Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS)

Teen Mentor (Costa Rica) shut down by authorities

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BuzzKill:

--- Quote from: "Sam Kinison" ---Although Lichfield(Dundee Ranch)was acquitted,the prosecutors really tried to nail his ass to the wall and he had to wait in jail until his acquittal.I don't think he'll be returning anytime soon.

--- End quote ---

No - not so. Not at all. What makes you think that?

Several pertinent paragraphs in article below:
11/28/2003
Dundee Case Still Worries U.S. Parents
By Tim Rogers
Tico Times Staff
SIX months after the closure of Dundee Ranch Academy, tough-love program owner Narvin Lichfield of Utah once again is a free man.

The restrictions on his freedom, imposed by a Costa Rican judge May 23 following Lichfield’s brief arrest on allegations of children’s rights abuse, expired last Sunday and prosecutor Marielos Alfaro said she doesn’t see a need to request a six-month extension of his prohibition on leaving the country.

Lichfield, who is currently enrolled in Spanish classes as he plans to reopen his academy under a different name and a gentler, therapeutic model, insists he is not going to leave the country to avoid the on-going investigation.

"I am still confused what I was arrested for in the first place," Lichfield said with a laugh, adding that the truth soon will absolve him of abuse charges.

"The truth is the most important thing. Was it true that kids were abused? I admit, there were a lot of things that happened [at Dundee] that I didn’t know about, but I don’t think there really was [abuse]," Lichfield told The Tico Times this week.

MEANWHILE, a growing number of parents of former academy students in the United States are expressing concern that the investigation here into what happened at Dundee has been shelved, and that charges will not be pressed against Lichfield.

Distanced by a couple thousand miles, an unfamiliar judicial system and a language barrier, some of the U.S. parents say they are feeling powerless.

For several months, a group of 12 former Dundee students has been prepared to return to Costa Rica to testify to allegations of physical and emotional mistreatment suffered at the hands of former Dundee staff.

But no court date has been set by the prosecutor or the judge, and the parents are hesitant to fly their children down unannounced.

"I am concerned that when parents have tried to call the prosecutor’s office, they are told ‘No English!’ and hung up on," said Karen Burnett, mother of a former Dundee student.

Prosecutor Alfaro admits that no one in her office speaks English, but said that former students can come down to Costa Rica anytime to give their testimony. They will be received with "no problem," she said.

LOCATED on the remote grounds of a former eco-hotel about 15 kilometers from the Pacific-slope community of Orotina, Dundee Ranch Academy was an affiliate of the Utah-based WorldWide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP). The non-therapeutic behavior-modification facility, home to 200 troubled teenagers mostly from the United States, was operated under the philosophy of "identify your incorrect behavior, and stop doing it," according to Lichfield.

But some of the methods Dundee staff members used to help wayward teens identify their "incorrect behavior" -- including solitary confinement, physical restraint and allegations of drug-induced sedation -- were blasted by critics as abusive (TT, Oct. 25, 2002; Jan. 17, March 14).

Last May, the mother of one Dundee student filed a complaint with the Atenas Prosecutor’s Office, where Prosecutor Fernando Vargas was substituting for the regular prosecutor who was on vacation. Vargas immediately asked Judge Gabriela Saborío to authorize a government intervention of Dundee.

The interventions, which occurred on May 20 and 22, spiraled out of control when Vargas tried to explain to the children their rights under Costa Rican law. Several dozen youth escaped from the campus, while others rioted and vandalized the facility.

Lichfield was detained for 24 hours before being released on conditional freedoms. He closed the academy May 24 and the students were whisked back to their parents in the United States or to other WWASP programs in the United States and Jamaica (TT, May 23, May 30).

THE Ombudsman’s Office blasted the Child Welfare Agency’s handling of the situation as "permissive and tolerant" of alleged abuse, and recommended that child welfare authorities develop new protocol for situations where children are at high risk (TT, Sept. 12).

Prosecutor Fernando Vargas, who was removed from Dundee case a week after the May raids when prosecutor Marielos Alfaro returned from vacation, also is raising a critical voice against Costa Rica’s handling of the case.

In July, he filed a complaint with the Internal Judicial Inspector’s Office against Judge Saborío, who he claims interfered with his ability to gather necessary evidence during the interventions, and acted inappropriately in a situation where children were asking for help.

Saborío denies any wrongdoing, but said she could not comment further because she is the subject of an ongoing internal investigation.

