Mount Carmel did almost fly under the radar but...

[Oscar]

...then a local newspaper went into work. They found:

April 4, 2001: A 15-year-old ranch resident is seriously injured while using farm equipment without adult supervision. He files a personal injury lawsuit in 2005 alleging negligence by ranch managers. He is paid $1.2 million as part of a settlement that also mandates equipment warnings at Mount Carmel.

Sept. 11, 2002: Department of Family Service and Park County Sheriff's Office personnel investigate an incident in which a boy said he was thrown against a wall by a staff member. The staff member said he was lifting the boy out of a chair when the boy threw himself against the wall in an attempt to exaggerate the incident. Police reports note that the boy was moved to a separate facility, but list no arrests in connection with the incident.

March 5, 2003: Police investigate the theft of a $2,000 saddle kept at the ranch. A police report states that a former ranch resident with "an extensive criminal history for his age" confessed to stealing the saddle.

Nov. 15, 2004: A 15-year-old boy runs away from the ranch after another boy used a rope to choke him unconscious following a dispute. Police reports note that ranch staff "did not think that anything other than boys' rough-housing had been going on."

Jan. 7, 2005: Sergei Yates, an adult former ranch resident still living in Park County drives to Mount Carmel and picks up another former ranch resident who returned for a visit and takes him to buy marijuana. Upon returning to the ranch, the visiting boy shared the marijuana with resident boys. Yates is later convicted of possession of marijuana.

May 9, 2005: Police reports indicate a 16-year-old resident of the ranch "is confessing to a murder in Florida two years ago." Further details of the confession are not available.

Sept. 18, 2005: After nine days on the job, a sleeping counselor who was the only adult on an overnight camping trip with eight boys, is brutally beaten with shovels by three of the boys, sustaining a serious and lasting brain injury. Seven of the boys steal a vehicle and flee. One boy runs for help.

Aug. 27, 2006: Ranch staff call police to report a runaway, only to later discover the boy was sleeping in the television room and had been overlooked by staff.

Sept. 25, 2006: James M. Schneller, a 28-year-old counselor employed by and living at the ranch, is arrested. He later pleaded guilty to one felony charge of prescription forgery to obtain narcotics. Police reports quote him as saying he had a prior arrest for a drug-related offense.

Oct. 9, 2006: Four boys from the ranch take a trip to a nearby store, with one of the boys driving, because the ranch employee escorting them had no driver's license. Later that night, they steal a ranch van, money and gas and drive to Oregon. They call the ranch, and are told to spend the night in a motel and wait until staff members arrive to take them back to the ranch.

Oct. 12, 2006: Ranch owner Gerald Schneider calls police to report that a male named "Jimmy," who had been arrested recently on another charge, had provided alcohol to some of the boys at the ranch.

Nov. 11, 2006: A boy from Mount Carmel jumps out of the emergency exit of the ranch's bus in downtown Cody. He is missing for six hours until located by police.

Dec. 12, 2006: Matthew Ivey, a 19-year-old former ranch resident living in Powell, is issued a larceny citation by Park County Sheriff's Deputies for stealing gas from a storage tank at the ranch. When asked why he didn't lock the tanks, the police report states the director "figured he would just lose track of the keys." Ivey later pleaded guilty to charges in the case.

Jan. 18, 2007: Matthew Ivey is arrested and charged with four counts of check forgery. He later pleads guilty to one felony forgery charge.

March 8, 2007: A 17-year-old ranch resident disables an alarm and breaks into a locked box and steals 50 oxycodone tablets, ingesting several before running away. The boy had recently cut off the tip of his little finger while chopping firewood.

March 11, 2007: Sixteen days after a boy accidentally chops off his fingertip while cutting firewood, a boy fractures his ankle while using a sledge hammer and wedge to split firewood

March 30, 2007: Matthew Ivey is arrested in connection with a string of vandalism incidents around Powell involving using a BB gun to break windows in buildings and vehicles. He later pleaded guilty to a felony charge of destruction of property, and received a suspended prison term and five years of supervised probation and was ordered to pay $5,626 in restitution.

Nothing much, but as always an improvement of our wiki datasheet. The Basin Beat Blues blog is also a source when we have time to expand the datasheet.

[Che Gookin]

yeaaaaah.... sounds like a rather interesting place. I'm guessing that's the tip of the iceberg. Give it a few years and when the kids all catch blogarrehea it should get interesting.