Missouri
Former boarding school staffers face civil lawsuit alleging abuse
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Yet another civil lawsuit filed Wednesday against a Missouri Christian boarding school by a former student accuses staffers of forced child labor, physical abuse and tactics aimed at hiding mistreatment from authorities.
The lawsuit, filed in Missouri’s Western U.S. District Court, alleges fraud and negligence by five former employees of the now-closed Agape Boarding School.
More than a dozen other former students have settled lawsuits alleging they were abused at the southwest Missouri school.
When it shut down in 2023, it was the fourth and last unlicensed Christian boarding school to close in Cedar County since September 2020. The school’s former director, Bryan Clemensen, said the school, whose enrollment had tumbled, closed because it did not have the funding to continue.
Several people affiliated with those schools are facing criminal charges.
Advocates for victims of abuse at Missouri boarding schools in May and again on Wednesday urged the state’s attorney general to launch an investigation, work with local prosecutors and take other steps aimed at stemming the tide of abuse.
An attorney general spokesperson did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment Wednesday. But previously, Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s spokesperson, Madeline Sieren, has said that the attorney general’s office does not have jurisdiction to prosecute criminal cases, except when appointed as special prosecutor by the governor or a court.
The latest lawsuit claims that Agape “ran a ‘school’ akin to a concentration camp or torture colony cloaked in the guise of religion.”
Lawyers for three of the named defendants did not immediately return AP requests for comment. Attorneys were not immediately listed in online court records for the remaining two defendants.
The former student who is suing is now 20 years old and is identified in court filings only as John Doe.
Punishments given by staffers at Agape included forcing children to work out until they vomited and stay still in painful positions for hours at a time, the lawsuit states.
“There was a restraint room below the cafeteria. Students were often taken there and restrained; they could be heard screaming,” according to the lawsuit. “This went on for hours.”
Doe claims in his lawsuit that the staffers limited students’ phone use and their letters to home in an attempt to conceal conditions at the school from their parents and “actively concealed from the Children’s Division abuses that were occurring.”
Doe, who first went to Agape at age 15, said staff also “brainwashed” him and others to make it easier to commit abuse.
The lawsuit claimed workers “prevented the children from receiving letters or care packages sent to them by their parents causing the children to believe they had been abandoned thereby emotionally coercing them into silence in order to conceal their abuses.”
Doe asked the judge for a jury trial and money from the defendants.
Other former Agape students came forward with abuse allegations in 2020. One former student said he was raped at Agape and called “seizure boy” because of his epilepsy. Others said they suffered permanent injuries from being disciplined or forced to work long hours of manual labor.
In 2021, Agape’s longtime doctor, David Smock, was charged with child sex crimes and five employees were charged with low-level abuse counts.
Texas
Judge receives ethics fine after endorsing candidate at press conference
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo violated state law when she endorsed a candidate challenging District Attorney Kim Ogg during a press conference that used public funds, the Texas Ethics Commission said this week.
Hidalgo endorsed Sean Teare, Ogg’s opponent in the Democratic primary in March, at a November press conference held at the Harris County Administration building. Hidalgo repeatedly criticized Ogg, a fellow Democrat with whom she’s often feuded.
“I’m ready to take her on March 5th and I’m so excited to know that she’s got such a fantastic opponent,” Hidalgo said at the press conference.
Ogg’s office successfully sought a criminal indictment against three of Hidalgo’s former aides, accusing them of steering a county contract to a political consulting firm headed by a Democratic strategist. Their cases have not yet gone to trial.
Hidalgo praised Teare during the press conference, calling him “well respected” and “very experienced.”
Those remarks drew a complaint filed with the Texas Ethics Commission, the state’s campaign finance watchdog. The complaint accused Hidalgo of using county funds and resources to stump for a political candidate in violation of state law.
Teare went on to defeat Ogg and will face Republican Dan Simons in November.
Hidalgo acknowledged she used public resources and agreed to pay a $500 fine, according to a resolution issued Tuesday. Hidalgo said Wednesday that the commission “asked for a $500 penalty after recognizing the situation was a minimal issue.”
“I am confident that everything I did and said was appropriate, but rather than spending many thousands of dollars and precious time, we agreed to a minimal settlement so that I can focus my energy on the needs of Harris County,” Hidalgo wrote on the social media site X.
Hidalgo and Ogg have publicly sparred since Hidalgo first took office in 2019, most prominently in the investigation into Hidalgo’s former staffers. Hidalgo has repeatedly defended the staffers and blasted the probe as politically motivated. The investigation was one factor that motivated the Harris County Democratic Party to formally admonish Ogg.
Ogg has defended her loyalty to Democrats. But earlier this year, she placed the future of the investigation involving Hidalgo’s former aides in the hands of the Texas Attorney General’s Office — led by Ken Paxton, a Republican — in a move intended to keep the case alive after she leaves office. Teare has said he would recuse the district attorney’s office from the case.
Texas Republicans have often worked to undermine various efforts by Harris County officials since Hidalgo took office and the county became more strongly Democratic — targeting the county’s moves to improve ballot access during the 2020 elections and probing its public safety spending.
Paxton’s office sued the county earlier this year to kill its guaranteed income program, a federally funded initiative to give monthly financial assistance to some of the county’s poorest families. The Texas Supreme Court recently signaled it will likely strike down the program.
