Deseret Morning News, Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Juab accuses school owner of child abuse
By Amy Joi Bryson
Deseret Morning News
Already expelled from Mexico and accused of animal cruelty in Canada, the operator of a private youth boarding school in Nephi now faces criminal charges related to alleged abuse and neglect of students in the program.
Child welfare investigators said they substantiated eight instances of physical abuse, educational neglect, medical neglect and environmental neglect last fall against the Whitmore Academy in Nephi, which typically has about 30 students.
Last week, Juab County Attorney Jared Eldridge has filed seven misdemeanor counts of child abuse and hazing against co-owner Cheryl Sudweeks, 50.
The alleged incidents happened from April 2003 through November 2004 and involve four victims.
Eldridge, while declining to go into much detail, said his evidence suggests Sudweeks either directly caused harm to the victims or allowed others to commit the abuse. His office is continuing to conduct additional investigations that may result in more charges against her.
At this time, Eldridge said, co-owner Mark Sudweeks has not been charged.
"Cheryl Sudweeks was the primary actor. Mr. Sudweeks has been in the background, coming in afterward, on the fringes and on the peripheral," Eldridge said. "We are still looking at some other things."
Parents critical of Whitmore say some of the charges stem from an incident in November when a male teenager ran away after an assault reportedly involving Cheryl Sudweeks. In an earlier incident, several other students allegedly assaulted the boy at her urging.
Sudweeks faces a June 23 arraignment in 4th District Court, where Eldridge says he plans to ask the judge to issue an order prohibiting her from having any contact with minor children.
Matt Hilton, the Sudweekses' attorney, has said he doesn't dispute that the state Division of Child and Family Services had enough information to conduct an investigation, but he added that the majority of the parents continue to support the program.
Hilton could not be reached Monday to comment specifically on the recent charges. Phone calls to the Whitmore Academy went unanswered.
Earlier this year, Whitmore was cited for several fire-code violations by the state Fire Marshal's Office, including lack of a second exit. The Sudweekses had until mid-May to come into compliance with the fire codes, and authorities said they have made those corrections.
The latest trouble stems from a months-long investigation by the Nephi Police Department and the Juab County Attorney's Office that was a fallout from the DCFS probe.
Because of licensing violations discovered around the same time, the state Office of Licensing sent a notice of revocation to the Sudweekses for the operation of their residential treatment center.
The revocation was the last in a flurry of licensing problems dating back to 2001, including state concerns that the Sudsweekses operated a youth center under the guise of a bed and breakfast.
So why, with that background, are they still running youth programs?
"It is a valid question," said Ken Stettler, the director of state licensing who came on in May 2002 and believes licenses granted earlier were inappropriate.
The Sudweekses, however, continue to operate what they say is a boarding school offering academics only ? an assertion licensing officials reject.
"We have reason to believe they are holding themselves out as a therapeutic boarding school," which would bring them under state purview, Stettler said.
The difference of opinion has resulted in a standoff between the operators and the state ? a standoff Stettler believes could result in a court injunction to prevent the continued operation of what's commonly called the Whitmore Mansion.
"We will have to see what they stipulate to and what they agree to. We may have to end up taking them to court," Stettler said. "Frankly, I think we have enough evidence already."
Last month, the Sudweekses applied for and received a conditional use permit to expand their operations to unincorporated Juab County. Plans for the property, about four miles south of Nephi, include a facility for equine therapy, said a county zoning administrator.
The Sudweekses landed in trouble in 2002 after Canadian authorities discovered a herd of starving horses on their property in British Columbia, where they had operated a youth program.
Although the Sudweekses asserted the animals' welfare was left to a caretaker, a judge eventually found Mark Sudweeks guilty of two charges under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, imposing a lifetime prohibition of owning or caring for animals. He was fined $4,000 and ordered to pay more than $100,000 in restitution to the animal cruelty organization tasked with caring for the horses.
In 2001, the pair was ordered to pack up their program in Mexico ? along with 14 teen clients ? because of what authorities said was the illegal operation of the business, a violation of their tourist visas.
The order came from the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana involving a program in Santa Rosalia on the Baja California Peninsula.
Eldridge said he is unaware of how the criminal charges and pending investigation will play out with the Sudweekses' plans for the property south of Nephi, but he does believe it would be good for the operation to come under some oversight.
"Of course it concerns me," he said. "I have concerns about their program and the way they operate their program. . . . They have a pattern of just disregarding procedures."
While the state is in the process of drafting rules governing oversight of therapeutic schools, the Sudweekses' contention their operation is merely a boarding school ? if correct ? would leave them outside regulatory control, despite any criminal charges against an operator.
"There ought to be some oversight on any type of boarding school, regardless of any type of kid in there," Stettler said, "but that is not how the law reads."
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