VARGAS also is critical of the current prosecutor’s handling of the case, which he claims is "passive" and not being conducted with the importance that it deserves. He claims he did more to advance the investigation in the week following the raid, than anything that has been done in the last six months.

Alfaro told The Tico Times that the investigation is still open, and denied it is not being given its due importance. She said her office is still waiting for confiscated documents to be translated into Spanish, as well as other proof from the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ).

Alfaro explained that she is the only prosecutor in Atenas and is handling about 500 ongoing cases, many older than the Dundee case. She stressed that all cases are given equal importance, and that the Dundee matter will be resolved in due time.

Vargas argues the case would be moved along faster if there was more public and media pressure. He blames the relatively mild public reaction to the Dundee situation on a general perception that the issue is a "gringo problem."

If the students had been Costa Ricans, the public’s reaction and the prosecution’s handling of case would be much different, Vargas charged.

"There is a perception that these problems were brought here; that they are not ours," Vargas said. "And there is resentment: why do we have to deal with it when the U.S. knew about [WWASP] for years?"

WWASP, which currently has 10-affiliated programs in the United States and abroad, has operated in the U.S. for more than a decade. Dundee was the fourth WWASP program to close after being investigated for rights violations.

Earlier this month, U.S. congressman George Miller wrote to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and requested a federal probe of WWASP (TT, Nov. 7). Miller’s office has not yet received a reply, according to a congressional aid.

ALFARO vigorously denied the nationality of the alleged victims has anything to do with the prosecution’s handling of the case.

"Whether they are gringos, Nicas or whoever, the law applies to all cases and each is given equal importance," she said.

Vargas claims the Dundee case is one of the most important in the country, and that Costa Rica, with its moral authority and progressive laws to protect children’s rights, is the perfect venue to put WWASP on trial.

"If Dundee falls in Costa Rica, then WWASP falls in the rest of the world, but if Dundee doesn’t fall, WWASP will only get stronger," Vargas said.

LICHFIELD, meanwhile, said that in the last six months he has injected $600,000 into his new academy, which he hopes to open by Jan. 1 on the same Orotina campus. He said the new academy will not be affiliated with WWASP because of the "negative attached to it."

Lichfield said he will be a consultant to the new academy, and will not be part of the ownership group, which will headed by former director Francisco Bustos and new director Herald Dabel, a Spanish professor from South Carolina.

The controversial "High Impact" boot-camp compound that Lichfield was building on the Dundee campus has since been converted into a recreational center with a weight room and movie theater, Lichfield said.

CHILD Welfare Minister Rosalía Gil has told The Tico Times she will not allow Dundee to reopen here.

Lichfield, however, said he will use the $2 million in estimated damages to Dundee as leverage to convince authorities to allow him to reopen an appropriate facility that the "Costa Rican government is comfortable with."

Lichfield, who said he donated $10,000 to campaign of President Abel Pacheco, claims he has appealed to the President for help, but added Pacheco probably "doesn’t want to touch us with a 10-foot poll."

For now, Lichfield wants to put the past behind him and "get back to what we do, and that’s help kids."

Sam Kinison:
Thanks for posting Tim Rogers' article dated back in 2003.Unfortunately,during the administration of the bumbling Dr. Abel Pacheco and his equally inept cohorts,this little nation suffered through four years of incompetence unimagined in an industrial society.Lichfield was tried in 2007,after Pacheco and his fellow clods left power.
Academy at Dundee Ranch was a behavior modification facility for United States teenagers, located on La Ceiba Cascajal, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of Orotina, province of Alajuela, Costa Rica. It was promoted as a residential school, offering a program of behavior modification, motivational "emotional growth seminars," a progressive academic curriculum, and a structured daily schedule, for teenagers struggling in their homes, schools, or communities.[1]

The facility was associated with World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASP).[2]

In May 2003, authorities in Costa Rica shut down due to claims of child abuse, and investigated the school and its managers. A new WWASP facility called Pillars of Hope was opened at the site of Academy at Dundee Ranch in 2004.[3]

[edit] ControversyDuring its operation, Dundee Ranch was the subject of multiple allegations of abuse. Parents and enrollees claimed that food being withheld as punishment.[2] Former students complained of emotional scars due to their stay there.[4]

A judgment in Louisiana caused Costa Rican authorities to investigate the facilities.[5] A riot occurred at the facility in May 2003,[6][7] leading to its closure. The Costa Rican immigration authorities found that 100 of the 193 children enrolled in the program did not have appropriate migration papers.[8]

Due to the closure U.S. Representative George Miller asked U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate WWASP.[9]

Narvin Lichfield, who was the director at the time of the facility's closure, was jailed in Costa Rica for a brief period at the time of the closure. He was later tried in Costa Rica on charges of coercion, holding minors against their will, and "crimes of an international character" (violating a law based on international treaties, specifically referring to torture).

