PRESS RELEASE: SUE SCHEFF & PURE DEFEAT WWASP
Utah Jury Sends Message to WWASP
Source:
http://www.helpyourteens.com/news/pure_ ... wwasp.htmlAugust 6, 2004
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On Friday, August 6, 2004, the BBC and other journalists were present in Salt Lake City when a 12-person jury found unanimously against WWASP and in favor of a Florida mother. WWASP brought three civil counts against the mother to silence her reports of fraud, child abuse and neglect at WWASP-run children?s programs. The counts by WWASP included charges of defamation, civil conspiracy, and false advertising. Attorney Richard Henriksen, of Salt Lake City, Utah represented the mother.
Some of the jurors cried as they watched video clips of the ?Box,? where American children were reportedly hog-tied, hand-cuffed, duct-taped, starved, and slugged by staff. The program was closed after the government found ?credible allegations of abuse.? Videos showed children covered with skin infections and flies in the food at WWASP?s Paradise Cove; other clips showed photos of children in dog cages at WWASP?s High Impact in Mexico, and other alleged abuses by WWASP.
Although the St. George businessmen, Robert Lichfield, Karr Farnsworth, and Ken Kay, claim High Impact was not affiliated with WWASP, former employees and parents testified otherwise. Employees said they were told not to reveal the program?s affiliation with WWASP. One former employee testified she had personally traveled to High Impact with current WWASP President, Ken Kay.
One of the victims of WWASP sat in the court, a boy of 19, and sobbed as defense lawyers showed video clips of the children in dog cages. The boy said his ordeal began at age 12, as WWASP trafficked him through five of their children?s programs over 4 ½ years. The child was the subject of the alleged murder plot at WWASP's Paradise Cove, having his head banged against a coral reef and knocked unconscious as the older boys attempt to drown him in an effort to close the program. The boy weighed only 80 pounds during his confinement at Paradise Cove, and he was hidden from television reporters covering the program. His confinement within the WWASP Empire of children?s programs ended 4 ½ years later with his removal from the cages at High Impact.
Robert Lichfield told Dateline that he would not at all be surprised by an alleged plot by adolescents to murder another child at Paradise Cove. Lichfield said, the children ?brought that with them.?
Robert Lichfield was observed smiling in the corner of the Salt Lake federal courtroom, while WWASP lawyers were observed laughing in the presence of the federal jury.
Two emotional fathers testified about their children's ordeals. One child was reported to have been trafficked through Cross Creek in LaVerkin, Casa by the Sea in Mexico, and High Impact, where American children were forced to lie, face down, in on-the-cross positions, and sometimes hog-tied. According to the father, his child?s thumb was broken while in WWASP?s custody, the boy had been beaten by staff and other children, and his child was forced to lie in a pool of blood that formed around the boy?s chin.
The father described witnessing duct-tape over the mouth of a female child at Cross Creek in LaVerkin, Utah on the day the father removed his son. The father, Chris Goodwin, testified that the reality of being fraudulently ?taken? by WWASP came crashing down on him the day he visited Cross Creek, another WWASP program run by Karr Farnsworth.
Jay Kay, a Utah resident, and director of Tranquility Bay Academy in Jamaica, displayed no emotion in the court while a video clip on PrimeTime was shown with Jay Kay admitting: "Do I have pepper-spray? You bet I do. And, I haven't had to use it in five and a half or six months." Earlier, however, a 15-year-old-boy, now in his 20s, said he was sprayed with pepper-spray, almost daily for eight or more months, by Jay Kay and one his former employees. At times, he said his clothing was soaked from the torment. John France testified that his child was kept in a small, cold structure without adequate heat or food at WWASP?s Spring Creek Lodge. The temperature was so cold that the orange his son has stowed away was frozen by morning. His child had to urinate in his drinking cup in the night. Mr. France?s child was forced into the ?Hobbit? at WWASP?s Spring Creek Lodge for almost nine months. His son had scratched the words, ?Let Freedom Ring? on one of the shelves where he slept during his ordeal.
Amberly Knight, the former director of Dundee Ranch Academy, described a former student who was raped and had her skull cracked. She described children being forced into a tiny isolation room and forced to kneel or lie on lumpy concrete up to 14 hours a day. The children were further punished with food deprivation. Ms. Knight reported WWASP?s alleged child abuse to Costa Rican protective services, resulting in the arrest of Narvin Lichfield and closing of Dundee Ranch Academy in May 2003.
WWASP lawyers asked the Utah jury to send a strong ?message? to the Florida mom and to warn other advocates. The jury, however, sent the message to WWASP, finding against them on all counts. Two other cases filed by WWASP to chill First Amendment rights were dismissed earlier this year by federal judges.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
--Edmund Burke
