A southwest Missouri prosecutor said Wednesday that he plans to file assault charges against seven staff members of Agape Boarding School.
Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither said he expected the charges to come in the next two weeks, once he receives probable cause statements from the Missouri Highway Patrol.
The number of staff he plans to charge, however, is just a fraction of the 20-21 the Missouri attorney general recommended, sources told The Star. And the majority of those charges are Class E felonies, the lowest felony level possible. Several will be misdemeanors, Gaither told The Star Wednesday afternoon.
"We anticipate," Gaither said, "approximately around 14 charges against about seven individuals."
Many of those charges will be third-degree assault, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Gaither said he does not expect that those charged — some of whom no longer work at the boarding school, the prosecutor said — will be arrested but will be summoned to appear in court.
The Attorney General's office, which has been assisting in the case, told The Star last month that it had recommended charges in the case and was ready to move forward.
"As we've previously said, we're not able to comment on a pending case," said Chris Nuelle, spokesman with the AG's office. "However, the prosecutor's office retains the ability to charge or not charge in this case."
Gaither said that the AG's office recommended 66 charges against about 20 staff members. Asked why he didn't plan to charge that many people, he said, "I'm not going to discuss our thoughts on that. It's an ongoing investigation still."
"We've reviewed all these interviews, all the summaries, all the reports, and we think these are the appropriate charges."
The Missouri Highway Patrol began conducting a criminal investigation at Agape in late February. On March 22, Gov. Mike Parson approved a request from the Cedar County Prosecuting Attorney to appoint the Attorney General's Office to assist in an investigation.
The patrol interviewed more than 150 current and former students and many staff members at the school.
Gaither, who has had the completed investigation for more than a month, told The Star he reviewed 198 interviews and summaries to determine whether charges should be filed.
Former students, child advocates and lawmakers have been waiting for a decision on charges, but have worried that conflicts of interest in the small county would prevent justice from being served.
Agape Boarding School officials have not responded to repeated requests from The Star for comment on any of the stories it has published since last fall.
Two lawsuits filed this year allege that Agape staff members have physically and emotionally abused two students with autism. One of those students also said he was sexually abused by other residents.
The charges will 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.
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.
Gov. Mike Parson in July signed into law a measure that for the first time gives the state some oversight over unlicensed boarding schools. The proposal received overwhelming support in the General Assembly this past session.
The Star has been investigating the schools since last summer, with students recounting stories of physical, emotional and sexual abuse they say were inflicted on them by staff and fellow students. Reporters have interviewed dozens of former Agape students whose time at the school spans nearly three decades. The men shared emotional descriptions of beatings, long days of manual labor, food and water withheld as punishment, and constant berating and mind games.
Agape Boarding School opened in Missouri in 1996 after leaving two other states where it came under scrutiny, The Star's investigation revealed. Former students said the owners were attracted to Missouri because of its lack of oversight and viewed the state as "The Promised Land."
Many 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 sheriff's 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. Graves' daughter — James Clemensen's granddaughter — works for the Sheriff's Office as well, according to information provided to the Star through a Missouri Sunshine request.
Other part-time and full-time sheriff's employees also have connections to Agape, 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 showed 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."