On February 21, 2007 a three-judge panel found Narvin Lichfield innocent of the charges of abuse. During the trial the prosecutor told the court that there was insufficient evidence and testimony to link Lichfield to the crimes for which he was accused. The Tico Times reported that the judges said they believed the students at Dundee had been abused, but there was no proof that that Lichfield ordered the abuse.[10] Three other Academy employees, all Jamaicans, had been wanted in connection with the same case, but they fled Costa Rica following the closure of the Academy.[11]

Following the acquittal, Lichfield claimed in an e-mail to A.M. Costa Rica that when the school was raided, police stood by and watched youths sexually assault each other, that police held parents and staff at gunpoint and that one parent was ordered at gunpoint to hang up the phone when she attempted to phone the U.S. Embassy for help, and that police left the school in a shambles.[8]

Sam Kinison:
Narvin Lichfield, who was the director at the time of the facility's closure, was jailed in Costa Rica for a brief period at the time of the closure. He was later tried in Costa Rica on charges of coercion, holding minors against their will, and "crimes of an international character" (violating a law based on international treaties, specifically referring to torture).

If they were charging him with UN Crimes,they had a serious hard-on for him.How many people do you personally know,or even know of that has ever been charged with a crime against humanity?
In Costa Rica,they use a judge to control proceedings and magistrates,instead of a jury,to examine the evidence.The prosecutor probably did not present a strong enough case.Even so,Mr. Lichfield would be well advised never to return here,or the next charges might just stick.

thomasC:

--- Quote from: "Sam Kinison" ---Narvin Lichfield, who was the director at the time of the facility's closure, was jailed in Costa Rica for a brief period at the time of the closure. He was later tried in Costa Rica on charges of coercion, holding minors against their will, and "crimes of an international character" (violating a law based on international treaties, specifically referring to torture).

If they were charging him with UN Crimes,they had a serious hard-on for him.How many people do you personally know,or even know of that has ever been charged with a crime against humanity?
In Costa Rica,they use a judge to control proceedings and magistrates,instead of a jury,to examine the evidence.The prosecutor probably did not present a strong enough case.Even so,Mr. Lichfield would be well advised never to return here,or the next charges might just stick.
--- End quote ---

Wrong.  The school was reopened by Narvin Lichfield as Pillars of Hope.  I believe he still owns a horse farm in Costa Rica as well.

BuzzKill:
The original prosecutor on the Dundee case was very upset by what he found when they went to investigate Dundee ranch. He had had no idea what he was walking into when they first arrived. The simple act of informing the students what their rights were under Costa Rican law resulted in kids breaking down and sobbing - yelling and cheering. Kids begging him to help them - passing notes in fear of retaliation - running barefoot out the gates and down the road - all this was shocking to him, as he had no idea what they had been through. It isn't true that the police encouraged rioting. It is true they made the staff at the newly constructed high impact compound (google WWASP+high impact) stop beating the kids back with sticks which allowed those who wanted to to leave.  

It has been reported by some students who where there that it was the staff that had students helping to destroy computers and such - for reason that are not hard to imagine.  It is probably true that the police went in ill prepared for the emotional response of the students and the need to manage an organized evacuation - but in fairness - they couldn't imagine the reality at Dundee and so had no reason to expect such a response.

The original prosecutor was working on the investigation in a serious way but he was taken off the case and replaced by a woman who dropped it almost totally. She did no interviewing of complaining victims at all - none. She only took statements from students provided by Narvin; consequently, it was only their statements the judges heard. I will leave it to your imagination as to why she might have done this, and why she was put in charge of the case in the first place.

I think Narvin spent one night in jail - and for a few months wasn't supposed to leave the country. It cost him a bit of cash and some inconvenience, but that was all. In light of the huge profits gained it was a very small price. I assure you nothing about it will keep him or his brother or his associated "brothers" from doing it all over again just as soon as the drama dies down. And compared to the Dundee situation this is a cake walk - even a pleasant stroll along one of your beautiful beaches; something the students were promised and of course never saw!

TomC writes:
Wrong. The school was reopened by Narvin Lichfield as Pillars of Hope. I believe he still owns a horse farm in Costa Rica as well.

Exactly so.

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