for the underlying forced-labor claims and seeks to withdraw its defense and recover defense costs. This entry concerns a separate coverage case; the supplied filing contains Markel's allegations and requests for relief.

Joshua Caleb Shiver, representing himself, sued Acadia Healthcare and its Halifax County, Virginia facility Southstone Behavioral Health in Halifax County Circuit Court; the complaint was filed 06/14/2024. On September 5, 2024 the court granted the defense motion to quash improper service and denied Shiver's motion for default judgment. Southstone was re-served on September 11, 2024 and filed its answer late on October 10, 2024, denying the allegations and raising defenses including the statute of limitations and Virginia's malpractice damages cap. Shiver opposed the late answer and moved again for default judgment, with a hearing noticed for November 8, 2024.

Outcome: On September 5, 2024 the court granted the defense motion to quash service and denied Shiver's first motion for default judgment. After Southstone was re-served on September 11, 2024, it filed an answer six business days late on October 10, 2024 with a motion for leave; Shiver opposed and noticed a renewed default judgment motion for November 8, 2024. The documents do not show the ruling.

Gertrude A. Siegel sued Trails Carolina, its owner and manager Wilderness Training & Consulting, and therapist Derry O'Kane. Her February 2024 complaint alleges that, while she was 12 and in the program, another minor sexually assaulted her and defendants failed to provide adequate screening, supervision, and protection. These are allegations, not findings.

Outcome: On August 5, 2024, the court denied defendants' motions to dismiss and to strike. The supplied complaint alleges that the plaintiff was sexually assaulted by another minor while at Trails Carolina and that defendants failed to protect her.

Finn Richardson sued Elevations RTC in Utah's Second District Court; filed 01/14/2024 and awaiting a trial date. A prelitigation panel hearing was held 08/05/2024. Salt Lake Tribune coverage framed the allegations as trauma presented as treatment.

Six former residents sued Devereux and staffing company QualityHealth Staffing. Their December 2023 complaint alleges sexual abuse and assault in Devereux programs, prior reports that were not adequately addressed, and related failures to protect residents. The complaint asserts Title IX, negligence, consumer-protection, and other claims. These are allegations, not findings.

The estate of Jason Britt and his mother Kathleen Britt sued Agape Baptist Church, Inc., which ran Agape Boarding School in Stockton, Missouri, in federal court on October 11, 2023. The complaint alleges that in 2009-2010, when he was 16, Jason Britt was taken to the unlicensed facility in the middle of the night and was strip-searched, confined in a dark padded room, beaten, forced to exercise to exhaustion, and gang-raped in a basement. It alleges Agape knew of earlier abuse at the school and failed to protect residents or report abuse. It alleges the abuse led to mental health problems and his suicide on February 4, 2022, and seeks damages under federal trafficking and forced labor law and Missouri wrongful death law. The document shows only the filing of the complaint.

Oliver Whitcomb and Amy Clifford, on behalf of an anonymous survivor, sued Chrysalis Therapeutic Boarding School (InnerChange Chrysalis, LLC), Embark Behavioral Health, and others in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana. Filed 04/25/2023. Docket trackable on PacerMonitor.

Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against their health insurance plan administrator, alleging breach of contract for wrongfully denying coverage and payment for their teenage son's stays at two residential treatment centers. The defendant argued that the treatment was not medically necessary and that external review determinations were binding. The court denied the defendant's motion to dismiss the breach of contract claim regarding the first facility, finding that external review determinations do not bar court action.

Dean Goodridge, the father of Taylor Goodridge, sued Diamond Ranch Academy in federal court in Utah on December 30, 2022, ten days after his daughter died at the program. The complaint alleges that from November 2022 Taylor had extreme abdominal pain, collapsed in her own vomit and begged staff for help, and that staff told her she was faking and gave her only water and aspirin. It alleges she collapsed and died on December 20, 2022, likely of sepsis, and that the program told her father she had had a heart attack and died at the hospital when she had died before leaving the campus. It brings negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and premises liability claims and says a Utah Health Care Malpractice Act claim would be added later. The document on file is the complaint and does not show how the case ended.

Whitney Hart, a former Devereux direct-service provider, alleged that she was retaliated against and unlawfully terminated after raising concerns about resident abuse. The August 2022 complaint asserts claims under New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Protection Act. These are allegations, not findings.

Five former residents sued Devereux and QualityHealth Staffing. Their June 2022 complaint alleges sexual harassment, abuse, and assault in Devereux programs and failures to address known risks and reports. The complaint asserts Title IX, negligence, and related claims. These are allegations, not findings.

Anonymous survivors sued Vista RTC in Utah; complaint filed 03/23/2022 concerning the Dimple Dell Canyon facility. Salt Lake Tribune coverage described residents being bullied, shamed, and abused.

