Paradise Cove success story

[Anonymous]

Posted on Tue, Jun. 07, 2005
 
 
 


Plot to kill parents is detailed

BY SCOTT HIAASEN

[email protected]


*

Four years ago, Christopher Sutton asked a coworker how to go about hiring a hit man to kill his parents.

Last summer, he talked about it again -- just weeks before a gunman killed Sutton's mother and left his father blind.

Court records released Monday suggest that Sutton planned his parents' shooting in an effort to collect their estate and satisfy a long-simmering resentment toward them after they shipped him to a controversial youth-treatment center in American Samoa.

Sutton, 26, was arrested in April on charges that he conspired with a friend, Garrett Kopp, to kill his parents. Investigators believe Kopp, 21, was the triggerman who killed 57-year-old Susan Sutton and wounded John Sutton in the couple's Coral Gables home on Aug. 22.

Sutton's girlfriend, Juliette Driscoll, told police that Sutton talked openly about his desire to have his parents killed. He assured Driscoll they would have plenty of money once his parents were dead, Driscoll told police.

Just weeks before the shooting, Sutton's father, a civil attorney, had settled a lawsuit for more than $1 million, Driscoll said.

''He said that things will be better when they're dead,'' Driscoll said. ``I knew that he was planning to kill his parents, I just didn't know when.''

Sutton made similar comments about his parents in 2000, while working at a plumbing company, said former coworker Jose Peon Jr.

''I didn't sense any joking around whatsoever,'' Peon said. ``He was dead serious.''

Driscoll said she met Sutton in 1999, just months after he returned from a traumatic 2 ½-year stint at Paradise Cove, a rigorous facility for troubled kids in Samoa that closed amid complaints of mistreatment by former residents, according to news reports.

''He would tell me about being beaten there, being hogtied,'' Driscoll said. ``He told me when he was hogtied the Samoans would feed him with their feet.''

Sutton and Driscoll visited Sutton's parents on the night of the shooting before going to a movie. Driscoll said Sutton spoke on his cellphone with Kopp that night.

Prosecutors say Kopp confessed to his role in the shooting, though the details of the confession were not released. But after his arrest, Kopp told police he did not recall talking to Sutton after the shooting.

Sutton's attorney could not be reached for comment Monday.

[Anonymous]

OK.....Christopher was not living at home PRIOR to his going to Samoa because of threats and physical abuse on his part towards his parents.  His parents had to get a restraining order against him because he was so violent BEFORE going to Samoa.  He was placed in private school, other short-term programs, afforded the best therapists and was non-responsive.  

Christopher only alleged wrong-doing to those who were NOT in Samoa when he was.  He advocated the program to others when in the company of others who were in Samoa with him.

He is and was obviously very "sick" and, if anything, the 29 months he spent in Samoa kept his parents safer for a little longer.

BTW, the article states the program was in American Samoa...WRONG again!!!!

This should not be about bashing a program.  This is about the death of a mother, permanent injury to a father not to mention the other family members involved.

[Anonymous]

On 2005-06-07 19:45:00, Anonymous wrote:

"OK.....Christopher was not living at home PRIOR to his going to Samoa because of threats and physical abuse on his part towards his parents.  His parents had to get a restraining order against him because he was so violent BEFORE going to Samoa.  He was placed in private school, other short-term programs, afforded the best therapists and was non-responsive.  

How exactly do you come by this information?  Are you a relative of his?

[Anonymous]

Everybody knows Paradise Cove was an abusive program.  48 Hours and Dateline each did a segment on Paradise Cove.

Not saying it's an excuse, but if Chris Sutton says he was abused in Samoa, he would not be the first or the last kid to say that because it's the truth, kids were mistreated there.

As for reports that he promoted the program, that is par for the course.  All the kids from those hellcamps support the program in order to get out or keep themselves from being sent back.

Corey Murphy was in Samoa.  So was Christophe Landre.  They are both dead.  Victims of suicide.

 :flame:

[Anonymous]

If any good can come out of this sad story at all it might be that the prosecution (you know, the zero-tolerance law and order folks) will be emphasising how bad the abuse was in Paradise Cove because it gives him a motive.

[Anonymous]

First, the defense will NOT be about Samoa.  Second, Christopher Sutton had no fear of being sent back to Samow.  He came home at age 19.  He moved out shortly thereafter and was on his own EXCEPT his parents gave him $$$$$ to help him.

He had no fear of going back at all.  He was not abused while there.  I was there with him and very close to him when he came home and for all the following years as well as with his family.

This is not about Samoa. This is not about any programs.  It is about a child who wanted his parents dead before ever being sent away and acted upon it when he returned.

[BuzzKill]

//This is not about any programs. It is about a child who wanted his parents dead before ever being sent away and acted upon it when he returned.//

This may be true. I wouldn't know. But it is apparent Paradise Cove didn't help any. Chris isn't one of their 99% satisfaction rate. Or 98, or 89 - what ever number their throwing around these days.

