Ozark Center, Joplin, Missouri

[Oscar]

Turnaround Ranch sued; suit alleges boy was raped, state hot line not alerted
By Jeff Lehr, The Joplin Globe, Apr 22 - 2010

A lawsuit filed this week alleges that an 11-year-old boy was molested and raped by an older boy last year at Turnaround Ranch west of Joplin, and that the residential treatment center for youths failed to report the matter to the state’s child abuse hot line.

The lawsuit filed in Jasper County Circuit Court names the boy’s mother as plaintiff, and Freeman Health System, Ozark Center and Turnaround Ranch as defendants. Two counselors and a case manager are also named as defendants.

The mother of the boy claims that four incidents of assault on her son while he was a resident of Turnaround Ranch between September and November of last year went unreported to the state hot line.

The lawsuit states that another resident struck the boy with a belt on a weekend in September, leaving marks on his body. The first weekend in October, a 16-year-old resident who lived in the same cottage with him allegedly groped him.

The boy informed his counselors of the molestation, and his mother was notified and told that an internal review would be conducted to determine if the matter should be “hot-lined,” according to the suit.

But neither boy was transferred to another cottage, and the older one subsequently raped the younger one in a restroom Oct. 23 and sexually molested him a second time the same day, according to the lawsuit.

While the boy’s mother was notified of the first of those two assaults, she claims in the lawsuit that no one at Turnaround Ranch ever notified her of the second assault that day. She took the matter to the Newton County Sheriff’s Department on Nov. 2, and her son was discharged from the center four days later, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the mother and son by Eryn Peddicord, an attorney from Odessa, Mo.

Dwight Douglas, attorney for Freeman Health System, said the defendants have been aware of the allegations for several months.

“They’ve been fully investigated,” Douglas said. “All required reports were made. After investigation, we dispute the allegations, and the lawsuit will be aggressively defended.”

Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said his department investigated an alleged sexual assault at Turnaround Ranch involving two juveniles during that time frame. The sheriff said the findings of the investigation were turned over to the Newton County juvenile office for disposition. He said he could not discuss details of the case any further than that.

Compensation sought

The mother is seeking compensation for her son’s physical injuries, and for emotional and mental distress.

[Oscar]

Former Turnaround Ranch employee to stand trial
by Jeff Lehr, The Joplin Globe, Feb 17 - 2015

NEOSHO, Mo. — A Newton County judge ordered a former staff member at the Turnaround Ranch bound over for trial Tuesday on a charge that he sexually abused a 15-year-old girl in the ranch's program for troubled teens.

Associate Circuit Judge Gregory Stremel found probable cause at a preliminary hearing in Newton County Circuit Court for Richard L. Meeks, 34, to stand trial on a charge of second-degree statutory sodomy.

A 16-year-old girl testified at the hearing that Meeks molested her on multiple occasions over a two-month period last year when she was 15 and receiving counseling at the ranch for drug abuse, running away from home and being generally defiant in her attitude. She said the abuse started a few weeks after Meeks began working there in February 2014. She said he would tease the girls in the program by hitting them with their lanyards, or nametags.

"Then he started coming into girls' rooms," she said.

Meeks would come into her room, sit on top of her and touch her inappropriately, threatening to slit her throat if she told anyone, she testified. She said the abuse continued almost every night for a couple of months.

Under cross-examination by the defendant's attorney, the girl acknowledged that she never physically resisted, called for help or told anyone until May of last year when she informed other ranch staff and was interviewed at the Children's Center in Joplin as a possible victim of sexual abuse.

By then, a couple of the other girls had become aware of what was going on, according to her testimony. One of them had walked in to her room while Meeks was sitting on top of her. She said he quickly jumped up and pretended that he had been looking at pictures in the room. But the girl later spoke with her and threatened to tell the program's supervisors if she did not tell them herself.

A probable-cause affidavit filed in the case indicates that investigators also spoke with a second girl who told them she saw Meeks kissing the alleged victim when she walked by her room one night.

Court appearance

The judge set the defendant's initial appearance in a trial division for March 6.