J.P. sued on behalf of his 15-year-old son G.P. in the Circuit Court of Macon County, Alabama on March 18, 2022, against Sequel TSI of Tuskegee, a psychiatric residential treatment facility, and its parent companies Sequel Youth & Family Services and Sequel TSI Holdings. The complaint alleges that after the Alabama Department of Youth Services placed G.P. there on November 2, 2021, he was sexually assaulted within four days and was choked, beaten and bitten by residents during a seven-week stay while staff failed to intervene, and that he attempted suicide. It also alleges dangerous restraints such as chokeholds, contraband smuggled in by staff and a lack of mental health care. The defendants removed the case to federal court, where an affidavit said Sequel's parent companies had given up control of the facility on October 1, 2021 and that the facility's owner had been renamed Brighter Path Alabama. On March 17, 2023 the federal court sent the case back to state court; the documents do not show how it ended.

Outcome: Defendants removed the case to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on April 20, 2022, arguing that the two Sequel parent companies were fraudulently joined. On March 17, 2023 Magistrate Judge Chad W. Bryan granted the plaintiff's motion to remand, holding that the defendants had not shown the amount in controversy exceeded $75,000, and sent the case back to the Circuit Court of Macon County. The documents do not show what happened after remand.

Tenia Goshay, as personal representative of the estate of Cornelius Frederick, sued Lakeside Academy, several Sequel Youth and Family Services companies and ten staff members in federal court in Michigan on September 30, 2021. The complaint alleges that on April 29, 2020, staff at Lakeside Academy in Kalamazoo restrained the 16-year-old state ward on the floor for throwing a sandwich and suffocated him while he said he could not breathe, then gave no aid, and that he died at Bronson Methodist Hospital on May 1, 2020. It alleges he had been restrained many times before, that Sequel was warned by Oregon Senator Sara Gelser about its restraint practices, and that the state had cited the facility for restraint and staffing violations since 2016. It states the state revoked Lakeside Academy's license after his death. The document shows only the filing of the complaint.

A former resident who was 13 when placed at the school in 2001 alleges he was forced to perform oral sex on a staff member at least a dozen times under threat of punishment and starvation, was locked in solitary confinement for weeks at a time, was overmedicated with Seroquel, Depakote, Trileptal and Celexa, and went two years without being allowed outdoors.

Diane Onofrio filed a civil rights employment discrimination lawsuit against Mingus Mountain Academy and Sequel Youth Services of Arizona LLC. The parties reached a settlement and the action was dismissed with prejudice in August 2022. The case involved claims related to employment discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Devereux sought judicial review of a Bureau of Special Education Appeals decision that required it to remain the student's placement under the IDEA stay-put provision after Devereux had ended the placement on an emergency basis. The supplied complaint describes the parties' competing positions; it does not show the district court's later ruling.

A woman proceeding as Jane Doe sued Hyde School at South Woodstock, Inc. and Hyde School (Bath, Maine) in Connecticut Superior Court at Putnam in February 2021. She alleges that in summer 2005, as a 16-year-old camper at the schools' Summer Leadership Challenge camp on the Woodstock campus, two male campers woke her at night, took her to a secluded spot and sexually assaulted her, and that the schools failed to supervise campers and to hire, train and supervise staff properly, causing lasting PTSD and depression. The court allowed her to proceed under a pseudonym (temporary order March 2, 2021; full ruling by Judge Ann E. Lynch on June 8, 2021); no order sealing the file appears, only the pseudonym order. After a request to revise, she filed a revised complaint on September 14, 2021 and withdrew four duplicate emotional-distress counts; a defense motion for nonsuit over late discovery answers (September 2021) was followed by her compliance that October, and pleadings were certified closed on May 29, 2024. Discovery included her December 2022 deposition, out-of-state depositions of a former roommate and former boyfriend, a treating counselor and a causation expert for the plaintiff, a defense psychiatric examination the court allowed over her objection, and a subpoena to former head of school Duncan McCrann. The defendants moved for summary judgment in August 2024, arguing she has no evidence the campers or any staff member had a known propensity for such conduct; the filings end with that motion pending and the February 2025 trial continued by agreement toward June 2025.

Outcome: No final judgment, settlement or withdrawal of the action appears in the filings. On Sep 4, 2024 the court let the defendants file a late summary judgment motion; the plaintiff's response deadline was extended to Nov 18, 2024. On Oct 30, 2024 the court granted a joint motion to continue the Feb 4, 2025 jury trial (requested to early June 2025).

