Author Topic: Cedar Ridge Academy staff charged with sex abuse  (Read 3465 times)

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Offline Ursus

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Cedar Ridge Academy staff charged with sex abuse
« on: December 13, 2009, 12:11:14 AM »
Deseret News
Duchesne nurse charged with sex abuse of teens
Published: Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009 4:15 p.m. MST

ROOSEVELT — A man who worked as a nurse at a boarding school for troubled teens has been charged with sexually abusing two of the school's teenage residents.

Geary David Oakes, 57, of Cedarview, Duchesne County, is charged in 8th District Court with two counts of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, and two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.

A nurse at Cedar Ridge Academy, Oakes engaged in sex acts with two 15-year-old students from the school, the charges state.

One of the teens told deputies that Oakes gave him pain medication, according to the Duchesne County Sheriff's Office, and that he "provides pain and sleeping medications for the kids at Cedar Ridge and tells them to keep it a secret." Oakes denied that he had supplied anyone with medication that was not prescribed, authorities said.

Cedar Ridge Academy, located north of Roosevelt, is billed as a therapeutic boarding school. Investigators believe Oakes' alleged activities with the teens occurred at the school and at his home during November.

Oakes was fired once criminal charges were filed, said Cedar Ridge co-owner and program director Rob Nielson. He said Oakes had worked at the school for about 10 years.

Oakes remains in the Duchesne County Jail in lieu of $60,000 bail.

— Andre Salvail
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Offline Ursus

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School nurse faces sex abuse charges
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2009, 12:16:36 AM »
abc4.com
School nurse faces sex abuse charges
Written by: Dan Metcalf Jr.
Email: dan.metcalf@abc4.com
Last Update: 12/09 1:44 pm



Geary Oakes

CEDAR VIEW, Utah (ABC 4 News) - A former school nurse faces felony charges over allegations that he had sex with two teen aged boys at a school in Duchesne County.

57-year-old Geary Oakes was arrested and charged with two counts of forcible sex abuse and two counts of forcible sodomy over allegations that he had sex with two boys at his home and at the the Cedar Ridge Academy, where he worked as a nurse for more than 10 years.

Police say the alleged sex acts happened sometime in November.

In a statement released by Duchesne County, investigators say the investigation into the alleged sex abuse is continuing to determine whether Oakes was involved in any other sexual misconduct at the school.


Copyright 2009 Newport Television LLC All rights reserved.
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Offline Ursus

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Boarding school employee charged with sex abuse of boys
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2009, 10:20:23 AM »
The Salt Lake Tribune
Boarding school employee charged with sex abuse of boys

By Lindsay Whitehurst
Updated: 12/09/2009 06:44:23 PM MST


A therapeutic boarding school employee was charged this week with sexually abusing two 15-year-old students.

Geary D. Oakes, 57, worked at Cedar Ridge Academy in Roosevelt for 10 years as director of social services, arranging off-site medical trips and phone calls to parents, among other jobs, said Sean Haggerty, director of admissions.

Last month, he gave a 15-year-old boy cigarettes in exchange for oral sex, once at a school building and once at his house, according to charges filed last week in 8th District Court.

He allegedly abused a second boy, also 15, once after checking him out of school to for medical treatment, and later gave him two Vicodin pills, according to the charges.

One boy reported the abuse to school administrators, and the other told his parents, who then told school officials, Haggerty said. When interviewed by police, Oakes admitted to some of the abuse, according to charging documents. He was charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, first-degree felonies, and two counts of sexual abuse of a minor, second-degree felonies.

He was fired on Nov. 30. Administrators at the school for troubled youth are contacting alumni to find out if there have been other victims, but none has come forward so far.

"We're very surprised, it's hard to believe just looking back at the history of all the good things he's done," Haggerty said. "It was difficult to see, but we followed through with the investigation anyway."


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Offline Anonymous

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Re: Cedar Ridge Academy staff charged with sex abuse
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2009, 04:24:12 PM »
These articles are giving me quite the fat boner.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

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Re: Cedar Ridge Academy staff charged with sex abuse
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2009, 05:25:38 PM »
Way to show compassion for the kids who lived it, asshole.
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Offline Ursus

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Nurse accused of abusing troubled teens
« Reply #5 on: December 14, 2009, 11:58:03 AM »
Comments got closed early on this news bit. Pretty heated...

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ksl.com
Nurse accused of abusing troubled teens
December 9th, 2009 @ 11:04am



ROOSEVELT -- A former nurse at a facility for troubled teens in Roosevelt is now accused of sexually abusing some of them.

Geary David Oakes is charged with forcible sexual abuse and forcible sodomy in connection with alleged sex acts with two of his 15-year-old charges.

One of the alleged victims claims Oakes gave him pain medication in exchange for sex.

Oakes was fired after the charges were filed. He is now being held at the Duchesne County Jail.


© 2009 ksl.com       KSL Television & Radio, Salt Lake City UT
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Offline Ursus

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Cedar Ridge Announcement of Abuse Charges...
« Reply #6 on: December 14, 2009, 04:51:08 PM »
Breaking News
Posted: Dec 11, 2009

Cedar Ridge Academy
Roosevelt, UT

Cedar Ridge Announcement of Abuse Charges Against a Staff Member

Contact:
Sean Haggerty
Admissions
435-353-4498 x117
http://www.cedaridge.net

Dear Woodbury Reports and all other professionals who may read this,

We are writing to inform you that a former employee, Geary Oakes, has been charged with sexually abusing two students enrolled at Cedar Ridge Academy. He has been charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, and two counts of forcible sexual abuse. There are also allegations he provided medications to students illegally.