And another thing is true - Paradise cove was one of the more notoriously abusive and neglectful programs operated by wwasp. I have no doubt at all the boy was hog tied. No doubt in my mind he was beaten at times - and as bizarre as it is - I don't doubt they feed him with their feet, as this would be inline with the program goal of debasement and humiliation on the lower levels.

I would say the parents of this young man were done very wrong by this Program when they told them they could help such a seriously disturbed child - if what you say is true. He needed competent professional counseling to help him come to terms with his anger and aggressive tendencies. What he got, was a brutal neglectful situation, run by people with no specialized education what so ever; most with no more than high school, if you consider the locals who are the ones who deal most directly with the "students". This is exactly the kind of situation most likely to Increase and amplify his anger and aggression. And now his mom is dead and his dad blind and he is facing a forever ruined life. In My Opinion - the Program is at fault.
Yes, he might have been talking about killing before. But it was then just talk and with out his Samoan experience I 'd bet thats all it would have been - talk.
Many mentally ill kids threaten to kill their parents - and some do. But most don't. If words could kill, me and many of my friends would be dead long ago, b/c we all had kids threaten to kill us in our sleep. None of them did it. I honestly do believe had we sent them off to Samoa, some of us would be dead by now.
The Program experience is a factor - like it or not.
But let me be clear - I am not blaming the parents for sending him. I know they were lied to and lead to believe it was a wonderful program in a beautiful place and that if they trusted the Program they could save their family.
I blame the Program for so manipulating and taking advantage of parents in such distress.
[ This Message was edited by: BuzzKill on 2005-06-08 09:16 ]

[Anonymous]

Paradise cove...
For you people who defend this place and others, you are brainwashed.  They tell you (parents of kids there) the program will save you and that if you take them out they will use drugs and eventually ruin their lives.  You are a tool, a brainwashed tool but I dont blame you.  They are very powerful and you were desperate.  Once you berlieve this bullshit for a while its like you can never go back.  That would be admitting yuo were wrong th e whole time.

Mabye chris was fucked up before he got there, but I gurantee you sending him there multiplied it times 100.

I was never beaten there, never hogtied but I lived in respect family which was next to the isolation fale
"isolation fale"  I heard screams all night and I can definately  say it has screwed my mind up.  just like post traumatic strees syndrome that people returning from war experience.  Its no different.

What I want to know is when are we all going to join together (us survivors of that place) and sue?

[Anonymous]

hey buzzkill, you were never at this place were you.
think about it the kid is hogtied on his stomach and the
guard is sitting there.  when it comes time to eat.  How would he.

Chris Sutton was notorious there for standing up for himself and not taking shit from anyone.  The staff there hated him because they knew at any moment he would attack them

[Anonymous]

He had no fear of going back at all.  He was not abused while there.  I was there with him and very close to him when he came home and for all the following years as well as with his family.



who are you?  any one that actually knew chriss has heard his stories.  have you seen the pictures of him when he was there?  i've talked to way too many of the kids he was there with and the stories keep coming back the same. kids from miami and other places too.  i'm trying to figure out who you are 'cause i was closer than most...

[Anonymous]

I am from Miami, and still live hereI was not a friend of his, but I knew him at paradise cove

[BuzzKill]

//think about it the kid is hogtied on his stomach and the
guard is sitting there. when it comes time to eat. How would he. //

Well I did say it sounded bizarre - and it does - but I suppose they could shove the food under his face with their feet.

I can imagine him hungry enough to eat what ever it was, how ever it was offered. And, I imagine being treated in such a degrading mannor, would have the effect of increasing his anger.

But your right - I wasn't there. I don't know for a fact any such thing happened.

How ever, I have talked to enough people who have been there, and in other wwasp programs, to find the account believable.

[Anonymous]

I have heard similar eating stories from kids who stayed about casa By the Sea.

Thank goodness these torture camps are closed.  

 NEXT!

[Anonymous]

Again, I will affirmatively state that I WAS IN SAMOA WITH CHRISTOPHER and I was EXTREMELY close to him and his family in Miami.  He was NEVER violent or oppositional while in Samoa.  Actually, he was very compliant.  He was actually liked by the staff.  His parents visited him there and spent a week at the hotel with him.  He NEVER claimed to be abused in any way.  He NEVER claimed to have ever been abused when he came home.  PRIOR to Samoa, his parents did send him for therapists to numerous therapists, to many different programs, to public and private schools.  He was not doing well with any of it.

His plan to kill his parents BEFORE he went to Samoa was NOT "JUST WORDS".  He attempted to act upon it, but was unsuccessful.  Had he not gone to Samoa, his mother would have probably been killed earlier.

[Anonymous]

Have any idea why he was so set on killing his parents?