Kimberly Sweidy sued Spring Ridge Academy, a therapeutic boarding school for girls in Mayer, Arizona, and eight of its staff in federal court in Arizona on January 21, 2021, after enrolling her daughter there in December 2019 and removing her in February 2020. She alleges the school misrepresented its program before enrollment, used seminars modeled on Lifespring-style large group awareness training rather than evidence-based therapy, and used shaming, isolation and restricted parent contact. In August 2023 the court dismissed the individual staff defendants except Admissions Director Kate Deily and left only the fraud and consumer fraud claims for trial. A jury trial ran from May 29 to June 14, 2024, with testimony from school leaders and staff, former students, a parent of another student and expert witnesses on both sides. The jury returned a $2.5 million verdict for Sweidy on June 14, 2024. On January 8, 2025 Judge Steven P. Logan granted a new trial, finding a juror had likely visited Reddit during deliberations and later posted in the Troubled Teens subreddit that they had served on the jury, so the verdict no longer stands and the case awaits retrial.

Outcome: On August 15, 2023 the court granted summary judgment to Veronica Borges, Jean Courtney, Suzanne Courtney, Brandon Courtney, Erin Smith, Leslie Filsinger and Justin Zych, and dismissed every claim except fraud and consumer fraud against Spring Ridge Academy and Kate Deily. After a jury trial that began May 29, 2024, the jury returned a $2.5 million verdict for Kimberly Sweidy on June 14, 2024. On January 8, 2025 the court granted the defendants' motion for a new trial, finding a reasonable possibility that a juror viewed prejudicial outside information on Reddit during deliberations, and vacated the verdict; pending motions for attorney fees and costs were denied as moot.

Mary Ann McMahan-McWhorter, who worked in accounts receivable for Sequel TSI Holdings in Huntsville, Alabama from about May 2014, sued the company in federal court on December 3, 2020. She alleges that after she developed a vision condition in early 2019 and asked for dimmer lighting, Sequel moved her to a brighter workstation, gave her screen-heavy data entry work as a demotion, and fired her on about April 4, 2019. She brought disability discrimination and retaliation claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act after an EEOC charge. This is an employment case, not an abuse case. The parties jointly dismissed it with prejudice and the court closed it on August 24, 2021.

Outcome: The parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal, which dismissed the case with prejudice; on August 24, 2021 Judge Liles C. Burke directed the clerk to close the case. The documents do not show any settlement terms.

Former residents Carlie Sherman, Anna Gozun, Amanda Nash, Andrew Scavuzzo and Ehan Jelinek sued Trinity Teen Solutions, Triangle Cross Ranch, the Schneider and Woodward families who own and run them, a Carmelite monastery that sells Mystic Monk Coffee, the Diocese of Cheyenne, and others in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, first filing in November 2020 and filing a first amended complaint on February 12, 2021. The suit alleges the ranches near Powell, Wyoming promised parents therapy and schooling and instead made teens work long hours on the ranches without pay under threat of punishment and longer stays. The district court dismissed the RICO and negligence claims, leaving forced labor and trafficking claims under federal law, and later denied class certification. On October 31, 2023 the Tenth Circuit vacated that denial and sent the class certification question back to the district court. In 2025 the case settled as a class action: 262 women who were sent to the ranches as teenagers will share $2.3 million from Trinity Teen Solutions and Triangle Cross Ranch, with no admission of wrongdoing. Class members who accept payment must agree not to disparage the defendants; lead plaintiff Anna Gozun declined to take part. Judge Scott Skavdahl approved the settlement in fall 2025 as fair given the risk of recovering nothing, and the case closed on October 6, 2025.

Outcome: The district court dismissed the RICO, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress claims under Rule 12(b)(6), leaving the forced labor and trafficking claims. After the plaintiffs moved for class certification in August 2022, the district court denied it. On October 31, 2023, in a published opinion (No. 22-8080), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held the district court had applied the wrong legal standards for commonality, typicality and predominance, vacated the denial of class certification and sent the case back for further proceedings. The United States filed an amicus brief in the appeal. Back in the district court, the case settled in 2025 for $2.3 million, to be shared by a class of 262 former residents; the defendants admitted no wrongdoing and class members who accept payment must agree not to disparage them. Judge Scott Skavdahl gave final approval in fall 2025 and the case was terminated on October 6, 2025.

Rodney Brockenbrough, former chief operating officer of TrueCore Behavioral Solutions, filed a sealed qui tam complaint on October 16, 2019, on behalf of the United States, Florida and Texas against TrueCore, its private equity owner Boyne Capital and related holding companies, the G4S entities that formerly ran the business, and the Henry & Rilla White Youth Foundation. The complaint alleges that the White Foundation posed as the owner of nineteen for-profit G4S/TrueCore youth facilities so they could collect National School Lunch Program money that only nonprofit institutions may receive. It alleges TrueCore quietly left the program in 2018 after a Texas audit, then cut staffing and overtime to make up the lost money, and that Brockenbrough resigned on August 2, 2019. It seeks treble damages and penalties under the federal and state false claims laws. The document shows only the filing of the complaint.