Former boarding school staffers face civil lawsuit alleging abuse
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Yet another civil lawsuit filed Wednesday against a Missouri Christian boarding school by a former student accuses staffers of forced child labor, physical abuse and tactics aimed at hiding mistreatment from authorities.
The lawsuit, filed in Missouri’s Western U.S. District Court, alleges fraud and negligence by five former employees of the now-closed Agape Boarding School.
More than a dozen other former students have settled lawsuits alleging they were abused at the southwest Missouri school.
When it shut down in 2023, it was the fourth and last unlicensed Christian boarding school to close in Cedar County since September 2020. The school’s former director, Bryan Clemensen, said the school, whose enrollment had tumbled, closed because it did not have the funding to continue.
Several people affiliated with those schools are facing criminal charges.
Advocates for victims of abuse at Missouri boarding schools in May and again on Wednesday urged the state’s attorney general to launch an investigation, work with local prosecutors and take other steps aimed at stemming the tide of abuse.
An attorney general spokesperson did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment Wednesday. But previously, Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s spokesperson, Madeline Sieren, has said that the attorney general’s office does not have jurisdiction to prosecute criminal cases, except when appointed as special prosecutor by the governor or a court.
The latest lawsuit claims that Agape “ran a ‘school’ akin to a concentration camp or torture colony cloaked in the guise of religion.”
Lawyers for three of the named defendants did not immediately return AP requests for comment. Attorneys were not immediately listed in online court records for the remaining two defendants.
The former student who is suing is now 20 years old and is identified in court filings only as John Doe.
Punishments given by staffers at Agape included forcing children to work out until they vomited and stay still in painful positions for hours at a time, the lawsuit states.
“There was a restraint room below the cafeteria. Students were often taken there and restrained; they could be heard screaming,” according to the lawsuit. “This went on for hours.”
Doe claims in his lawsuit that the staffers limited students’ phone use and their letters to home in an attempt to conceal conditions at the school from their parents and “actively concealed from the Children’s Division abuses that were occurring.”
Doe, who first went to Agape at age 15, said staff also “brainwashed” him and others to make it easier to commit abuse.
The lawsuit claimed workers “prevented the children from receiving letters or care packages sent to them by their parents causing the children to believe they had been abandoned thereby emotionally coercing them into silence in order to conceal their abuses.”
Doe asked the judge for a jury trial and money from the defendants.
Other former Agape students came forward with abuse allegations in 2020. One former student said he was raped at Agape and called “seizure boy” because of his epilepsy. Others said they suffered permanent injuries from being disciplined or forced to work long hours of manual labor.
In 2021, Agape’s longtime doctor, David Smock, was charged with child sex crimes and five employees were charged with low-level abuse counts.
Texas
Judge receives ethics fine after endorsing candidate at press conference
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo violated state law when she endorsed a candidate challenging District Attorney Kim Ogg during a press conference that used public funds, the Texas Ethics Commission said this week.
Hidalgo endorsed Sean Teare, Ogg’s opponent in the Democratic primary in March, at a November press conference held at the Harris County Administration building. Hidalgo repeatedly criticized Ogg, a fellow Democrat with whom she’s often feuded.
“I’m ready to take her on March 5th and I’m so excited to know that she’s got such a fantastic opponent,” Hidalgo said at the press conference.
Ogg’s office successfully sought a criminal indictment against three of Hidalgo’s former aides, accusing them of steering a county contract to a political consulting firm headed by a Democratic strategist. Their cases have not yet gone to trial.
Hidalgo praised Teare during the press conference, calling him “well respected” and “very experienced.”
Those remarks drew a complaint filed with the Texas Ethics Commission, the state’s campaign finance watchdog. The complaint accused Hidalgo of using county funds and resources to stump for a political candidate in violation of state law.
Teare went on to defeat Ogg and will face Republican Dan Simons in November.
Hidalgo acknowledged she used public resources and agreed to pay a $500 fine, according to a resolution issued Tuesday. Hidalgo said Wednesday that the commission “asked for a $500 penalty after recognizing the situation was a minimal issue.”
“I am confident that everything I did and said was appropriate, but rather than spending many thousands of dollars and precious time, we agreed to a minimal settlement so that I can focus my energy on the needs of Harris County,” Hidalgo wrote on the social media site X.
Hidalgo and Ogg have publicly sparred since Hidalgo first took office in 2019, most prominently in the investigation into Hidalgo’s former staffers. Hidalgo has repeatedly defended the staffers and blasted the probe as politically motivated. The investigation was one factor that motivated the Harris County Democratic Party to formally admonish Ogg.
Ogg has defended her loyalty to Democrats. But earlier this year, she placed the future of the investigation involving Hidalgo’s former aides in the hands of the Texas Attorney General’s Office — led by Ken Paxton, a Republican — in a move intended to keep the case alive after she leaves office. Teare has said he would recuse the district attorney’s office from the case.
Texas Republicans have often worked to undermine various efforts by Harris County officials since Hidalgo took office and the county became more strongly Democratic — targeting the county’s moves to improve ballot access during the 2020 elections and probing its public safety spending.
Paxton’s office sued the county earlier this year to kill its guaranteed income program, a federally funded initiative to give monthly financial assistance to some of the county’s poorest families. The Texas Supreme Court recently signaled it will likely strike down the program.
