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‘Nobody would call that justice.’ Five Agape staffers charged with low-level assaults

Five staff members from Agape Boarding School have been charged with abusing students, months after authorities executed a search warrant at the unlicensed southwest Missouri facility.

Cedar County Prosecuting Attorney Ty Gaither announced the charges Tuesday morning. All are for third-degree felony assault, Gaither said in an email. According to online court records, the probable cause statements that describe the offenses will be kept confidential “in order to protect victims’ rights.”

Among those charged are at least two former students turned staffers. One of those is Agape’s medical director, Scott L. Dumar. The other is Seth Duncan, son-in-law of David Smock, a Stockton doctor who for years has provided medical care for Agape students. The others charged are Christopher R. McElroy, Everett L. Graves and Trent E. Hartman.

These 13 criminal counts, and the number of staffers who have received summonses to appear in court, are just a fraction of what the Missouri Highway Patrol and the Attorney General recommended. And because of that, dozens of angry former students, advocates and lawmakers say the county prosecutor is standing in the way of justice.

“It’s unacceptable,” said Brett Harper, of Oregon, who attended Agape from 1999 to 2003 and has spent the past three years contacting local, state and federal authorities about the school and allegations of abuse. “It’s one-third of the people who should be charged and he lowered the charges.

“Nobody would call that justice.”

The Missouri attorney general is also among the frustrated. Last week, Attorney General Eric Schmitt sent a letter to Gov. Mike Parson asking for his office to be removed from the investigation because he believed Gaither didn’t intend to “seek justice” for all 36 victims identified in the Highway Patrol’s investigation.

Schmitt made the unusual request after Gaither initially said he planned to charge just seven Agape staff members with roughly 14 counts of assault and other crimes. The attorney general’s office, which has been assisting in the southwest Missouri case, recommended prosecuting 22 staffers with a total of 65 counts on behalf of 36 victims.

Yet Gaither — who state law says has the final say in what is filed — has insisted the fewer charges for low-level crimes are appropriate. He reiterated that on Tuesday.

“We believe these to be the appropriate charges under the fact of the investigation,” Gaither said in an email to The Star.

In the past year, former students testified at legislative hearings that were prompted by The Star’s initial investigation of Missouri’s boarding schools last year. They said they’ve tried to report alleged abuse at Agape and the now-closed Circle of Hope Girls Ranch for many years, but no one — especially Cedar County authorities — listened or tried to stop it from happening.

“Are they waiting for someone to die before they really do something?” said one former student, who attended Agape from spring 2007 through fall 2012 and filed a lawsuit this month under his initials, R.B. “It’s very depressing that after all this, the school remains open and Ty Gaither looks the other way.

“Why would any kid ever want to come forth publicly after this debacle?”

Agape Boarding School officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges. They have not responded to repeated requests from The Star for comment on any of the stories it has published since last fall.

David Patterson, who attended Agape from 2002 to 2003, said he can’t fathom why the county prosecutor would file low-level charges and not hold the school accountable for “three decades worth of abuse and torment.” Students and former students have taken their own lives, Patterson said, because of what they experienced at Agape.

“I ask myself, ‘How on earth could that possibly warrant lower-level charges?” said Patterson, of California, whose experiences at the school were detailed in The Star back in November. “I implore the state, ‘Please don’t let Agape off the hook. Let them be the example for all the abusive troubled teen industries, that if you hurt children, neglect or abuse them that they will not get off with lower-level charges.’

“... Hear our stories. Let us be the voice for the voiceless still in these facilities.”

In the letter last week from Schmitt and his office, the state’s top law enforcement official revealed to the governor his frustrations that Gaither discarded the charging recommendations that the patrol and his staff worked on for months.

“Mr. Gaither’s decision to pursue a relatively small number of minor felony offenses reveals that he has no real need of the expertise and resources of the Attorney General’s Office,” the letter said. “... In deciding not to charge a number of other offenses, Mr. Gaither has expressly rejected the assistance and expertise of the Attorney General’s office, and he has indicated that he does not intend to seek justice for all of the thirty-six children who were allegedly victimized by twenty-two members of the Agape Boarding School staff. “

When asked about Parson’s response, a spokeswoman from his office emailed The Star and said according to state law, the governor appoints the attorney general to assist the local prosecutors when that help is requested.

“The appointment represents the extent of the Governor’s involvement,” said Kelli Jones, Parson’s spokeswoman. “What level of assistance to provide is left to the Attorney General, local prosecutor, and the court.”

Gaither told The Star in an email Friday afternoon that he wasn’t aware of Schmitt’s letter to Parson asking to be released from the case.

“But (I) am sure they will be of invaluable assistance in funding, coordinating and arranging transport for the out of state witness and possible expert witnesses in this case,” Gaither said.

In last week’s letter, Schmitt also told Parson that on Sept. 1, the AG’s office filed a motion to seat a grand jury to hear evidence “regarding the abuse of these 36 children at the hands of the 22 identified suspects and to sign any resulting indictments.”

That motion was denied by David R. Munton, presiding judge of the 28th Judicial Circuit, after Gaither wrote a letter to the judge on Sept. 13.

Gaither stated, in part:

“All matters in this investigation will require my signature and must come from my office. For your information we are preparing what we consider to be the proper charges in this matter and expect an Associate filing around September 22, 2021. The highest charge level will be assault in the 3rd degree.”

Munton also is the judge handling the criminal case involving abuse charges against the owners of Circle of Hope Girls Ranch. In addition, he is the judge assigned to 11 civil lawsuits filed in the past year against Agape, Circle of Hope and their leaders.

