From the Tico Times:
http://www.ticotimes.net/daily.htm#story_oneNEWS FLASH!!
(Posted Friday at 7 p.m.)
Prosecutor Fernando Vargas told The Tico Times Friday evening that he had formally requested that incarcerated Dundee Ranch Academy owner Narvin Lichfield be given a six-month preventive prison sentence while investigators continue to gather information and testimony from students.
In the event the judge decides to release Lichfield, Vargas has requested bail at $256,000 and a court order impede Lichfield and his Costa Rican wife Flory Alvarado from leaving the country.
Lichfield, meanwhile, abstained from giving a declaration to the judge this afternoon. The judge is expected to rule on the case tonight around 10 p.m.
The Dundee owner was arrested at 9 p.m. Thursday on charges of detaining children against their will, coercion and attempting to obstruct justice by using his international connections to send kids to the WorldWide Association of Specialty Program?s (WWASP) behavior-modification facility in Jamaica.
The Prosecutor?s Office today received its first formal complaint from a former student, alleging he was subject to physical and emotional abuse at the academy.
WWASP president Ken Kay told The Tico Times Friday afternoon that he did not know of any Dundee students being sent to Jamaica, but said he would look into it.
The Prosecutor?s Office last night confiscated documentation and computers from Dundee Ranch?s administrative offices in the Pacific-slope town of Orotina. Investigators today are continuing to interview the remaining students and gather evidence against Lichfield, Vargas explained.
Vargas said that during Thursday?s intervention several mini-buses full of students attempted to leave the facility, claiming they were "going home." Vargas, however, said he began to suspect that Lichfield was attempting to interfere in the investigation when he realized that none of the children being bused off had plane tickets, luggage or their passports, which were found locked in the Dundee office.
The Child Welfare Office (PANI) has intervened in the matter and is present at the academy, but Dundee staff is still in control of the facility, the Prosecutor said.
Kay sent a communiqué to Dundee parents on Friday, saying: "At this point, with the Director no longer at the facility, we feel the students need to move from Dundee."
Kay told The Tico Times Friday afternoon, however, that Dundee was still open and in "good standing" with WWASP. He said he is going to talk with Lichfield as soon as he can to "sort out the facts and assess the plausibility of continuing business in Costa Rica."