In August 2019 the Nye County District Attorney filed a criminal complaint charging Patricia Lynn Chappuis and Marcel Claude Chappuis with 45 counts of felony child abuse or neglect over their running of Northwest Academy, 1492 South Highway 373 in Amargosa Valley, Nevada. Each count concerns a different enrolled child, aged roughly 11 to 17. Prosecutors alleged that between February 9, 2018 and February 12, 2019 the defendants failed to give the children enough potable water, let them drink unsafe tap water, and failed to screen and supervise staff to protect the children from physical and verbal abuse. The complaint was filed in the Beatty Township Justice Court on August 6, 2019, with an arraignment set for August 19, 2019. In July 2021 the case ended in a plea agreement: Marcel Chappuis pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of disturbing the peace, Patricia Chappuis agreed to plead guilty to one gross misdemeanor, each was fined $2,000, and no jail time or probation was sought. Both maintained their innocence through their attorney.

Outcome: Resolved by plea agreement. On July 19, 2021 in Beatty Justice Court, Marcel Chappuis pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of disturbing the peace and paid a $2,000 fine; Patricia Chappuis waived her preliminary hearing and agreed to plead guilty to one gross misdemeanor count in district court in Tonopah, with a $2,000 fine. Prosecutors agreed not to seek jail time or probation, and the 45 felony counts against each were dropped. News coverage found does not report Patricia Chappuis's later court date.

The plaintiff, Damina Durham, filed a lawsuit against Capital Academy and Sequel Youth and Family Services in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. The complaint alleges labor-related violations under 29 U.S.C. § 704. The plaintiff seeks relief for the alleged wrongdoing.

Adrian Lovell alleged that, while he was a 15-year-old student at Devereux Glenholme School, an adult school employee sexually abused him and school leaders failed to protect him. The complaint asserts negligence, recklessness, premises-liability, and related claims. These are allegations, not findings.

Frederic Yeomans IV, an Arizona resident, filed a complaint against Discovery Ranch, Inc., a Utah residential treatment facility. The plaintiff alleges that the facility failed to adequately screen and supervise another resident, resulting in repeated sexual assault of the plaintiff while enrolled. The complaint asserts claims of negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, medical negligence, and sexual abuse. The plaintiff seeks relief for physical and psychological harm.

Homeland sought a declaration that it had no duty to indemnify Devereux under two insurance policies for an underlying personal-injury judgment. The underlying complaint concerned an alleged escape from Devereux's Glenmoore facility followed by a shooting that injured Eric Johnson. The supplied document is the insurer's complaint and does not establish the coverage case's outcome.

Dorothy Uwakwe alleged race- and national-origin discrimination by her former employers, Pelham Academy and Justice Resource Institute. The supplied December 2017 order resolved the action for defendants: summary judgment was granted on five counts and two others were dismissed.

Outcome: On December 11, 2017, the court granted defendants' summary-judgment motion on counts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 and dismissed counts 5 and 6.

Parents allege their daughter was denied medical care for nearly two weeks after breaking her thumb, and was given access to staples, pens and plastic cutlery despite the program knowing she struggled with compulsive self-harm.

Diana L. Ramsey sued Devereux Pocono Center in connection with the death of her daughter, Megan Ramsey, who died in July 2014. A December 2017 order approved an $800,000 settlement of the wrongful-death and survival claims. The supplied complaint contains allegations; the settlement order does not state an admission of liability.

Outcome: A December 2017 court order authorized settlement of all claims for $800,000 and directed the case closed.

Negligence and breach of fiduciary duty claims against Island View RTC and Provo Canyon School, naming Provo Canyon therapist Wade Taylor among the defendants. The court issued a ruling on May 13, 2015.

Outcome: Ruling issued May 13, 2015 (published on govinfo).

The school sued the human rights group HEAL for libel over its published records of police calls and complaints about the program. HEAL describes the suit as a strategic lawsuit against public participation and disputes a later NATSAP bulletin's account of it.

Plaintiffs Alvin, Cynthia, and Alvin Chase Robertson filed a civil lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Utah against Red Rock Canyon School LLC and associated individual defendants, including Melanie Habibian, Sherman Habibian, and Todd Hockenbury. The case falls under the nature of suit category for other personal injury. The action involves allegations related to the operations and care provided at the Red Rock Canyon School facility.

