God, when will these parents be forced to take "personal responsibility" for placing their child in an abusive program? Seems to me that would send a strong message to other parents that there are risks in private placement and that blind faith is STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!!!!!!
7/4/03
Teen-ranch owner faces charges
Teri Figueroa
Staff Writer
An Aguanga man pleaded not guilty Thursday to allegations that he lied to police and twice reopened his Christian ranch for troubled teens after the state shut it down following allegations of sexual misconduct, according to court records.
Mark Bonacquista, the 40-year-old director of the Gentle Spirit Ranch in Aguanga, faces up to two years in jail if found guilty of the misdemeanor charges, Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Colleen Maas said.
State officials say they have shuttered Gentle Spirit Ranch in Aguanga three times in the last 15 months.
Allegations of sexual abuse led state officials to shut down the ranch in April 2002, according to the state's Department of Social Services.
Seven teenage girls were removed from the ranch by Child Protective Services at that time, state authorities said.
But upon investigating a tip authorities received a year later, deputies found the ranch was still operating, and once again shut it down. At that time, Child Protective Services removed three teens, said Department of Social Services spokesman Rapone Anderson.
Then, two weeks after removing the three girls, authorities once again found the ranch open for business and once again had to remove a child ---- one of whom was one of the same teenage girls they had removed two weeks earlier.
Bonacquista did not respond to requests this week for comment.
Gentle Spirit Ranch sits on 20 acres in Aguanga, about 20 miles east of Temecula. According to the ranch's Web site, Bonacquista and his wife, Virginia, ran the ranch as a "Christ-centered boarding school" for girls from 13 to 16 years old.
The average stay at the ranch ---- which costs $2,500 a month ---- is 15 to 48 months, the Web site states.
The ranch accepted troubled girls who may have used drugs and alcohol, who have been prone to run away, and those who have been pregnant, to name a few. Violent girls and felons are not accepted.
The allegations of sexual misconduct
As listed in the state's complaint against Bonacquista, dated April 5, 2002, the allegations that led to the eventual shutdown of the Gentle Spirit Ranch came from one girl, a client at the ranch. She charged that:
Bonacquista inappropriately touched the victim on her inner thigh;
he lay in bed next to the girl and caressed her hair and face;
he held the girl's hand in an inappropriate manner, causing the girl to feel uncomfortable; and
he massaged the child on her back under her clothes near her buttocks and told her that doing so caused him to have an erection.
"As soon as we got this information, we acted on it," Department of Social Services spokesman Anderson said. "That's when we shut the place down."
That closure was temporary, pending an appeal from Bonacquista, Anderson said. But Bonacquista did not appeal the investigation findings and the Gentle Spirit Ranch license was permanently revoked in May 2002.
State officials said they substantiated the sexual abuse allegations by the girl who came forward; the department's investigation of the allegations at that time revealed no other alleged victims.
Then came word in April of this year that Gentle Spirit Ranch may still be operating.
The ranch allegedly reopens
According to the investigation case report from the Department of Social Services, a local social services agency received a call April 16 from the parents of a teenage girl living at the ranch ---- a placement that was reportedly costing the couple $35,000 a year.
The parents, who live in Minnesota, reported that ranch officials do not allow any communication with the girls in their care. But the couple had become concerned when they received a videotape of their daughter, in which the girl ---- who suffers from anorexia ---- looked very thin, the report states.
Later that night, Riverside County sheriff's Deputy Chad Craig went to the ranch to check on the girl, according to a May 26 affidavit from Craig, which was filed in support of an arrest warrant for Bonacquista.
Craig asked about the teenage girl several times, but Bonacquista refused to cooperate, Craig said in the affidavit. The Department of Social Services report adds that Bonacquista was placed in the police car at one point.
Craig then spoke with Bonacquista's wife, who told him there were three teenage clients at the facility, which she claimed was a boarding school.
When the couple was not able to produce a license to operate the facility, the three teenagers were removed from the ranch and returned to their parents, according to the state's report. All three of the girls were interviewed, but none disclosed sexual abuse, according the state's case report.
What was reported, according to an affidavit by social services investigator Michael Jackson, was that all three of the teenagers at the ranch said they felt uncomfortable around Bonacquista ---- and two of them told Jackson that Bonacquista touched them on their faces, shoulders and thighs in the mornings to wake them up.
Then, two weeks later on May 1, Craig returned to the facility with Jackson. At that time, they again found a teenage client ---- one of the same girls they had found at the ranch two weeks prior, the affidavit states.
Once again, Child Protective Services removed the girl, Craig states.
In his report, Jackson states that the girl, who suffers from an eating disorder, had recently begun purging, but had not been taken to a doctor for treatment.
Deputy District Attorney Maas said Jackson told her the ranch had no running water when he inspected it May 1.
According to police and social services reports, Bonacquista claims he was operating a boarding school exempt from licensing.
But Gentle Spirit Ranch advertised for and provided counseling services, and thus does not meet the state's standard to be licensed as an exempt boarding school, which must provide education only, social services department spokesman Anderson said.
In addition, he said, there were no teachers employed at the facility, nor was there a school curriculum.
"They tried to hold themselves out as a school, but they are not. They have no teachers," Maas said. "(The girls said) the only instruction was (what) they studied themselves and that was it."
The ranch had originally been licensed as a foster family home, a license given to Gentle Spirit Ranch in 1999.
Gentle Spirit was required to be licensed because the facility was providing care and supervision, including rehabilitation, therapy and counseling services, Anderson said.
Solicitations for help and donations
In December, seven months after the state revoked the ranch's license, help wanted advertisements for Gentle Spirit Ranch appeared on two different Web sites: christianemployment.com and ministrymatch.com.
Both ads state that the ranch was "praying for a mature married couple" to become full-time ministry directors for a salary of $24,000 to $36,000 a year.
Both ads directed job seekers to contact Bonacquista.
Those ads came on the heels of a feature on the ranch in the October edition of Christian Times magazine, which said the ranch receives two or three calls a day from families seeking help.
Christian Times reporter Carol Thomas said last week that Bonacquista did not tell her the ranch's license had been revoked.
Then in March, Bonacquista appeared in a radio interview on K-Wave 107.9 FM, a Christian radio station owned by Calvary Church of Costa Mesa. Public Affairs Director Terry Lind said Thursday that Bonacquista had pursued the station for the interview, in which he promoted the ranch.
Gentle Spirit Ranch is run as part of the nonprofit C-ya in Heaven Ministries, which is also headed up by the Bonacquistas.
According to the ministry's 2000 federal income taxes, the organization reported income of $428,000 for the year. Total expenses tallied in at $219,000.
Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2623, or
tfigueroa@californian.com.
