Author Topic: Miller Newton's "Church"  (Read 12812 times)

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Offline Anonymous

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Miller Newton's "Church"
« Reply #30 on: January 13, 2005, 11:08:00 AM »
In the fall of
1999, our beloved friend,
Dr. Miller Newton, converted
to Orthodoxy, was
ordained to the Holy
Diaconate and Holy Priesthood,
and became Father
Cassian. Father Cassian
joins Father Thomas each
Sunday in ministering to
our faithful; additionally, he
is always at work on the
retreat center he is building
on Madiera Beach.


What is the retreat center he built??
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Offline mental torture made me li

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« Reply #31 on: January 13, 2005, 11:24:00 AM »
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Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #32 on: January 14, 2005, 06:45:00 PM »
Miller Newton touched my junk liberally. he strapped me in to his Straightmobile and he

couldnt keep his offensive hands off of me. he was performing many red flag touches. i

couldnt believe what the fuck was going on. i told Miller Newton the city would not approve

of a millionaire touching an underage kid for free.
can you believe it?Miller Newton did all this. he picked me off the street, strapped my arms

and legs down in the Straightmobile's passenger seat, and just wouldn't stop fondling my

cock'n'balls.
they definately were red flag touches. the goddamn referee he had in the back seat kept on

raising up this red flag every time he touched my junk but did "Dr." Newton care? NO WAY! he

just kept on doing it. I couldn't believe what the fuck was going on, indeed. I pleaded with

Miller Newton but to no avail. I told him the city would not approve of such a wealthy man

touching an underage kid like me (at the time I was 13) without at least compensating me for

the trauma and the use of my body as his own personal plaything.
this got to him, worrying about his image. he continued to fondle me, all the while ignoring

the referee's red flags. then he drove the Straightmobile to my house and ejected the seat i

was in! it was amazing. but surprisingly, after I woke up the next morning, my bank account

had $150k in it!!! Can you believe it?????????????????????????
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Offline jehudrive

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Miller Newton's "Church"
« Reply #33 on: January 15, 2005, 08:33:00 PM »
Alright. I live right near the Newton residence. I live next door to the church. I see Mr. Newton every single day. I see him walking his dog. I see him and his wife walking 3 and 4 year old children to the church. The kids aren't abused, but happily skipping along...like normal children often do.
I didn't know about his history until today when these crazed people parked in my driveway saying something rotten about my neighbors, passing out offensive flyers. I did not appreciate it. I think that even if the woman's piss and moan aliby were true...I wouldn't feel a bit sorry for her.
Hypothetically, considering that he may have been a part of these program's abusive natures, I still wonder what a woman in a ragged old van, poorly dressed, obese, looking for sympathy wanted with me? Why on earth would she pass out a flyer to me? I don't pity her. Her incident was 20 or so years ago. The people targetting this man who is now quiet, religious (yeah...I've snooped around the church once..it's not a torcher dungeon), and minds his own business, are sick and need to stop the self pitying nonsense, and instead of seeing a lawyer, they ought to consult a psychiatrist. I am neither religious nor opposed to religion, but I disagree with ANY of this talk about trying to discontinue his church, as it is a house of god and is protected under the law of the United States...just like your lawsuits were.
 There are people in this world who have suffered greater tyranny and pain than those attending the S.T.R.A.I.G.T program. Apparently they, nor many of the supporters of this website have been out of the country...where people have died for lesser things than holding three fingers up instead of two for a religious salute.
  I am not going to say that you have not been caused pain, but I will say if you were sent to STRAIGHT, it was for a reason. A lot of the kids there were DRUG ABUSERS..yeah. Those kids were the same kinds of kids in my schools today that make life miserable for us good students by getting in fights, exposing others to drugs...etc. Society has a place for you, and it may very well be locked up in an abuse center. I've seen what hard drugs do to people. I wouldn't want my kids hopped up on meth, coke, or extacy either.
 You shouldn't continue to dwell on this. It is ridiculous. That ragged woman in her ragged van could have probably procured a nicer vehicle...and probably wouldn't be so overweight and homely (ie. taken better care of her appearance..or maintained at least a litte amount of femininity) if she had spent less time feeling sorry for herself and more time picking up the pieces and moving the hell on. Nobody's life has been terrific. And the people who complain and whine and bitch about how bad their life has been, and how emotionally scarred they are...those are the people who never get anywhere. My childhood was not great- but I don't go terrorizing the people who treated me poorly. I pick myself off, trust that they will get theirs, and move the fuck on.
 To all of you who say that Mr. Newton molested, harmed or attacked you...great, I'm sure he very well could have. You don't seem to be telling anyone how you got to one of those programs in the first place...and you havent taken the precident to move on with your life.
 I will speak on Mr. Newton's behalf by saying first that if he was not a good person before, he has shed his poor judgement and has turned to religion for peace. Everyone makes poor decisions. He is NOT some uber billionaire either. He also sent his own damn kid to one of those programs.
  And the last thing is...you guys are invasive, disregard other people's privacy and property, you are self-pitying, and you need to refrain from coming into our quiet beach town and causing a tiff over an interpersonal matter that should have been dealt with a long time ago. Find a good psychiatrist, please!
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Offline jehudrive

