http://http://news10now.com/content/all_news/?ArID=14770&SecID=83By: Kristin Smith, News 10 Now Web Staff
Members of an escort service that transfers troubled teens to a North Country school for juveniles are accused of assaulting a child it was transporting.
Police say the 17-year-old boy's parents, from Red Hook, were disappointed when their son's grades slipped over recent months.
They say he had no prior record, but his parents decided to send him to the Academy at Ivy Ridge in Ogdensburg. They take in troubled teens.
The boy?s parents decided to get an escort service to drive him there.
?They had made arrangements with the people from Teen Escort to get him in the middle of the night when he was groggy, when he wouldn't really understand what was going on and probably wouldn't put up much resistance,? said James Hunt, New York State Police Department.
Police say the parents paid about two thousand dollars to have the Utah-based company take their child to the school, but Hunt says Teen Escort seems to be operating in gray areas of the law.
According to police, on March 22nd, 38-year-old Timothy Hurd and 24-year-old Leonard Faulstick handcuffed the teen, forced him into a vehicle, and started to drive.
Police say the three were on the thruway in the town of Canajoharie when the boy apparently reached over the front seat of the vehicle and pulled on the steering wheel, causing the car to crash into a guardrail.
Troopers took an accident report and let them go.
Police say the men then re-handcuffed the teen behind his back and beat him.
?We're not certain at this point in time just who in New York is regulating this industry. Whether in the schools, whether it's the Department of Education, whether it's the Department of Social Services, the police, the Attorney General?s Office, we don't know who's regulating this activity,? he said.
Hunt says Hurd and Faulstick are charged with unlawful imprisonment in the second degree and assault in the third degree.
Both are scheduled to appear in the Town of Canajoharie Court on April 2nd.
The boy is now back at home with his parents.
Hunt says Teen Escort is under investigation for poor regulation. Ivy Ridge is also under investigation due to claims of child abuse at the school.
The FBI is investigating.
[ This Message was edited by: Kiwi on 2004-03-29 12:34 ]