The 65 charges the AG’s office recommended against Agape staff members included Class B and D felonies for abuse of a child, Class D felonies for tampering with a victim and misdemeanors for endangering the welfare of a child and failure to report child abuse, according to the letter sent Thursday to the governor.

Missouri law stipulates that the county prosecutor has sole authority in deciding what charges are filed. Though Gaither requested the assistance of the AG’s office, he maintained jurisdiction of the case.

The prosecutor’s action make Agape, located just outside Stockton, Missouri, the second unlicensed Christian boarding school in the state whose staff members have been charged in recent months with abusing students. Both schools are in Cedar County.

Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville was closed last year after authorities removed about 25 students amid an investigation into abuse and neglect allegations. Owners Boyd and Stephanie Householder were charged in March and await trial on 100 criminal counts — all but one are felonies — including statutory rape, sodomy and physical abuse and neglect. Both have pleaded not guilty and were released in July on $10,000 bond pending trial.

The AG’s office filed the Circle of Hope charges because when Gaither asked for assistance in that case he ultimately gave it authority to take the lead, which included charging decisions. But in the Agape case, Gaither did not hand over that authority.

Former students, some lawmakers and child advocates have said the prosecutor and others in Cedar County law enforcement are too closely connected with the school.

And it is still unclear why Gaither allowed the AG’s office to take the lead in the Circle of Hope case, but refuses to give it full authority with Agape, a school with five times the number of students and dozens of staff members.

Plus, when asking Parson for the AG’s help on the Agape investigation, Gaither said that his office didn’t have the money or employees to handle either boarding school case.

“Due to the volume of evidence referenced by the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation and the number of possible out-of-state victims and witnesses, it will be impossible for my office to fund the prosecution of this case,” Gaither wrote in a March 18 letter to Parson — which The Star obtained through a Sunshine Law request — asking for assistance with Agape.

“Additionally, as a single prosecutor office, I cannot devote the hundreds of hours necessary to review, prepare and prosecute a case involving multiple victims, witnesses and defendants.”

Gaither’s letter requesting the AG’s help with the Circle of Hope case was nearly identical.

The Missouri Highway Patrol began conducting a criminal investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at Agape in late February. On March 22, Parson approved Gaither’s request and directed the AG to assist in the case.

Agape is one of more than a dozen reform schools that operate in Missouri, where there was no state oversight because of a nearly 40-year-old law that exempts faith-based facilities.

The Star has been investigating reform schools across the state since last summer, with students recounting stories of physical, emotional and sexual abuse they say were inflicted on them by staff and fellow students.

The charges against Agape staff come as Parson signed a measure into law in July that will — for the first time — give the state some oversight over such boarding schools. The proposal received overwhelming support in the legislature this past session.

James Clemensen opened Agape Boarding School in Missouri in 1996 after leaving two other states where his facility came under scrutiny, The Star’s investigation revealed. Former students said Clemensen was attracted to Missouri because of its lack of oversight and viewed the state as “The Promised Land.”

Many former students also said they tried to get local authorities’ attention over the years to alert them to the abuse they said was taking place at Agape. Some said they ran away to seek help from the sheriff’s department, only to be driven right back to the school.

The Star found close ties between Agape and law enforcement in Cedar County. Two county deputies, including former student Robert Graves — son-in-law of Agape owner James Clemensen — have worked at the school. Graves also is listed in state corporation documents as a board member of Agape Baptist Church, which oversees the school. Deanna Smock, Graves’ daughter and James Clemensen’s granddaughter, works for the Sheriff’s Office as well, according to information provided to the Star through a Missouri Sunshine request.

Deanna’s husband, Alexander Smock, also works for the Sheriff’s Office and is the son of Agape’s doctor, David Smock, the records show.

Other part-time and full-time sheriff’s employees have connections to Agape as well, The Star’s investigation revealed. That includes Agape’s dean of students Julio Sandoval, who Sheriff James McCrary said had occasionally worked shifts at the county jail. Sandoval also owns a company that parents can hire to transport their troubled teens to the school. Graves and another deputy work off-duty for that company, the sheriff said last fall.

McCrary told The Star he was aware of the connections his employees had to Agape but said that hadn’t influenced the department’s investigations. He said if a potential conflict arose, he would pass the case to another agency to follow up.

The week before the attorney general’s office became involved in the investigation, the Highway Patrol executed a search warrant at Agape after an employee called and said staff members were destroying records that would document the abuse of students, according to a warrant request obtained by The Star.

Documents show that investigators seized two bags of current student medical records from the infirmary, four bags of current student discipline records and one bag of staff discipline records from Sandoval’s office, and staff discipline records from school director Bryan Clemensen’s office.

The search warrant records also said that the Highway Patrol investigators had initiated multiple child abuse investigations at Agape, and students told authorities that staff members were using extreme force and inflicting pain as a form of discipline.

As a result of the investigations, the records said, “over 50-60 specific acts of physical child abuse upon different students were documented.” The abuse involved staff members physically restraining students by force as a form of discipline, the records said, and that as a result, students have suffered physical injury including bruising, nerve damage, and lacerations, requiring stitches.”

Former students say they are waiting for true accountability where staff members have to answer for what they carried out for years. Frustrated by a lack of action in the case, two of them told The Star that they contacted the FBI last week. Both said they were told by the FBI in Kansas City that the agency’s Springfield office was looking into the Agape case. An FBI spokesman in Kansas City, however, said he could “neither confirm or deny” any investigation into the matter.“

R.B., the former student who has filed a lawsuit against Agape, said he is one of those talking to the FBI.

“How is this school allowed to be open despite all the damning evidence?” said the 27-year-old who now lives in Michigan. “There are boarding schools across the country that have been shut down for less than this. ... No one seems to know who can shut (Agape) down.”