Judith Newman sued over the death of her daughter Karlye, who was found hanged at Spring Creek Lodge Academy in Thompson Falls, Montana on October 7, 2004 and died at age 16. She filed suit on October 23, 2006 against Spring Creek and its directors, later adding WWASP founder Robert Lichfield, WWASP, Teen Help, National Contract and Peacox, and alleged negligent care, wrongful death and deceptive marketing to parents of suicidal youth. She settled with Spring Creek, Teen Help and National Contract in 2010, and a jury found for Lichfield and WWASP in October 2010. On March 6, 2012 the Montana Supreme Court reversed in part and ordered a new trial. The documents do not show what happened after remand.

Outcome: Newman settled with Spring Creek, Teen Help and National Contract in early 2010. A jury returned a defense verdict for Lichfield and WWASP on October 27, 2010. On March 6, 2012 the Montana Supreme Court affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded for a new trial, holding the trial court wrongly limited evidence on foreseeability.

Four families identified by initials filed a class action complaint on September 11, 2006 in federal court in Gainesville, Georgia against Hidden Lake Academy, its related nonprofit entities, and founder Dr. Leonard Buccellato. The complaint alleges that from 2000 onward the therapeutic boarding school misrepresented that its teachers were state certified and its counselors clinically trained, let unlicensed staff dispense medication, and enrolled violent students despite telling parents it did not. It also alleges routine strip searches, student labor, and undisclosed charges and mark-ups on top of an advertised all-inclusive tuition of over $5,900 a month. The copy on file is the first 27 pages of the complaint and does not show how the case ended.

Families of former students filed a class action complaint on July 25, 2006 in federal court in the Northern District of New York against The Academy at Ivy Ridge in Ogdensburg, its owners, WWASP and Robert Lichfield, an accrediting body, and several referral companies. The complaint alleges the defendants falsely told parents and the public that Ivy Ridge was licensed and authorized by New York State to award high school credits and diplomas. It brings claims under RICO and New York law, including fraud, conspiracy, deceptive business practices and breach of contract. The document on file is the complaint and does not show how the case ended.

The United States Department of Justice brought a civil action against Youth Services International, Inc. alleging violations of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The lawsuit stemmed from the facility's failure to provide sign language interpretation services and auxiliary aids to a deaf juvenile resident. Concurrently with the filing of the complaint, the parties moved for conditional dismissal based on a settlement agreement requiring remediation and compliance measures.

Plaintiffs filed a personal injury and civil rights lawsuit against Red Rock Canyon School and related individuals in September 2005. The court later dismissed the federal civil rights claim and stayed the remaining state law claims. The case proceeded through various scheduling and expert witness motions before terminating in November 2009.

Eight families of former students (called cadets) sued Herman Fountain, John Fountain Jr., Josh Fountain, Susan Churchwell and others who ran Bethel Boys Academy near Lucedale, Mississippi, in federal court, claiming federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state-law claims. The complaint alleges that staff and cadets forced by staff beat new arrivals, that boys were locked in footlockers, made to hold electric fences, held underwater at a swamp, denied bathroom breaks, sleep, food and medical care, and made to work up to 18 hours a day without pay. It alleges the academy misled parents about care, education and a staff nurse, and kept tuition and other payments. The enrollments described run from 2002 to 2003. The extracted text is missing the caption page, so the docket number, district and filing date are not shown, and the document shows nothing beyond the complaint.

Plaintiffs filed an action under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act to protect a minor's educational placement and funding at a residential facility. The Department of Social Services sought clarification on whether a preliminary injunction prevented them from pursuing a license revocation action against the facility. The court ruled that state licensing authorities may proceed in good faith with license revocation proceedings under state law, provided the actions are not used as a ruse to alter the student's placement in violation of federal law.

Plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction to prevent a community agency and state department from unilaterally terminating funding and changing the residential and educational placement of their handicapped son at a behavioral research facility. The defendants had acted to relocate the youth due to concerns regarding safety and the use of restraints following medical incidents. The court evaluated whether it had jurisdiction under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act to regulate non-educational agencies providing related services and ultimately denied the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction.

Two teenagers sent to Provo Canyon School by their home states' juvenile justice systems escaped and brought a federal class action challenging the school's confinement, education and treatment methods. The case produced the 1980 injunction that still defines the limits on isolation, restraint, polygraphs and mail censorship at the school.

Outcome: Jury found for the school in 1980, but the district court entered a permanent injunction barring Provo Canyon School from opening, reading or censoring boys' mail, administering polygraphs, placing boys in isolation except to contain physical violence, and using physical force except to restrain a boy who is an immediate danger to himself or others. Affirmed as Milonas v. Williams, 691 F.2d 931 (10th Cir. 1982).

Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit challenging emergency orders and licensing actions taken by the state Office for Children that sought to suspend the license of a residential facility for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and restrict its use of behavioral intervention techniques. The parties entered into a consent decree in 1987, which regulated the facility's operations and oversight. Years later, defendants filed a motion to vacate the consent decree under Rule 60(b)(5), arguing that the original purposes of the decree had been fulfilled, that a change in circumstances and professional standards regarding aversive interventions rendered continued enforcement inequitable, and that the decree infringed upon executive functions under the doctrine of separation of powers.

On 04/15/2025 CALEB BRONSTEIN filed a Civil - Personal Injury and Torts court case against ASCEND HEALTHCARE, LLC, in Los Angeles County Superior Courts. Court records for this case are available from Beverly Hills Courthouse.

Benjamin G. Trane opened Midwest Academy in Keokuk, Iowa in 2003 and ran it until it closed in 2016 after state and federal agents searched the school. In 2015 a female student reported that he sexually abused her, and two male students reported physical abuse; the State of Iowa charged Trane with third-degree sexual abuse, sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, and child endangerment. At a jury trial in Keokuk in December 2017, a child protection worker testified that the Iowa Department of Human Services and the FBI had received a report in March 2015 that students were held in isolation rooms with human waste, and agents described searches of the school on January 28, February 1 and February 11, 2016. On December 22, 2017 the jury convicted Trane of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, a pattern, practice or scheme to engage in sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, and child endangerment. He was sentenced on May 10, 2018 to nine years in prison, ten years of supervised release and sex offender registration. His appeals failed: the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the convictions in 2019 subject to a rape shield hearing, affirmed again on January 6, 2023, and on January 31, 2025 reversed a lower court's grant of a new trial on the child endangerment count.

Outcome: Convicted December 22, 2017 of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist (pattern, practice or scheme), and child endangerment. Sentenced May 10, 2018 to 9 years in prison. Convictions affirmed by the Iowa Supreme Court (State v. Trane, 934 N.W.2d 447 (Iowa 2019); No. 21-1211, January 6, 2023). Trane reported to the Lee County jail to begin his sentence in March 2023. In postconviction proceedings the Iowa Supreme Court (No. 23-1928, January 31, 2025) reversed the grant of a new trial on the child endangerment count.

These are debt records against Elan One Corporation, the company that owned the Elan School property in Poland, Maine, not lawsuits about the school's treatment of students. The Town of Poland recorded a tax lien in May 1987 for 8,108.54 dollars in 1986 taxes plus 443.86 dollars interest. Chuck R. Starbird, doing business as Minot Excavating & Construction, filed a mechanics lien on February 1, 1991 for 3,627.62 dollars of excavation work done between October and December 1990. Owen Haskell, Inc. won a 1,085 dollar judgment plus 35 dollars costs against Elan One in the Lewiston District Court on June 16, 1993, with a writ of execution dated October 1, 1993. The town recorded another tax lien on July 16, 2001 for 7,617.81 dollars still unpaid. Riviera Finance filed a termination of its financing statement against Elan One (date not legible), and a lien discharge for a creditor named Snow is in the file but its text could not be read.

Outcome: The documents show the Riviera Finance financing statement terminated and a lien discharge filed for a creditor named Snow; they do not show whether the tax liens, the mechanics lien or the 1993 judgment were paid.

This is a banking case brought by Elan's owners, not a case about the treatment of students. Elan School founders Joseph J. Ricci and Gerald E. Davidson and their companies, including Golden Ark Enterprises and the Elan One through Elan Eight corporations, sued Key Bancshares of Maine and Key Bank of Southern Maine in federal court in Maine over the banks' termination of their line of credit. A jury found for the plaintiffs in April 1987 and assessed 15 million dollars in damages, and Judge James L. Watson of the Court of International Trade, sitting by designation, upheld the verdict on June 16, 1987 and ordered a 15 million dollar attachment on the banks' Maine real estate. The judgment of April 29, 1987 was satisfied in full by a settlement on July 31, 1987, and the release was recorded in Androscoggin County in February 1989.

Outcome: A jury found for the Elan owners and companies in April 1987 and assessed 15 million dollars in damages; the court added 10,000 dollars in punitive damages on each of two federal counts, set aside a 12.5 million dollar punitive award, denied the banks' motions for a new trial, and on June 16, 1987 ordered a 15 million dollar attachment on the banks' Maine property. On July 31, 1987 the plaintiffs acknowledged the judgment had been satisfied in full by settlement and the attachment was discharged. The settlement amount is not stated.

Martha Amesbury sued Golden Ark Enterprises and Elan One Corporation, companies behind the Elan School, in Cumberland County Superior Court in Maine. The only document is an order of attachment signed at Portland in 1987 which, after a hearing and by agreement of the parties, allowed a 65,000 dollar attachment on Elan One's real estate; it was received at the Androscoggin County Registry of Deeds on December 28 (the year is partly illegible). The order refers to her affidavit but does not say what the lawsuit was about. The documents do not show how the case ended.