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« Reply #34 on: January 15, 2005, 08:49:00 PM »
Uhh....yeah. I live right next to it, and it's center is a fucking church and separate areas where people will stay as part of a mission. I don't participate in it, but I've been inside it. You guys are propagating loonies.
I really don't care about the allegations concerning Newton. I just want the whackos out of the neighborhood, roaming around, trying to solicit the neighborhood, parking in people's private driveways.
It was quieter when Newton ran his church without people trying to target him. As a nearby neighbor, I don't want a bunch of people causing commotion over nothing. Who cares if the dude makes money and who cares what he did 20 freaking years ago. I suggest you guys stop trying to conspire amongst eachother and perhaps instead of financial statements, you should ask newton for a tour of his church, I'm sure he'd be glad to give you one.
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Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #35 on: January 15, 2005, 08:59:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-01-15 17:33:00, jehudrive wrote:

The people targetting this man who is now quiet, religious (yeah...I've snooped around the church once..it's not a torcher dungeon), and minds his own business, are sick and need to stop the self pitying nonsense, and instead of seeing a lawyer, they ought to consult a psychiatrist.

Funny you should mention that.  Quite a few of us have consulted a psychiatrist....and as a result have been diagnosed with PTSD from the abuse suffered at the hands of Miller or Cassian or whatever the fuck he calls himself nowadays.


Quote
 I am not going to say that you have not been caused pain, but I will say if you were sent to STRAIGHT, it was for a reason.   A lot of the kids there were DRUG ABUSERS

Oh, quite the contrary.  Most of the kids that were sent there were doing mainly normal teenage shit.  Rebellion is a part of growing up.  Newt came in the intake room when I was put in there, pulled my lower eyelid down and told me that he knew for a FACT that I had done cocaine the night before.  I had never even SEEN cocaine then.  There were at least 20 kids that I can think of off the top of my head that IN NO WAY had ANY KIND of a drug problem.......AT ALL.  Newt said they had 'druggie attitudes'.  Kinda like incarcerating someone for something they MIGHT do.

Quote
My childhood was not great- but I don't go terrorizing the people who treated me poorly. I pick myself off, trust that they will get theirs, and move the fuck on.

You didn't have years of your life stolen.  You didn't suffer beatings at the hand of this man.  I personally witnessed some of them.  One in particular when he picked up a 12 YEAR OLD GIRL off the ground by her hair and then dragged her by the hair all the way across the warehouse.  I also heard him call 12 and 13 year old girls SLUTS, WHORES etc.  12 and 13 year old VIRGINS.  I also saw and heard him direct that several girls be put on peanut butter diets for WEEKS ON END.  Nothing but peanut butter between 2 slices of bread 3 times a day and a dixie cup of water......for WEEKS.  WEEKS.  What does that do to the physical development of a kid?????

Quote
To all of you who say that Mr. Newton molested, harmed or attacked you...great, I'm sure he very well could have. You don't seem to be telling anyone how you got to one of those programs in the first place

So if someone as a teen gets into trouble, then it's perfectly acceptable to beat, starve and humiliate them??????????????  

Quote
I will speak on Mr. Newton's behalf by saying first that if he was not a good person before, he has shed his poor judgement and has turned to religion for peace.


No, I'm quite sure he turned to religion so that he would continue to have influence over other people's lives.  He can't STAND it if he doesn't.  He absolutely REVELS in the adoration he got from the parents back then and now with his flock.  He continues to stand behind everything he did in those programs and refuses to acknowledge that what he did destroyed many, many people.