Upon initial report of these allegations we were very surprised and concerned for everyone involved. We immediately reported to our licensing agent and to the authorities the allegations which had been made and did everything to cooperate with the investigation. We separated Geary from the students and began the investigative process with the Child Protective Services and detective assigned to the case. Once we found out formal charges were going to be made, we terminated Geary's employment. We are continuing to support the ongoing investigation and believe that the truth will prevail.

Our goal throughout this incident is to reassure our current families and alumni, and to be as open as possible with everyone regarding the incident. We informed our students and processed the incident with each student individually to see if there had been any abuse to them. We informed our families of all information from the allegations and investigation, including additional policy we created to help prevent future incidents. We informed all of our referring professionals who had students enrolled at Cedar Ridge Academy of all information from the allegations and investigation. We began contacting alumni to inform them of the allegations and process if there had been any abuse to them. We are continuing to inform all the professionals who we have relationships with. We appreciate your posting of this letter to help in these actions.

Though we operated within our licensing regulations prior to the incident, we have created additional policy to further ensure that no staff or students are left alone without a third party. We will continue to perform yearly background checks on all our employees and will continue to use screening steps in the interview process to try to prevent future incidents. We have worked with our licensing agent to ensure that past, current and now these future policies are within the state regulations and are in the best interest of our families.

In the process of dealing with these allegations we have had tremendous support from all of our families. All of our families have given a vote of confidence and support by choosing to continue enrollment at Cedar Ridge Academy. We have support from all the professionals we work with. Many have done a thorough investigation of how we are handling this situation and are continuing to refer to Cedar Ridge Academy. We have received incredible support from our Alumni. We have received many messages and phone calls with expressions of sympathy to the victims and a sincere hope that Cedar Ridge Academy will continue to be able to provide a haven to the families we work with now, and in the future. We are so grateful for this support from so many people. It has really helped to keep the focus on helping the families we work with.

We extend a sincere welcome to contact us to anyone who has questions or comments about these allegations. Sean Haggerty, Admissions Director, can be reached by email at robn@ubtanet.com, or by phone at 435-353-4498, ext. 111.

Sincerely,
The Cedar Ridge Academy Family


Copyright © 2009, Woodbury Reports, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: Cedar Ridge Academy staff charged with sex abuse
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2009, 05:23:53 PM »
This shit just never ends, abusing the abused. Brings back some bad memories. I do believe thou the day is changing one of the abused at a time.   Thanks G.
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Offline Ursus

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Ex-school nurse faces additional charges in Duchesne County
« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2009, 03:58:45 PM »
It gets even worse...

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Ex-school nurse faces additional charges in Duchesne County
By Geoff Liesik
Deseret News
Published: Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009 5:35 p.m. MST



Geary David Oakes

ROOSEVELT — A former boarding school nurse, already accused of molesting two teenage boys, has been charged with sexually abusing two more teens and illegally providing prescription drugs to three others.

Geary David Oakes, 57, made his initial appearance Monday in 8th District Court on six counts of forcible sexual abuse and six counts of distribution of a controlled substance, both second-degree felonies; and one count of dealing in materials harmful to a minor, a third-degree felony.

Oakes, who worked as director of student services for Cedar Ridge Academy for the past 10 years, now stands accused of sexually abusing four teenage students and providing one of the alleged abuse victims and three other students with Lortab and Vicodin.

"We've been through this with a fine-toothed comb," said Cedar Ridge director Robert Nielson. "I've talked to people who know this guy, who knew this guy, and everybody's astonished that this stuff happened."

Nielson said he doesn't believe any of the alleged criminal activity by Oakes occurred before August.

"These are things that couldn't have sustained themselves," he said.

Cedar Ridge, which bills itself as a "therapeutic boarding school," employed Oakes to serve as an liaison between a doctor who visits the facility once a week and the school's students, Nielson said. But investigators say nothing in Oakes' job description, or his training as a certified nursing assistant, called for him to perform "hernia checks" on some of the school's male students as frequently as three times per month.

"There was some classic grooming behavior going on," said Duchesne County Sheriff's Sgt. Wade Butterfield. "There was no other purpose to be performing those checks — that many, that often — on the same individuals."

The sergeant said the alleged abuse came to light in late November when one of the teens discussed it in a therapy session. Cedar Ridge staff contacted the state Division of Child and Family Services, which got the sheriff's office involved. In total, Butterfield said, nine Cedar Ridge students were interviewed at the Duchesne County Children's Justice Center.

"I think (Oakes) had a pretty good idea of who was … susceptible to this type of conduct and I think that he focused his efforts on those kids," Butterfield said.

Oakes was initially arrested Dec. 1 and charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony; and forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony. The charges in those cases indicated that the alleged abuse took place at Cedar Ridge, at Oakes' home and in the bathroom of a Roosevelt grocery store.

Butterfield said Oakes has declined to talk with investigators about the new charges against him. Oakes also has refuted claims that he doled out drugs to students, the sergeant said.

Cedar Ridge has examined its policies and procedures in the wake of Oakes' arrest, Nielson said. The school has instituted a policy that bars employees from being alone with students regardless of staff member or student gender, he said.

"I've vowed to the gods that it ain't going to happen again," Nielson said.

Oakes remains in the Duchesne County Jail. His next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 7.

e-mail: gliesik@desnews.com. TWITTER: GeoffLiesik
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