Outcome: After a hearing and with the parties' agreement, the court ordered a 65,000 dollar attachment on Elan One Corporation's real property, finding a reasonable likelihood the plaintiff would recover at least that much.

This is a mortgage foreclosure case, not an abuse case. Beverly J. MacKerron sued Elan One, the Maine company behind the Elan School, in Androscoggin County Superior Court in November 1979; the complaint is dated November 14, 1979. She and Neil D. MacKerron had sold Elan One Corporation two parcels on Upper Range Pond in Poland on February 1, 1974 for two promissory notes of 30,750 dollars secured by mortgages, and the complaint says Elan One stopped paying in October 1979, with about 16,973.51 dollars due on each note. Central Maine Power, which held a 1975 power-line easement across the land, and Depositors Trust Company, which held a 1979 mortgage, were named as parties in interest. The documents show only the complaint and the clerk's certificate of filing, not the result.

William Chase Wood and several hundred other former students and their parents sued the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS), founder Robert Lichfield, his business partners and dozens of affiliated programs, marketing and billing companies in Utah's Fifth Judicial District Court in Washington County. The document on file is the plaintiffs' 228-page first amended complaint, submitted July 24, 2013, which refers to claim sheets filed in the case on December 17, 2012 in opposition to a WWASPS motion to dismiss. It alleges that students placed at WWASPS programs in Utah, other states, Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Samoa and the Czech Republic from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s were beaten, restrained, locked in isolation and small boxes or cages, denied food and medical care, sexually abused and forced to work without pay. It alleges the programs operated as a single enterprise that deceived parents and concealed the abuse, and brings negligence, fraud, contract, conspiracy and emotional distress claims. The document does not show how the case ended.

Former student Shayrena Penn sued Diamond Ranch Academy in Utah's Fifth Judicial District Court in Washington County; the complaint is dated April 29, 2021. She alleges that during a four- to five-month stay that began when she was 15, staff restrained her as punishment using pressure points, held her down while she said she could not breathe, and pressed her face into the ground so hard that she suffered lasting paralysis on the left side of her face. It also alleges sleep deprivation, strip searches, forced exercise with water withheld, inadequate clothing in winter, and weeks of isolation. It names five staff members and brings negligent hiring and supervision, assault, battery and emotional distress claims. The document on file is the complaint and does not show how the case ended.

Thomas G. Houlahan was the plaintiff in a federal case against the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASP) and others in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The only document on file is the report of the plaintiff's expert witness, industry consultant Lon Woodbury, filed as an exhibit on February 1, 2006. Woodbury's report compares WWASP programs to industry standards, citing referral fees, commission-paid marketers, enrollments far over 200, open-ended phone blackouts, students used as junior staff to enforce discipline, and more abuse claims and closures than at other programs. The document does not state the plaintiff's claims or how the case ended.

Jordan Zanolini, a former student placed at Liahona Academy in Virgin, Utah as a minor, sued Liahona Academy for Youth, LLC in a complaint dated April 26, 2021 in Utah's Fifth Judicial District Court in Washington County. He alleges staff punched him and repeatedly restrained him with pressure points, that the program director lifted him by the neck, threw him across a room and rubbed his face into a carpet, and that he was made to stand outside in freezing weather in shorts. He also alleges he was forced to wear diapers for months and punished on work crew by sitting facing a wall from 6 am to 10 pm for weeks. The copy on file has no case number and does not show an outcome.

Joseph Kennefick and Hillary Whitcomb, individually and for the estate of their son Joseph Hunter Kennefick, filed a complaint dated October 19, 2018 in Davis County, Utah against Lifeline for Youth and related entities. They allege that in 2011, while their son was 13 or 14 and in residential drug treatment at Lifeline, two of his counselors took him and other youths out, supplied them alcohol and drugs, and encouraged them to use. The complaint alleges this set off years of relapse and contributed to his death in September 2018 at age 21, and brings thirteen claims including breach of contract, fraud, negligent hiring and wrongful death. The copy on file carries no case number or filing stamp and does not show an outcome. This is a different case from Whitcomb and Clifford v. InnerChange Chrysalis already on the page.

John R. and his son Charles R. sued United Behavioral Health and his employer's health plan under ERISA after the insurer denied coverage for the son's treatment as a teenager from 2014 to 2016. The treatment included about two months at Summit Achievement wilderness program in Maine, about two and a half months at Second Nature Blue Ridge in Georgia, and about a year and a half at In Balance Ranch Academy in Arizona. The insurer denied the Summit and In Balance claims on procedural grounds and the Second Nature claim as not medically necessary. On September 24, 2021 Judge Tena Campbell granted summary judgment to the defendants and affirmed all three denials. The case is about insurance coverage, not abuse at the programs.