Seems that there are many of your neighbors who want him out too.  Guess you're just going to have to let this one play itself out.
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Offline Anonymous

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Miller Newton's "Church"
« Reply #36 on: January 15, 2005, 09:02:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-01-15 17:49:00, jehudrive wrote:

"

I really don't care about the allegations concerning Newton.


We do.  I'll be out to take some more pictures soon.  Maybe we can have coffee and talk this out. :lol:  :lol:  No, I wasn't there today or yesterday, but I was a few days back.  I drive a motorcycle.
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Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #37 on: January 15, 2005, 09:18:00 PM »
Hello Ruthie, I am one of your neighbors. I would like to contact you about this topic.  :wave:  Please e-mail me at: jannahp@yahoo.com.
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Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #38 on: January 15, 2005, 09:22:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-01-15 17:33:00, jehudrive wrote:

 I see him and his wife walking 3 and 4 year old children to the church.

Thanks for the tip.  I wasn't aware he was involved with kids again.  We'll be sure to get right on that!!

Quote
I will speak on Mr. Newton's behalf by saying first that if he was not a good person before, he has shed his poor judgement and has turned to religion for peace. Everyone makes poor decisions.


Well, let me know when he decides to own up to his "poor judgement".   Narcissists NEVER admit fault.  Actually, that might make some difference to me.  I would love to know that he actually feels bad about what he did.  I would love to know that he realizes that what he did to us was abusive.  I'd love for him to apologize to all the families he tore apart.  If he truly has seen the error of his ways, I'm willing to listen.   I won't hold my breath though.
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Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #39 on: January 15, 2005, 09:29:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-01-15 17:59:00, Anonymous wrote
Quote
I will speak on Mr. Newton's behalf by saying first that if he was not a good person before, he has shed his poor judgement and has turned to religion for peace.



No, I'm quite sure he turned to religion so that he would continue to have influence over other people's lives.  He can't STAND it if he doesn't.  He absolutely REVELS in the adoration he got from the parents back then and now with his flock.  


Oh, and to get around that pesky little ruling that says he can't counsel kids unless he does it under a professionals supervision.
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Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #40 on: January 15, 2005, 09:33:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-01-15 17:49:00, jehudrive wrote:

 separate areas where people will stay as part of a mission.


That's one of the scariest things I've read in a long time.  I'll ask again, what is it about this guy that he just can't stand to live a regualar life?  Why does he have to always be in a position of influence over people?  Is he really so small of a man that he can't live without the adoration of a following????
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Offline mental torture made me li

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« Reply #41 on: January 15, 2005, 10:38:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-01-15 17:33:00, jehudrive wrote:

"...a ragged old van..."


sounds like a cool van!

as for the woman driving it, she sounds cool too, what a cool person, to be so passionate and dedicated, willing to walk up to complete strangers, in order to get the facts out about Newton and his extensive history of child abuse.

she sounds like an excellent person!
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Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #42 on: January 16, 2005, 09:42:00 AM »
Quote
On 2005-01-15 17:49:00, jehudrive wrote:

As a nearby neighbor, I don't want a bunch of people causing commotion

Well, get ready cause I'm sure if he's allowed to expand there WILL be protests!!!

Quote
Who cares if the dude makes money


The people to whom he owes $11,545,000.

http://thestraights.com/articles/newton-settles.htm
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Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #43 on: January 16, 2005, 10:08:00 AM »
Here's your neighbor...

http://www.fornits.com/anonanon/article ... 320-10.htm

Closure for a Quack Victim
Date: 2000-03-20

Closure for a Quack Victim

By Tim O'Brien

In 1993, V. Miller Newton titled his doctoral dissertation in clinical neuropsychology, "Guiding Youth Through the Perilous Ordeal." To hundreds of teen- agers who have been subjected to his bizarre methods at the rehabilitation treatment centers he ran in New Jersey and three other states, the title is rich irony.

Their ordeal was documented in a suit by one of those patients, Rebecca Ehrlich, who, like others in Newton's program, never got the treatment for the disorder that led to her enrollment.

At age 14, Ehrlich was placed in KIDS of Bergen County Inc. in Hackensack by her parents on Feb. 24, 1987. They sent her there not for drug or alcohol use, school problems, juvenile delinquency or running away, but for family and behavior problems.

