By KEVIN WACK, Staff Writer Maine Sunday Telegram Sunday, May 6, 2007
Robert B. Lichfield, the donor linked to a $250,000 contribution to the Maine governor's race, is facing allegations that teenagers were mistreated at youth treatment centers associated with him.
Lichfield is currently a trustee in the World Wide Association of Specialty Schools and Programs, a Utah-based organization affiliated with numerous residential treatment centers in the United States and abroad.
The facilities market themselves to the parents of defiant teens, advertising what is often described as a "tough-love" approach aimed at modifying adolescents' behavior.
But the facilities are also a magnet for critics who believe the centers' tactics go too far.
A lawsuit alleging abuse filed last December in U.S. District Court in Utah names as defendants Lichfield, the association, and two other businesses connected to Lichfield.
The plaintiffs allege in court papers that former residents of youth facilities in Utah, Montana, South Carolina, New York, Jamaica, Mexico, Costa Rica and American Samoa were subjected to multiple forms of physical and mental abuse.
The defendants have argued through their lawyers that the case should be dismissed, according to court records.
Lichfield did not respond to calls seeking comment. In a 2003 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he defended himself against allegations of wrongdoing regarding the treatment centers.
"We're here getting kids off drugs and other evils," he said. "Do I believe, being a God-believing person, that the adversary to all good is going to sit back and let that happen without a major unleashing of dark forces? No, I don't."