Outcome: On September 24, 2021 the court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment and denied the plaintiffs' motion, upholding the denial of coverage for all three programs.

Scott and Michele Green sued Sue Scheff, her referral company Parents Universal Resource Experts (P.U.R.E.), Focal Point Academy of Mesquite, Nevada, its co-owner Glen Horlacher, and recruiter Boyd Hooper in Broward County, Florida circuit court; the complaint is dated June 2007. They allege Scheff presented herself as an unpaid parent advocate while Focal Point paid her per referral, and that Hooper posed as a school administrator while working as a paid recruiter. They allege the school misrepresented its accreditation, therapy and teachers, never did the paid assessment, let their son choose his own medications, left an ear infection untreated, and did nothing when he reported repeated beatings and sexual assaults by other students, instead isolating him when he tried to call home. They allege they removed him in 2006 and never received a promised refund. The document shows only the complaint.

Frank Habibian and the companies that sold Falcon Ridge Ranch, Red Rock Canyon School, Lava Heights Academy and Mount Pleasant Academy (the CARE Schools) to Sequel Youth Services in August 2016 asked a Utah state court in Washington County to confirm an arbitration award against the Sequel buyers; the amended petition is dated May 11, 2020. In the arbitration, Sequel sought indemnity for a June 2017 settlement of about $2.58 million it paid the United States and Nevada after self-reporting that the schools had paid referral fees for students covered by Nevada Medicaid. The arbitrator dismissed that claim because Sequel settled without notifying the sellers, found the sellers had been ignorant of the law rather than fraudulent, and ruled that Sequel breached the purchase agreement in how it ran the schools after the sale. This is a business dispute between a program's sellers and buyers, not an abuse case, but it documents the referral-fee practice and the Medicaid settlement. The documents do not show whether the court confirmed the award.

Outcome: In the underlying AAA arbitration (No. 01-17-0005-9666), the arbitrator issued an Interim Award on March 2, 2020, and a Final Award on May 1, 2020, denying the Sequel buyers' claims, granting the sellers' counterclaim (a contingent payment of at least $3,118,445), and awarding the sellers $1,300,000 in fees and costs. The sellers filed this amended petition on May 11, 2020, asking the court to confirm the awards; the documents do not show the court's ruling.

Rowenna Clark sued Solstice RTC, LLC, which runs Solstice Residential Treatment Center in Layton, Utah, in Utah state court in Davis County; the complaint is signed January 27, 2017. She alleges that in late August 2014, shortly after she turned 18 at Solstice, she became acutely ill for several days and staff refused her repeated requests to go to the hospital, dismissed her low blood pressure as an equipment error, and relied on a nurse who was mostly off site. She alleges she was finally taken to Davis Hospital with septic shock and kidney failure, was placed on life support in an induced coma for about eleven days, and has lasting health problems. The complaint states a DOPL prelitigation panel issued its certificate of compliance on December 2, 2016. The document shows only the complaint; no case number is filled in.

A former resident sued the school and its then-owner over his confinement and treatment. Part of a run of civil suits during the Charter years alleging abuse, false imprisonment, medical negligence and First Amendment violations.

Outcome: Fifth Circuit opinion issued December 9, 1998 (CourtListener). One of the 1980s and 1990s suits over confinement and treatment at the school.

The parents of 17-year-old Biruk Silvers sued Discovery Ranch Academy in Utah, alleging staff negligence led to their son's death in November 2024. Biruk had shared suicidal thoughts with his psychiatrist and disclosed dangerous oxygen-deprivation behavior to a therapist, yet staff allowed him to be alone and failed to restrict access to harmful items, including a belt. A state investigation found Discovery Ranch violated its own suicide prevention policies, failed to create a care plan, and did not provide adequate supervision; the facility was fined but remains licensed. The suit also names the University of Utah (employer of Biruk's psychiatrist) and Pilcrow Advisors, the educational consultant that recommended the program. Reported by Jessica Schreifels.

Civil lawsuit filed against the now-closed Red Rock Canyon School in St. George, Utah and its parent company Sequel Youth and Family Services by former student P.R., who alleges she was sexually abused and impregnated by staff member Atonio Kavea while a minor, with the knowledge and alleged facilitation of other personnel including Kavea's sister, Asiah Kavea. The suit claims the school attempted to conceal the abuse and remove P.R. rather than protect her, and seeks over $10 million in damages. Reported by KUTV (Liv Kelleher) on 06/10/2025.