Ehrlich, a freshman with a B average at Wayne Hills High School in Wayne who never tried drugs or alcohol, was an obstinate, rebellious teen-ager. Like most parents who came to Newton's program, Rebecca's family was desperate for a solution to their daughter's problems and for family peace.

Ehrlich was pulled out of school; cut off from family and friends; imprisoned in locked, guarded rooms; strip-searched; denied books, telephone calls and letters; denied the right to read anything or speak to anyone privately; and deprived of sleep.

For six years -- until she was graduated in June 1993 -- she was a virtual prisoner, moving about with an "old timer" constantly holding her by the back of her pants, a practice called belt-looping.

She was the victim of routine physical and emotional abuse. She couldn't shower or defecate in private. She was roughed up for so much as crossing her legs or making eye contact with another patient while being forced to sit ramrod in a plastic blue chair, locked in 12 hours of so-called group therapy sessions seven days a week. Even lunch and dinner was eaten in the blue chairs.

All this, for $9,500 a year.

On Dec. 23, 1999, after five years of teeth-pulling discovery and obfuscation by Newton, Rebecca Ehrlich -- now 27 -- got some compensation for the pain the six- year ordeal caused: a $4.5 million settlement of her suit in Hudson County Superior Court. The settlement, reached 11 days before a trial to be heard by Judge Maurice Gallipoli, ended the case of Ehrlich v. KIDS, HUD-L-4592-95.

The money is to be paid by malpractice insurers for Newton, his wife, his nonprofit corporations, and four defendant psychiatrists, Raymond Edelman of Teaneck, Zisalo Wancier of Closter, Harry Panjwani of Ridgewood and Alvin Galitzin, who died about 10 years ago.

Newton's insurance carrier will pay $2 million of the total. The psychiatrists' carriers will pay the total of their policies, which comes to $2.5 million. Ehrlich will receive $3.5 million up front and $1 million paid over time.

'Renting Signatures'

Meanwhile Newton, whose centers have now been closed down, has retreated to Madeira Beach, Fla.

Ehrlich's lawyer, Philip Elberg, had said in court papers that he would argue at trial that "Dr. Newton" was a cult leader, charlatan and insurance fraud artist.

Elberg, a partner with Medvin & Elberg in Newark, charges that Newton, who received his master's degree in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and sports a nine-page, single-spaced resume, lacked credentials or qualifications to be a "clinical director" or to provide treatment for compulsive behavior problems. KIDS had held itself out as a place for treatment of such problems, as well as for drug and alcohol abuse and eating disorders.

The psychiatrists named in the suit -- all medical directors at KIDS -- admitted in depositions that they allowed program graduate staffers or senior patients at the Hackensack rehabilitation facility to stamp their signatures on necessary regulatory forms, charts, letters and insurance claim forms. Elberg called the practice "renting signatures."

Ehrlich's 1987 intake diagnosis, for instance, was rubber-stamped with the signature of Panjwani -- five years after Ehrlich was admitted. Panjwani later swore he never saw her, or evaluated her, and "would not know her from a hole in the wall." He explained that his rubber-stamp was used for the "bookkeeping ... and record keeping ... required by accreditation."

At the end of discovery in Ehrlich's case, Newton admitted that no one with any professional license ever diagnosed, evaluated or treated Ehrlich. (Years later, a New York psychologist would diagnose her as having a bipolar disorder and associated mental problems.) Newton also said that all such evaluations or treatment were done by unlicensed and untrained "peer counselors," namely, participants who had gone through the program's five phases.

Newton was also forced, by a demand for admissions, to concede that he could find no published study, report or book that advocated his treatment protocol.

Instead, he pointed to his own unpublished studies. Two such studies were cited in footnotes in a book he wrote. But after three motions demanding production of those studies, Newton certified that he couldn't find them.

Defendant Wancier admitted that he signed treatment plans for Ehrlich eight months after the plan allegedly was put into effect. He, too, conceded never actually meeting with Ehrlich. "I may have seen her in the hallway."

Wancier acknowledged that Newton had him sign treatment plans so they could be submitted for insurance claims. He later left the program, partly because his paychecks bounced.

Fellow psychiatrist Edelman said in a deposition that he tried to get Newton to change his methods, but Newton would not take the advice of a doctor.

