Kingston youth tells of bullying Treatment center: The boy had run away; the judge seeks foster care
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
A teenage son of polygamist John Daniel Kingston told a juvenile judge Friday he ran from a mental health facility a week ago after another boy physically threatened him and staff did nothing to intervene.
After hearing the teen's story, 3rd District Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Valdez agreed to let him stay at a children's shelter while the state tries to find him a foster home. Valdez also ordered state workers to investigate the boy's claims about Valley Mental Health's Adolescent Residential Treatment and Education Center (ARTEC).
And the judge, who praised the teen for turning himself in Thursday, instructed caseworkers to restart supervised visits between the 15-year-old and his mother, Heidi Mattingly Foster.
The boy appeared at the hearing in shackles, chains and handcuffs.
"It was sad to see him [like that]," said Mattingly Foster, who had not seen him since Feb. 8 when the judge cut off visits after hearing of an alleged kidnapping plot.
She said Valdez allowed the boy and his parents to exchange hugs during the 30-minute hearing held at the Salt Lake Valley Detention Center.
Carol Sisco, spokeswoman for the Division of Child and Family Services, said the judge told the family "the ultimate goal is reunification" once the teen proves he can succeed in an institutional setting.
The family became embroiled in the protracted child welfare case more than a year ago following a dispute between the couple and their two oldest daughters over ear piercing, which is discouraged by their religious faith. The two girls were taken into state custody.
Subsequently, the state leveled neglect and physical-abuse allegations against the couple.
The boy and seven siblings were removed from Mattingly Foster's home on Oct. 19, after a caseworker said the parents were being uncooperative in the ongoing investigation; only one child, an 8-month-old girl, remains with the 33-year-old mother.
The boy, deemed a flight risk, was placed at ARTEC South in Midvale, a secure facility designed for adolescents with serious emotional, behavioral and substance-abuse problems.
Typically, youth spend 45 to 60 days at the facility while being evaluated and then are moved to appropriate treatment programs, where they may stay for as long as six months.
The question that remains unanswered is why this boy spent more than five months at ARTEC.
Until taken from his mother's home, he had never been in any trouble and was by all accounts a "model son" who excelled at his private school, worked as a computer technician in family businesses, played guitar in an alternative rock band and planned to go to Salt Lake Community College this fall. The teen, who is slightly builtand looks several years younger than his age, wants to get a two-year associate's degree in construction management and then pursue engineering, his father said.
"He was ahead of the game," said Collin Mattingly, an uncle who joined his relatives at the detention center Friday.
State attorneys said the boy acted out when first taken to ARTEC but Kingston said several caseworkers praised the boy's behavior while in state custody.
"Reports we had were Kevin was progressing faster through the program than any one they'd had," said Kingston, who hasn't seen his children since November after a caseworker said he had behaved inappropriately with them during visits.
The state tried to move the teen to three different foster homes, but for various reasons none worked out.
He stayed at ARTEC South, a secure facility, until March 3 when he was moved to ARTEC West in Kearns, which is less restrictive.
That's where the boy says a teen with a history of sexual offenses threatened him. He says he told staff he felt uncomfortable and intimidated but nothing was done.
He walked away from the facility last Saturday after the boy threatened to beat him up and staff again refused to do anything.
No one seems to know where the teen spent the next few days. Mattingly Foster was told Tuesday her son had run away, while Kingston learned of his disappearance on Wednesday.
The boy showed up at Advanced Copy, a printing business owned by the Kingston clan, on Thursday morning and spent about five minutes duplicating letters he had written to his parents, Valdez and the media seeking help.
He later showed up at Mattingly Foster's home and asked to be taken back to ARTEC, where they met with a caseworker.
"It made me sick" said Mattingly Foster of returning her boy to ARTEC. "He's my son and he hasn't done anything wrong. He just wants to be safe."
There, police arrested the teen and took him to the detention center.
In the letters, the boy says that during his months at ARTEC another teen brought drugs into the facility and threatened to "shank me" if he said anything.
"Since I was at ARTEC I have learned this means he was going to stab me," the teen writes. "In order to not be killed I decided it would be better if I would just do what [the boy] told me to do."
He also says staff attempted to coerce him into saying his parents had abused him and when he refused, he lost privileges
