Former Dundee Mother Charges Burglary
By Tim Rogers
Tico Times Staff
(August 8, 2003)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office in St. George, Utah confirmed
yesterday that it is looking into allegations of telephone death threats against the
mother of a former Dundee Ranch Academy student and a recent burglary of her
home in Dundee, Oregon.
Robin Crawford and her son Cody are the primary witnesses of alleged abuse at the
former tough-love facility in Costa Rica, closed May 24 following two government
interventions that resulted in rioting and students escaping (TT, May 23, 30).
A FBI spokeswoman in Salt Lake City told The Tico Times yesterday that the FBI
in St. George was contacted by Crawford and now is looking into her allegations.
Crawford, meanwhile, claims the St. George office made first contact with her Aug.
4, following a telephone call she made two weeks ago to the Salt Lake office to
inquire if the FBI was investigating the Utah-based WorldWide Association of
Specialty Programs (WWASP), the umbrella organization with which Dundee Ranch
Academy was affiliated.
WWASP, an affiliation of eight behavior-modification programs in the U.S. and
abroad, is headquartered in St. George.
Crawford came to Costa Rica last June to pick up Cody, who escaped from
Dundee Ranch Academy during rioting at the facility May 20 and was taken in by a
Costa Rican family (TT, June 6). She and her son spent the next month in Costa
Rica giving court testimony of abuse and mistreatment allegedly suffered by Cody
while at Dundee.
Upon returning to her home in Oregon June 30, Crawford claims she received
several telephone death threats from an unidentified male caller who told her he was
stalking her and was going to kill her.
Two weeks later, on July 14, Crawford, who lives with her 14-year-old daughter
Ashley, says her home was burglarized while she and her children were visiting her
father, some 60 miles away. She claims the robber(s) stole two cameras and a large
plastic bag that contained WWASP documentation, contact information of other
Dundee students and parents and the criminal complaint she filed against Dundee
with Costa Rica's Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ).
To the casual observer, the bag of documentation, kept in a Tupperware box,
looked like "a bag of junk," and no other valuables ? including computers, DVD
player, TV and expensive artwork ? were stolen, Crawford told The Tico Times
during a phone interview from Oregon. The home?s security system showed the
intruders were in the house for less than four minutes.
"I have no idea what this is about," Crawford said, adding that she had never
received any threats before her trip to Costa Rica.
Meanwhile, a U.S.-based activist organization called the International Action
Survivors Committee (ISAC), a non-profit group dedicated to exposing abusive
behavior-modification centers, claims its offices were broken into last month and
WWASP research stolen. ISAC research manager Joe Imler claims his Arizona
home office was broken into July 12 and 10 CDs marked as WWASP research
material were stolen. No valuables, including jewelry and computer equipment, are
missing, according to Imler?s wife.
"We pissed some people off, we were expecting this," she said. Both Crawford and
ISAC say they have backup copies of the stolen documentation.
Meanwhile, Cody?s troubles did not end with his 10-day Costa Rica odyssey.
The 16-year-old was arrested in Oregon July 18 and placed in state custody for
allegedly attacking several juvenile department staff members and a sheriff's deputy
in a courtroom after being asked to take a urinalysis test for marijuana, according to
The News Register newspaper in Oregon.
Cody had to appear before the Oregon judge who had agreed to send him to
Dundee as an alternative form of punishment, following his arrest last April for
attempted burglary, trespassing and theft. The urine test ultimately proved positive
for marijuana use and Cody was placed under state care while arrangements are
made for foster care, according to the news report.
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