Newton has an unlisted number in Madeira Beach, and could not be reached. His attorney, John O'Farrell of Morristown's Francis & O'Farrell, said he does not discuss his cases with the press. The lawyers for three of the psychiatrists did not return telephone calls seeking comment. The lawyer for Galitzin, Justin Johnson of Fairfield's Lunga, Evers & Johnson, confirmed the settlement but declined to comment.

Warning Signs From Early 1980s

Though Newton, 61, is finally out of New Jersey, Ehrlich, Elberg and his co- counsel, Robert Jones, don't deserve all the credit.

State regulators, prosecutors, insurance carriers, other patients-cum- plaintiffs and investigative print and broadcast journalists have been after Newton -- a former Methodist minister and failed politician -- since he reinvented himself as a rehabilitation guru in Florida.

But he always seemed to survive, billing himself as Dr. Newton, the clinical director, even though his initial Ph.D., awarded in 1981, was in public administration and urban anthropology from The Union Institute in Cincinnati, which bills itself as an "alternative ... learner- directed" school with no campus or attendance requirements. Later resumes describe Newton's Ph.D. as being in "medical anthropology."

His clinical neuropsychology doctorate was awarded from the same school, in September 1993, 13 years after he became a clinical director at a similar Florida treatment program and nine years after he opened KIDS in New Jersey.

In early 1998, the state Department of Human Services threatened to cut off Medicaid reimbursement for Newton's program unless corrections were made. The program had depended on the money because most of its patients no longer were suburban youths covered by private insurance but urban teen-agers.

The state cited, among other things, the use of physical restraints and the use of senior patients with no qualifications to help run the program. In Ehrlich's case, records show, she was restrained more than 100 times, for such offenses as having a penny or a hair barrette in her possession.

By then, KIDS had been kicked out of its Hackensack location for nonpayment of more than $400,000 in back rent. But, relocated in Secaucus and redubbed KIDS of North Jersey Inc., Newton's center fought on, winning two stays from the Division of Mental Health Services in order to file two plans of correction.

On May 1, 1998, when the agency finally pulled the plug, Newton pushed for reconsideration, which led to hearings before Administrative Law Judge Daniel McKeown in the fall of 1998. After the hearing, when more former patients and parents testified about sleep deprivation, beatings, kidnappings of escaped patients, a total lack of privacy for so-called newcomers, and a total "blackout" from the outside world, McKeown recommended that Newton's final appeal be dismissed.

Simultaneously, Elberg and Jones were tightening the noose in Hudson County. They obtained a highly damaging deposition by a former staffer who said Newton doctored and withheld records. The attorneys also moved, successfully, to unseal part of the hearing before McKeown, which had been closed by the Office of Administrative Law.

By the fall of 1998, Newton was close to throwing in the towel and closing his remaining KIDS center. Regulators had shut him down in Texas, Utah and California, while some insurers and governmental agencies had stopped paying claims because the treatment had not been provided by doctors. His goal of opening up to 25 KIDS of America centers is now in ashes.

KIDS of North Jersey finally closed on Nov. 2, 1998, and Newton and his wife, Ruth Ann, the KIDS assistant director, returned to their home in Florida.

In June 1999, the state filed an action against KIDS for $1 million in Medicaid overbillings. Human Services officials expressed little hope of recovering anything, but the action is pending.

An 18-Year Run

But the remarkable aspect of this story is that it took so long to shut Newton down, given all the accusations swirling around him and his treatment protocol.

As far back as 1984, as Newton was starting up in New Jersey, CBS's 60 Minutes broadcast an expose on Straight Inc. in St. Petersburg, Fla., where Newton had started out, working his way up to national clinical director by 1982 and running Straight's clinic in Sarasota. Newton said he got involved after placing his 15- year-old son in the program for drug abuse.

That show highlighted a suit brought by 19-year-old college student Fred Collins who went to Straight to visit his brother and was coerced into the program himself. He was kept against his will in the intake room for more than 10 hours, without being allowed to talk to his parents, until he signed himself in. Collins told 60 Minutes of routine beatings by peer counselors, patients in the advanced phases, who exercise total control over newcomers.

Collins busted out by smashing a locked window. (Others in the four KIDS centers have told reporters and testified that they jumped from moving cars, jumped off roofs and ran naked from a host home in the dead of night. Straight and KIDS use such homes in which parents of longtime patients take in and lock up newcomers each night).

Collins said he tried to get out because he was an adult, and made the obligatory written request to leave. But his request went to a 15-year-old girl who told 60 Minutes she tossed it in the trash, which she was instructed to do.

In Rebecca Ehrlich's case, Elberg obtained two notes from his client in which she requested to speak to the county prosecutor and leave. But records show she did not use the right form or correct request procedure, so her requests were ignored. One note, handed over in discovery, is marked "wrong C of C" (chain of command). Elberg says the staffer who wrote that note testified he did not know what form should be used.

Newton instructed staffers to toss requests to leave or speak to someone, former patients and staffers have said in litigation and to reporters.

In 1989 and 1990, Bergen County Prosecutor Larry McClure investigated KIDS. He found no criminality, but recommended that the state Attorney General's Office probe the operation. In one raid conducted by his office, a dozen youths told county officials they wanted to leave the center and they were escorted out.

The 60 Minutes segment also showed Straight Inc. director Bill Oliver belittling the idea that Collins couldn't go anywhere he wanted. "We have no record of Fred Collins asking to leave this program at any time."

The jury awarded Collins $220,000 for his five months in what his attorney called a private jail.

The Florida Attorney General's Office investigated Straight in 1983. In 1989, Florida state prosecutor David Levin described the program for ABC-TV's 20/20 as "... a sort of private jail, utilizing techniques such as torture and punishment which even a convicted criminal would not be subject to."

Newton responded on 20/20, "I don't like the word imprison. Imprison implies punishment." Call it "an isolation ward if you like," he said, adding that he opposes violence. Distancing himself from Straight years later, he said that when "I became clinical director and suddenly found out that there was this thing going on, I never heard of it before, then I walked in and said, 'For god's sake, I am against any harm to any kid at any place, tell us what the problem is so we can fix it.'"

But other former patients sued, including one who was awarded $721,000 in 1990 and settled for $400,000. The plaintiff's lawyer, Karen Barnett of Tampa, told The Record of Hackensack, "Every case we had involved assault and at least two of them involved assault directed by Newton."

In the midst of the Florida investigation in late 1983, Straight's Sarasota program closed and Newton moved to Hackensack, where he started KIDS. Dozens of ex-patients have said, some in litigation, that he took Straight's model to more excess in New Jersey.

How excessive? In April 1992, Secaucus Municipal Judge Emil DelBaglivo convicted three male KIDS peer counselors, all 23, of simple assault for dragging 17- year-old Channery Soto into a room and pummeling him for a half-hour. DelBaglivo was quoted in The Record as calling KIDS a "highly questionable" place. He said something was "radically wrong" if the program's director would condone what the judge described as "almost unbelievable" conduct. "Someone should look into it," he said.

The article also quoted one of the defendants, peer counselor Michael O'Connor, as saying, "We knew it was wrong, but [Newton] told us to do it. I was under his command and that's why I left."

In another case reported on a 1989 broadcast of ABC-TV's West 57th St., a peer counselor was arrested for assault after jumping an 18-year-old man who had just left the program, and forcing him back with help from another patient. The victim, beaten bloody, was treated at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck.

Newton told the show he had no knowledge of the incident, but program graduate Christy Johnson countered that Newton told her to try to persuade the victim to drop the charges. In return, she said she told the victim that KIDS wouldn't come after him anymore.

And in 1996 Newton was sued by the federal government for billing the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program for treatment by physicians when the physicians signing the claim form provided no services. Newton, admitting no wrongdoing, agreed to return $45,000 for 245 claims.

There's much more. As far back as 1989, another administrative law judge, Edith Klinger, concluded after a hearing that KIDS was not in compliance with a host of state safety and health regulations. She pushed for having the place closed unless it applied for a certificate of need from the state Health Department.

Klinger conducted a hearin on a certificate of need application by KIDS rug abuse treatment center. For five years, KIDS was not licensed by any state agency, in part, according to state records, because it held itself out as a program that was following the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. In fact, KIDS had little resemblance to AA. Newton cut the steps down to eight and overlaid the operation with what Ehrlich's experts call cult-like mind control. All patients and parents, in or out, were designated as in good or bad standing; no contact was permitted with those in bad standing.

Klinger concluded that Newton lacked the statutorily required good moral character to get the program certified, urging further investigation.

By late last year, Elberg and Jones had more documented information about KIDS and Newton than anyone else had amassed. They had 28 depositions, including four by Newton. Most important, they had the original, unredacted treatment records, documenting every restraint and incident, as well as every ersatz psychiatric evaluation, diagnosis or treatment, which staffers testified was essentially the same for everyone at KIDS.

Elberg says three key turning points led to the settlement.

First, Judge Gallipoli ruled last March that Elberg could argue for punitive damages if he got to a jury and allowed the attorney to take discovery on the personal assets of all the defendants. "That forced the psychiatrists to think twice about losing their house," Elberg says.

Second, a deposition of staffer Jeffrey Stallings in January 1999 disclosed that Newton hadn't turned over many of the original records subpoenaed earlier. Stallings -- who, like others, left when he didn't get paid for three months -- testified that Newton altered records in anticipation of an inspection of the program by regulators. He also said Newton withheld some records.

"Getting the unredacted original records was key because then it didn't matter what Miller Newton said, and I didn't really need witnesses," said Elberg.

Third, in finally obtaining all the records, Elberg says he could develop an overall strategy of "showing the perverseness of Rebecca's treatment, especially all her many setbacks to Phase 1 for unbelievable reasons, including eating cookies." KIDS claimed that Ehrlich, who spent about 3 1/2 years in Phase 1 and was overweight, had an eating disorder.

In the end, the case boiled down to garden-variety counts -- consumer fraud, civil rights violations, breach of contract, assault and medical malpractice.

The damages, according to the plaintiff's papers, are the harm done to Rebecca, who really needed mental health care for her bipolar disorder. Instead, her condition worsened.

Ehrlich, like dozens of other ex- KIDS clients, was later treated for post- traumatic stress disorder, and it was her private psychiatrist who suggested she find a lawyer and seek closure.

Says Elberg: "She said what so many have said, that while parents took kids off the street for safety, the kids were never in a more dangerous place than when they were in that place."

Newton, meanwhile, is back in Madeira Beach, where he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1972 and 1976, and unsuccessfully for mayor in 1988, while he was heading KIDS in Hackensack.

As long ago as the mid-1980s, Newton was spouting about the wholesome nature of his program. He told 20/20 at that time: "Our program is construed as a teen- age peer culture that is anti-drug, pro- responsible behavior, pro-achievement, pro- family, pro-good appearance, and pro-good moral values."

But when his Medicaid funding was finally pulled by the state, one key reason was the conclusion by state Human Services officials that KIDS was, in fact, a program that failed to bring families back together.

Like many others, Rebecca Ehrlich today has reconciled with her parents, and continues to be treated for her bipolar disorder.

Web Published Monday, January 24, 2000 Published in New Jersey Law Journal on: Monday, January 24, 2000
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

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Miller Newton's "Church"
« Reply #44 on: January 16, 2005, 01:51:00 PM »
Ummm, this post is so typical. First off lets address the fact that you are a minor. The only reason I point that out is because it is very typical of Miller to use children to speak for him, to defend him. I wonder if thats because he is afraid of his victims.
You know , as the "woman in the van". Let me just say this. What exactly is it that you are afraid of? I refuse to use this venue or any other to attack the credibility of a "child" but my guess is you know very little about having kids, you know even less about why we were there. We were NOT there because of drug problems, see you need a licensed , clinical psychiatrist to diagnosis that . THERE WERE NONE and most of us had either not done drugs at all or if we had had only done "pot" several times. I really dont you are qualified to talk about what is and is not a drug addict.
Please, do us all a favor and do not speak on things you know nothing about. And please, dont let Miller use you to speak for him. Miller should be man enough to talk to me to my face not use a seventeen year old to send me a message.
Miller Newtons abuse of me and the abuse he allowed to this day , cost me fifty thousand dollars every five years in medical bills for the last twenty five years. Yes, it was years ago the problem is it does not end for us. I am still paying for it. Until you have faced those kinds of bills, with those kinds of medical problems as a result direct or indirect of someone elses choices please refrain from acting as if you know what we have been through. You dont. God, willing you never will...
Oh yeah, did you also know that one of the things Miller taught was to humiliate each other, name call until you tore each other to shreds and verbal attacks. Luckily Ive been immunized to such juvenile attacks.

The "obese" woman in the van.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »