ELAN SCHOOL ARTICLES 1975
Lewiston Daily Sun, Saturday, August 2, 1975
Visit to Elan One Impresses Longley
By GEOFFREY GEVALT Sun Staff Writer
POLAND SPRING - After an hour-long visit late Friday afternoon at Elan One, Gov. James B. Longley came away feeling "impressed," but he said that no formal statement will be made until next week, after he has had a chance to review the reports of the state's evaluation team.
Longley's visit to the rehabilitation center was prompted by allegations from Mary Lee Leahy, director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
The director claimed that the emotionally disturbed youngsters were being mentally and physically abused, and after an evaluation team from her department viewed the center at Upper Range Pond, the 11 Illinois children in the program were ordered home. Three of the children have since returned voluntarily to Elan, and a fourth has began litigation to return.
Elan's founder, Joseph J. Ricci, characterized the allegations as slanderous and said he will be filing a $3 million suit against Leahy, the Illinois DCFS evaluation team and the state itself. During his visit, Longley talked with one of the Illinois children as well as 10 other youngsters.
"I was very impressed that the kids were saying that the program was helping them," Longley commented.
But Longley would go no further for the moment, saying that he first wanted to talk with Illinois Gov. Daniel Walker. He noted that he had tried to reach Walker Friday evening, but had not been able to. Longley hopes to reach him this weekend.
Longley said that he will meet with Maine Health and Welfare Commissioner David E. Smith and the evaluators from his department on Monday.
Smith said Friday night that he had not had any feedback from his seven staffers, but "the initial indication" is that the allegations from the people of Illinois have no foundation."
The commissioner explained that three evaluation teams from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have already given favorable reports on the center.
The evaluation by the Maine officials, including a psychologist and psychiatrist, was requested by Longley, who said that a formal statement from the study will be released "no later than Wednesday."
But as to Elan's activity in the next week, Ricci commented "we're going to try to get life back to normal. The victims in this whole thing have been the kids. I think we'll have a huge picnic?something to relieve the tensions."
Ricci said that Longley had a chance to talk with evaluators from both Maine and Connecticut during his visit.
The governor was appreciative that the Elan administration was open and cooperative.
Commenting on why he came back to Elan, one Illinois youth said "I came back because I wanted to get help, and I knew this was the only place I could get it."
The 18-year-old believes that his state's charges were trumped up.
"We tried to tell the investigators that they were crazy, but they weren't interested in what we felt about Elan. The just kept trying to convince us it was a bad place."
Ricci reportedly has stated that the Illinois investigators were rude and biased and were eventually asked to leave because of it.
The children at Elan's six centers, located in Poland Spring, Auburn, Parsonsfield and Waterford, are mostly from detention centers, state hospitals and foster homes. They have been in drugs, prostitution and larceny and have other emotional problems.
Elan administrators say that their program can work with these kids and object to the allegations and the way they were first reported in the news.
Ricci claims that the whole issue is a result of political haggling in the State of Illinois, concerning whether problem youths should be sent to out of state institutions.
Speculation is that Elan's fee, $1,200 a month, may also have been a reason for Illinois to take the kids out of the center.
Ricci has reportedly commented that Leahy was "acting outside the scope of her own authority" and the allegations made "are quite frankly a lie."
Ricci claims that the state's evaluation team came for an express purpose of finding fault to give the state an excuse to back out.
Elan is a controversial program, Smith noted at a recent news conference, and staffers from his agency have been working with the centers.
"You've got to remember these are some of the toughest children around," he said.
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Lewiston Evening Journal, Thursday, August 7, 1975
Investigation Shows No Evidence of Abuse at Elan One Center
By MAUREEN CONNOLLY Associated Press Writer
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - A preliminary investigation of the Elan One treatment center found no evidence of abuse and mistreatment of youngsters, state officials reported today.
The investigation into the Poland Spring center for troubled youngsters was launched last week after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services withdrew 11 Illinois state wards from the facility, charging they had been mistreated.
State officials said the report was the unanimous opinion of the investigative team.
"The Maine investigation revealed no evidence of unjustifiable denials of civil liberties or of mistreatment, brutality or anything that could be considered abhorrent to all acceptable standards of child care," the Maine Department of Health and Welfare said in a statement.
"The investigation revealed that the Elan program was one of significant value that was achieving positive results in dealing with adolescents who had failed to respond to more traditional treatment or correctional methods," according to the statement.
Investigators said they felt "the staff appeared dedicated, competent, and caring and the residents of Elan appeared healthy, responsive, content and supportive of the program, staff and other residents of Elan."
The report continued "The residents interviewed usually expressed newly found feelings of dignity, self-assurance and mental well-being, and they attributed these feelings to the treatment they were receiving at Elan."
Gov. James B. Longley ordered Health and Welfare Commissioner David E. Smith to evaluate Elan after Mary Lee Leahy, head of the Illinois agency made the abuse charges.
She said the children were subjected to degrading treatment and violent punishment.
The staff of Elan, a privately owned facility, denied the abuse charges and said they were the result of political infighting among Illinois officials.
Several young people at Elan also told reporters in private that the charges were false.
The Department of Health and Welfare said it will send a final report to Illinois, incorporating the findings of other investigators from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. In addition, Smith said an Illinois evaluation team has been invited back to Maine to meet with other investigators.
The Maine investigation was conducted through Health and Welfare's Office of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Prevention. Team members included a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and attorneys.
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The Lewiston Daily Sun, Friday, August 8, 1975
State Probe Gives Elan a Clean Bill of Health
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - A preliminary report by state officials Thursday cleared the Elan One youth treatment center of charges of child abuse. The Department of Health and Welfare released the results of a week-long investigation into the Poland Spring center for troubled youngsters.
The state action was taken after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services withdrew 11 Illinois state wards from the facility, charging they had been mistreated.
Maine officials said the report was the unanimous opinion of the investigative team.
"The Maine investigation revealed no evidence of unjustifiable denials of civil liberties or of mistreatment, brutality or anything that could be considered abhorrent to all acceptable standards of child care," the report said.
"The investigation revealed that the Elan program was one of significant value that was achieving positive results in dealing with adolescents who had failed to respond to more traditional treatment or correctional methods," according to the report.
Investigators said they felt "the staff appeared dedicated, competent, and caring, and the residents of Elan appeared healthy, responsive, content and supportive of the program and other residents of Elan."
Gov. James B. Longley ordered Health and Welfare Commissioner David E. Smith to evaluate Elan after Mary Lee Leahy, head of the Illinois agency made the abuse charges.
The director said the children were subjected to degrading treatment and violent punishment.
The staff of Elan, a privately owned facility, and its residents denied the abuse charges. Staff members said the allegations were the result of political infighting among Illinois officials.
The Department of Health and Welfare said it will send a final report to Illinois, incorporating the findings of other investigators from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. In addition, Smith said an Illinois evaluation team has been invited back to Maine to meet with other investigators.
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Portland Press Herald, Friday, August 8, 1975
Elan Center Cleared in Preliminary Report
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - A preliminary report by state officials Thursday cleared the Elan One youth treatment center of charges of child abuse.
The Department of Health and Welfare released the results of a week-long investigation into the Poland Spring center for troubled youngsters.
The state action was taken after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services withdrew 11 Illinois state wards from the facility, charging they had been mistreated.
Maine officials said the report was the unanimous opinion of the investigative team.
"The Maine investigation revealed no evidence of unjustifiable denials of civil liberties or of mistreatment, brutality or anything that could be considered abhorrent to all acceptable standards of child care," the report said.
"The investigation revealed that the Elan program was one of significant value that was achieving positive results in dealing with adolescents who had failed to respond to more traditional treatment or correctional methods," according to the report.
Investigators said they felt "the staff appeared dedicated, competent, and caring, and the residents of Elan appeared healthy, responsive, content and supportive of the program and other residents of Elan."
The report continued "The residents interviewed usually expressed newly found feelings of dignity, self-assurance and mental well-being, and they attributed these feelings to the treatment they were receiving at Elan."
Gov. James B. Longley ordered Health and Welfare Commissioner David E. Smith to evaluate Elan after Mary Lee Leahy, head of the Illinois agency made the abuse charges.
She said the children were subjected to degrading treatment and violent punishment.
The staff of Elan, a privately owned facility, and its residents denied the abuse charges. Staff members said the allegations were the result of political infighting among Illinois officials.
The Department of Health and Welfare said it will send a final report to Illinois, incorporating the findings of other investigators from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. In addition, Smith said an Illinois evaluation team has been invited back to Maine to meet with other investigators.
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Portland Press Herald, Monday, August 11, 1975
Elan is Cleared
The Department of Health and Welfare, in a preliminary report, has cleared Elan One of charge of child abuse.
We're delighted at that finding and are confident if a more detailed report follows it will be in the same vein. From the information that had been made public, it would have been difficult to understand any other conclusion. But it is good to have a clean bill of health made official.
The investigation came after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services withdrew 11 of its wards from the Poland Spring facility charging mistreatment. But officials of two other states immediately conducted their own investigations and found no reason to withdraw any of their wards, nothing that they could classify as mistreatment.
It was significant, too, that two of the young people returned to Illinois promptly ran away and came back to Elan One at Poland Spring. No one runs away to get back to people who abuse them. They obviously wanted what Elan One was offering.
What seems to be in much greater need of thorough investigation than Elan One is the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. If the Illinois governor and other appropriate officials are as diligent in probing their own department as Maine officials have been in checking the Illinois complaint against Elan One, they might find something truly scandalous.
The real tragedy here is those nine young Illinois people who are being denied the help that their troubled contemporaries at Elan One are receiving - and that other Illinois young people might receive in the future.
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Portland Press Herald, Wednesday, October 22, 1975
Connecticut Investigators Okay Elan
POLAND SPRING, Maine (AP) - Connecticut investigators say they will continue sending youths with severe problems to a controversial care facility where therapy includes having the kids scream at each other.
"The kids we send to Elan are those we would have had to send to an adult correctional facility or a maximum security mental hospital," says Anthony Lovallo, director of treatment for the Connecticut Department of Children and Youth Services.
His boss, Commissioner Francis Maloney, says the program has helped most of the Connecticut youths sent there but adds there has not been a complete follow-up study.
The program is conducted by the Elan Corp., which runs five therapeutic communities in the Lewiston area. Connecticut has put troubled youths in Elan's care since 1973.
"We don't screen any of these kids before they come here. We don't care what their problems are or what crimes they have committed. After all, there has to be some place to treat kids like this," says Joseph Ricci, a former drug addict and Elan's therapeutic director.
To those unaccustomed to the program, screams coming from Elan's converted farm house often are terrifying. The visitor soon discovers it's part of the program.
"Primal scream is simply a way to give these kids an exit for their pain," Ricci says. "You can't hold anything back while screaming. The mind can't do two things at once."
The therapy also involves intense encounter group sessions and peer group pressures.
About 30 Connecticut youths, most of them with lengthy juvenile court records and most between 13 and 16 years old, are in Elan programs. Connecticut pays between $670 and $800 monthly per youth, which officials say is cheaper than at other private facilities. Regardless of cost, says Lovallo, Elan takes children unacceptable to other private facilities.
The Elan program recently gained attention when Illinois withdrew its children. State investigators said children were forced into boxing rings to settle disputes and some were handcuffed and placed in straitjackets.
Elan School
Poland Springs, Maine
Deanna Atkinson, Admissions Director
(207) 998-4666
Visit by: Tom Croke, June, 1992
My visit to Elan occurred on a record breaking 100 degree early June day. My first impression was of a well kept, but somewhat rustic Maine farm. The large group of teenagers off in a field playing soft-ball told me this was the right place. I was warmly greeted by a very busy admission staff. As I was oriented to the facility, however, my hostess, Donna Mangan, referred all questions regarding program to my soon to appear student guide. My guide, a delightful red haired young man I'll call Jeff, was a retired gang member from one of our largest cities (not Los Angeles). He had been at Elan for fifteen months, and was about to go home for his first visit. He was proud of Elan, grateful for what Elan had done to save his life, and did a superb tour.
Jeff escorted me to one of three frame buildings, each having an almost complete self-contained program. Altogether, these houses, plus one more for students close to discharge, contain 135 students. The interior of the building reminded me of a beehive, with all that was happening.
The first floor was a typical eating, cooking and living space. There was also a corridor for girls' dormitory space. In the dining space was a circle of about a dozen intense teenagers with one staff member. Jeff explained they were being confronted for not making sufficient progress (not achieving a high enough level).
Upstairs were a series of offices off the main corridor (in addition to a side corridor with boys' dormitory space). These offices were bustling with activity. Each of these offices had a particular function pertaining to the life and operation of the school, ranging from supervising housekeeping to providing for activities, and providing for security.
Each student is assigned to one of the offices and is given a particular title, establishing rank or level in the system. Each individual has assigned duties in the operation of the facility. Each is kept strictly accountable with intricate accountability procedures. Ranks are divided into two groups, called "strength" and "non-strength," reminiscent of the military distinction between commissioned officers and enlisted personnel. The program gives each group the task of its own maintenance, with strict accountability for precise response to the demands of the situation. Deviation from expectations will lead to heavy verbal confrontation, loss of rank, and privileges. The theory behind the approach is that as students learn to meet the expectations of this system, they will learn to meet the expectations of larger society in a responsible way.
Although the students have much responsibility, admissions are handled by the paid staff, students have no control over who joins their group, and a fully qualified psychologist supervises all therapeutic activities. An analogy to the military is somewhat appropriate, and it turns out many of the staff qualified for their positions through a military background. It is the responsibility of the higher level students to be the first line of stopping runaways, and intervening in other negative behaviors, a job they seem to do quite effectively. This is even to the extent of having a student sentry on duty all night every night (in shifts).
Education for most students takes place in the evening. I did not have an opportunity to observe classes, but did interview the Director of Education. Elan students work on a competency based curriculum adjustable to reflect the requirements of the school back home. Still, Elan can and does award its own diplomas. Elan is quite proud of its excellent college placement record. Reflecting the needs of the program, all homework is done on weekends in supervised study halls, as there is not time during the week.
Although I had limited opportunity to see it in operation, Elan keeps a separate house for students nearing departure, to smooth re-entry. The students living here, usually in the last three months of the eighteen month program, go off campus during the day for activity appropriate to their future plans, usually a job in the community, and attend school evenings with the other students. All have well developed discharge plans when they leave.
Elan is not for the faint hearted. While the atmosphere is highly confrontive, most of the confrontation comes from peers, who are well trained to come back with a high level of support following any stressful confrontation. Humiliation is stated clearly as a therapeutic tool, as is following up on such intervention with encouragement and warm support.
Many of their residents have significant Drug and Alcohol history, which Elan understands as a symptom of other pathology, frequently referring for twelve step work after graduation. The entire program stresses student contribution to the life of the student community.
I often hear Elan characterized as a school for the most out of control teenagers, and I often hear the suggestion that it is kind of an east coast Provo Canyon School. Neither perception is accurate, nor fair to either school. Unlike Provo Canyon School, Elan has no passive security systems, and no locked units. Elan takes pride in the fact that most of the direct intervention takes place through peer confrontation rather than interaction with a credentialed therapist, such as the direct treatment at Provo Canyon School. Elan cannot accommodate students who present immediate risk of violent acting out.
I would consider Elan very strongly for a young man or woman with serious oppositional tendencies or a conduct disorder, but who could be safely contained by Elan. I was particularly impressed with the honesty of Elan's presentation, in which I was very clearly exposed to those things they knew would not be to my taste. I feel confident that Elan is what it advertises itself to be.
[Tom Croke is an educational consultant residing in Pennsylvania 800-477-3887]
Copyright © 1992, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced without prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author attribution accompanies the copy.)
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This story can be found online at:
http://www.portland.com/news/state/020531elan.shtml===============================================================================
Friday, May 31, 2002
Ex-students at Skakel trial describe Elan as 'horrific'
By DAVID GURLIACCI, Special to the Portland Press Herald
Copyright 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
:
Elan School defends program
As witness after witness at the Michael Skakel murder trial took the stand in the past two weeks to describe events at the Elan School during the late 1970s and early 1980s, jurors and the public have been given a picture of what the school in Poland, Maine, may have been like.
In a word: horrific.
Young people in trouble with the law or their parents, and often involved in drug or alcohol abuse, were sent to the school and put on a strict regime of work, group therapy, peer pressure to reform, public humiliation, screamed reprimands and disciplinary beatings, according to witnesses at the trial.
The testimony about the Elan School's history could be pivotal to the high-profile case, because defense attorneys are arguing that extreme conditions at the school 20 or more years ago created an atmosphere in which anyone could be made to say anything.
Some former Elan students are testifying for the prosecution, saying they heard Skakel confess to murder. Other former Elan students are testifying in Skakel's defense, saying Elan school officials threatened and even abused students to the point where confessions and statements made there should be viewed skeptically, at best. Closing arguments in the trial are scheduled for Monday.
In his opening arguments on May 7, Skakel's defense attorney, Michael Sherman, told the jury that the Elan School was "like a mix of the Hanoi Hilton and Stalag 17."
Former Elan students have been star witnesses at the trial of Skakel, a nephew of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy who attended the school from 1978 to 1980. The late Joseph Ricci, founder and executive director of the school, told students at a "general meeting" in 1978 that Skakel may have killed a Greenwich, Conn., girl in 1975, according to witnesses.
Skakel, now 41, was arrested on the murder charge in January 2000. Renewed publicity about the crime helped turn up several Elan students and others who said Skakel made incriminating statements about the murder.
Two former students say Skakel admitted his role to them. Other former students disagree, saying they never heard Skakel admit to the crime. They recall that he either denied killing the girl or said he was so intoxicated on alcohol and drugs that night that he didn't know. Some of the former students who testified think Skakel is guilty. Others say he's innocent. Some are just suspicious.
But whatever they testified about Skakel, they were consistent in their views of the school they attended: They described it as a place designed to terrorize them, with beatings and humiliation regular features of life.
Alice Dunn of Portland was at the school from 1976 to 1978 as a student, and until 1982 as a member of the staff. In testimony, she described the school's discipline process as "part of the general plan of humiliation that would lower someone's self-esteem and keep them in a general state where they were in constant terror."
One witness, Michael Meredith of New York City, attended Elan in the 1980s after Skakel had left. He said the school at that time was abusive emotionally but not physically, and he believed it had reformed some of its practices by then.
The current administration of Elan rejects the harsh descriptions.
In response to questioning from various news organizations this week, the school's lawyer and spokesman, John Campbell of Campbell and Associates, distributed a five-page statement defending the school and rebutting some of the accusations against it.
Campbell said Tuesday that he is not authorized to make any further statements about the controversy.
"Over the past 30 years, the Elan School has helped thousands of students," the statement reads. "Hundreds of social workers, special-education personnel, psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors and therapists have reviewed the Elan program and its successes and have continued to send students to Elan."
A review team appointed by Maine Gov. James Longley in 1975 - before Skakel attended the school - said Elan students "usually expressed newly found feelings of dignity, self-assurance and mental well-being, and they attributed these feelings to the treatment they were receiving."
The Elan statement quoted the panel as reporting it found "no evidence of unjustifiable denials of civil liberties or mistreatment."
According to the statement, "Elan's appointment calendar books from 1978 and 1979 (while Skakel and the witnesses were at the school) show that virtually every week of the year there were reviews of the program at Elan by physicians or regulatory officials from all over the country."
Elan was founded in 1970 as a treatment center and school for troubled youths by Ricci, who was executive director of the school in the 1970s and 1980s. Ricci, a former drug addict who had no academic degrees in the field of therapy, later bought the Scarborough Downs racetrack and ran for governor. He died in January 2001.
"A lot of his role (at the school) was to scare the crap out of people," said Charles Seigan of Highland Park, Ill., testifying at the Skakel trial last week. Laughter erupted in the courtroom after that comment, but he continued: "I mean, seriously, that was (Ricci's) role, and to be the man, the dude, the main guy. . . . He liked it, too - to be a god.
"Joe Ricci would just get really upset when somebody wasn't doing what he wanted them to do," said Seigan, who was at Elan for 18 months, starting in 1978. "Sometimes he lost his temper and made it quite horrific on some people."
The school's statement pointed out that, when Ricci died, "51 senators and representatives in the Maine Legislature adopted a special resolution in honor of Mr. Ricci recognizing his 'energy, dedication and service to his community and the state' and 'his many achievements, including co-founding the Elan adolescent treatment center.' "
Skakel and all of the former Elan students who testified at the trial were at Elan 3, one of several units at the school. Usually 40 to 50 students lived at Elan 3 in separate male and female dormitories. The school had about 150 students at the time, witnesses said.
Students would get up about 7 a.m., have breakfast, then work for most of the morning at various jobs around the campus. The afternoons were often devoted to group therapy sessions of various types and the evenings, from about 6 to 10 p.m., to school.
Students were ranked in a rigid hierarchy, much like a military school. Higher-ranking students typically screamed at those in lower ranks whom they were supervising, witnesses said.
"It was just a lot of screaming and yelling that would go on during the day," Seigan said. "The structure of the house was to yell and scream all day to provoke a reaction from people. . . . It was more of a peer-pressure modality - treatment modality - at that time."
For major violations of the rules, the entire campus would be convened in a "general meeting" - which was something like a pep rally, with forceful criticism aimed at an individual.
" 'General meeting' was probably the scariest word you would hear," Seigan said.
The purpose of general meetings, he said, "was basically to scare the heck out of the residents and make sure the person who was (the subject of the meeting) didn't do it again, and the people watching would never do what he did because the punishment was not worth it."
Taking drugs, having sex, drinking alcohol or running away were all reasons for a general meeting, former students said. But they could be held for other reasons, too.
After Skakel fled from the school and was returned, he was prepared for his first general meeting for days in advance, Dunn said.
"They had left him in a corner of . . . the dining room of Elan 3," she testified. "He had to sit for an hour and stand for an hour for three days, with basically no sleep."
General meetings could run from 45 minutes to two hours, Dunn said, although another former student, Michael Wiggins of South Carolina, recalled some that lasted far longer.
"There was no warning," Seigan said. "It was yelled many times. You dropped what you were doing, and you just high-tailed it into the dining room and sat, and you just looked forward, and you didn't say a word and waited for direction."
People would stomp their feet and clap their hands until the person "being sacrificed to the gods of therapy" was brought in and made to stand on a stage at one end of the dining room, Seigan said.
Dunn recalled that the dining room echoed "like a cathedral." The student who was the focus of the general meeting would be kept in a room nearby, not close enough to hear what was said, but close enough to hear the racket, Wiggins said.
"I was never a victim of this - and I believe that is a good word, 'victim,' " he said. "I can only feel it would be something horrific for someone to go through."
For Skakel's first general meeting, Dunn recalled Ricci standing with an inch-thick file folder in his hands.
"He was very intimidating. . . . Referring to some documents, he had a file in his hand he was looking at, and kind of reading incidents from that as he was confronting Michael," she said.
Ricci indicated through questions to Skakel that Skakel was somehow involved in the murder of Martha Moxley, and Ricci accused Skakel of killing her, Dunn said.
At first Skakel denied it, which seemed to make Ricci lose his temper, she said.
At various points, some students were encouraged to rush up toward Skakel and yell in his face. This typically happened several times during any general meeting, the former students testified.
"They get up and run at you and slam you up against the wall, and poke their fingers in your chest, and yell at you so loud you can't even understand what they're saying," Wiggins recalled.
Dunn testified that in yelling at someone, there was plenty of opportunity to manage to spit in the subject's face, and some students would do it on purpose.
If a student who was the subject of the general meeting wasn't giving the proper response to school authorities at the meeting, they would often order the student to bend over to be spanked or take part in a "boxing ring" - short bouts of boxing with another student.
The boxing was done with boxing gloves and headgear. There was no actual roped-off "ring," but people would form a human circle around the boxers.
"You would go into the ring for one-minute periods and you would basically fight," Dunn said, although Wiggins remembered rounds lasting three minutes.
Skakel's case was typical, Dunn said. After a round he would be asked to admit to the murder, and when he continued to deny committing it, he would be put back in for another round with a new, fresh person.
While the boxing was going on, people were encouraged to cheer, Wiggins said. "It's just, you know, 'Hit him hard! Hit him hard! Get him! Get him! Get him!' "
"The person in the ring could never win," Dunn said, because the process would be repeated with fresh opponents.
Skakel lasted for six or eight rounds before he finally changed his answer to "I don't know," and the boxing stopped, Dunn said. "That particular day, it's the only way that it (the boxing) stopped."
Former Elan student Elizabeth Arnold described Skakel's general meeting as a session in which he was "brutalized."
Asked by Skakel's defense attorney if the victim would be "beaten to a pulp" in the boxing ring, Seigan answered, "That didn't happen at Elan 3, generally."
The statement just released by Elan quoted from the 1975 report on the school by the Maine review panel, which defended the school's use of "boxing rings."
The panel was quoted as stating, "One of the cardinal rules of the Elan program was that the use of physical violence, by either a staff member or a resident, is strictly outlawed. . . . Only acts of repeated physical violence on the part of residents resulted in a person being placed in the ring where rounds lasted about one minute and the participants are evenly matched."
Several former students were asked about Kim Freehill, a slightly-built girl at Elan who was spanked so hard that a helicopter was called in to airlift her to a hospital for treatment.
"I watched them beat Kim until she was bruised from the back of her knees to the top of her shoulders with open sores across her buttocks," Dunn testified at a pretrial hearing in June 2000. "And I watched her retreat into a shell where she just wasn't even there as a person. . . . I've never seen somebody hurt that badly."
Longer-term punishment would generally follow the general meeting, Seigan said. One punishment was to be "shot down," or stripped of all privileges previously earned at the school. "You were put into shorts generally, and no shoes, and you were made to scrub floors all day long and clean out trash bins," he said.
Dunn said cardboard signs were generally used when administrators wanted students to admit to some problem. Skakel's sign after the general meeting read, "Confront me on why I killed Martha Moxley." Wiggins remembered Skakel's sign "went down to about his shins and over his shoulders."
Students wore their signs during all waking hours, and had to stand and read their own signs aloud before each meal in the dining hall for weeks following a general meeting. After six weeks, Skakel's sign was removed.
"Most people that were there wore signs," Seigan said.
Students were encouraged to confront those who were wearing signs. Dorothy Rogers of Asheville, N.C., recalled one group therapy session in which Skakel was confronted.
"One student stood up and said, 'How does it feel to beat a girl to death with a golf club?' " Rogers testified.
Dunce caps had to be worn by students who received D's or F's during weekly school grading periods, other former students testified. For one week of bad grades, a student would wear a dunce cap 2 or 3 feet high, Dunn said. For two consecutive weeks of bad grades, the dunce cap would be about 5 feet high. The cap would be worn all day.
Most students wore them at some point, Seigan said.
Perhaps the most severe punishment given to students was something called a "cowboy ass-kicking session," Seigan said. He said it was "nothing more than a beating . . . a physical beating."
"None of the staff did it, but they allowed it," Seigan said. He said officials at the school "encouraged it and promoted it. . . . It was a passion, almost."
David Gurliacci is a United Press International correspondent covering the Skakel trial.
This article is provided for educational purposes only as a public service by the Oakton Institute.
Joseph Ricci's Career And Controversy
By Dwight F. Blint - The Hartford Courant
POLAND, Maine - Joseph Ricci is no stranger to the spotlight.
In fact, Ricci, a likely defense witness for Michael Skakel, likes it.
The co-founder of Elan School, a private boarding school for troubled teens, Ricci stands ready to rebut allegations that Skakel, while attending Elan from 1978-80, confessed to the 1975 killing of Martha Moxley.
Ricci, who has also made headlines as owner of the Scarborough Downs harness racetrack, seems to be a magnet for controversy.
Ricci, 52, was raised by his grandparents after his father ran out on his then-pregnant mother. He describes himself as a poor kid from Port Chester, N.Y., who never went to college.
It is his poor upbringing and time spent in state custody that prompts him to rebel against authority, Ricci said.
``I'm not the establishment's favorite person,'' Ricci said. ``In my lifetime, I've sued everybody.''
A former heroin addict, Ricci first garnered public attention in 1970 after moving to Maine and opening Elan, where adolescents with behavorial and substance-abuse problems could get treatment and education.
Ricci said he got the idea when young people he had worked with in drug-treatment facilities in Massachusetts and Connecticut would graduate from the programs but be unable to find jobs.
``We're the only therapeutic community in the United States with a full-blown high school,'' Ricci said.
The school, which now charges tuition of roughly $40,000 a year, used controversial peer-counseling methods that Ricci learned at other facilities. Practices included students yelling at each other, wearing signs, being forced to clean and boxing matches to work out differences.
Although Ricci was rough on his students, he said he wanted to make sure everyone else gave them a fair shake.
One of his first acts after opening Elan, Ricci said, was to sue the Maine Principals Association. He said the high school league tried to block African-American players from participating on his school's teams.
``They thought every one of them was a ringer,'' Ricci said.
But Ricci also has found himself on the defensive.
In 1975, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigated allegations of abuse at the school. A number of other states, including Connecticut, followed suit.
There is no record that the charges were substantiated, but the state of Illinois stopped sending students to Elan. Ricci went on a public relations blitz emphasizing that some of those students had sued the state to be returned to Elan.
In 1996, Ricci lost a sexual-harassment lawsuit filed by a female employee.
Ricci's success with the school allowed him in 1979 to purchase Scarborough Downs. Since that time, he has waged a public battle with Maine gaming officials and Gov. Angus King over what he calls their practice of clamping down on private gambling while promoting state-sponsored lottery games.
But it wasn't until 1986, when Ricci made the first of two bids for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, that his name became a prominent part of Maine's landscape.
His reputation grew the following year when a federal jury determined that Key Bank had cut off Ricci's credit in 1982 based on false reports that linked him to organized crime. Ricci was awarded $15 million.
Ricci, who felt that his Italian heritage was being maligned, later settled out-of-court after the bank threatened to appeal the jury award.
Most recently, Ricci has been tangling with the U.S. Postal Service. Ricci sued the agency, accusing it of engaging in a sweetheart deal with Julian R. Coles, chairman of the Maine Turnpike Authority. Ricci, who wanted a new mail distribution center located on his property, believes that federal officials worked a backroom deal to put the center on a site near property owned by Coles.
The suit also alleges that a local mail service manager implied Ricci had links to organized crime.
``I'm tired of being called a killer,'' Ricci said.
But Ricci's life is not just about taking on the big guys. He is considered as generous as he is tenacious, an animal lover who gives to charity and a man strongly supported by working-class voters in the state.
Skakel Schoolmaster Cites Privacy
Greenwich Time Sept. 25, 1998
By J.A. Johnson Jr., Staff Writer
BRIDGEPORT - The owner of a Maine school for troubled adolescents yesterday
refused to discuss before a grand jury allegations that he overheard murder
suspect Michael Skakel admit to killing Greenwich teenager Martha Moxley 23
years ago.
As a result of that refusal, a hearing was ordered for Oct. 8, in which a
Superior Court judge will rule on claims by Elan School owner Joseph Ricci that
the sought information is privileged.
"I have been advised by my attorneys that conversation with students at the
school concerning their special needs should be treated as confidential," Ricci
said of his refusal to answer the grand jury's questions.
Skakel attended Elan School in Poland Springs, Maine, from 1978 to 1980,
according to court papers filed earlier this month in Maine by State's Attorney
Jonathan Benedict, who is assisting Superior Court Judge George Thim with the
Moxley grand jury. Benedict said in the court documents that he "has been
informed by several former residents of Elan that Joseph Ricci was present and
overheard Michael Skakel make admissions to the murder of Martha Moxley."
During a court break, however, Ricci said, "I am not aware of any statement made
by any student at the Elan School admitting complicity in any murder. I have
searched my memory in that regard, and I do not believe that I have, or ever
had, any such evidence."
Ricci added that even if he had such information, he would not disclose it to
the grand jury because it is privileged information.
Police have named both Michael Skakel and his brother Thomas as suspects in the
Oct. 30, 1975, death of Moxley, who died from blows investigators said came from
a golf club owned by the Skakel family, who lived across the street from the
Moxleys.
Elan School, which Ricci founded with the late Dr. Gerald E. Davidson, a
psychiatrist, is certified by the Department of Education as a secondary school
and school for special education. It is licensed by the state's Department of
Mental Health and Corrections as a mental health facility, and is also licensed
by the Maine Department of Health as a residential drug treatment center.
Ricci, 51, who was born and raised in Port Chester, N.Y., said he began using
heroin at age 16, but kicked an addiction after entering drug treatment programs
at age 18. Ricci said Elan School's therapy programs have proven to be
successful, a cornerstone of which is the knowledge by residents that what they
say and do at the facility will remain there.
"The record of accomplishment is facilitated by the confidentiality we accord to
the statements and records of our students," Ricci said. "I fully understand
that this investigation by the state of Connecticut is an important one. The
work of the Elan School, however, is likewise important. I hope that this court
will honor that confidentiality."
A large, flamboyant man dressed in a black shirt and tie featuring a panther,
Ricci held court of his own in the hallway outside the grand jury room,
surrounded by reporters eager to hear what the racetrack owner and two-time
Maine gubernatorial candidate had to say. He promised the reporters that when he
returns next month to the Bridgeport court, he will bring a lobster for each.
As Benedict walked past the gathering, he remarked, "I'm going to have to buy
tomorrow's newspaper" to read what Ricci was saying.
Ricci also told reporters he drove 5 1/2 hours from his home in Falmouth to
Bridgeport in a limousine rented with the $600 the state of Connecticut provided
him for transportation.
"The limo cost the same as a plane from Portland to Hartford would've," he said.
Although Ricci said he was warned not to discuss what he said in the grand jury
room, Ricci said he invoked privilege when refusing to answer each of "a list of
40 questions" asked of him.
After spending nearly two hours in Thim's sealed courtroom with Ricci and the
man's two attorneys, Benedict filed a "motion to direct testimony" from the
grand jury witness. The motion was referred to Superior Court Judge G. Sarsfield
Ford, who would not let Ricci's attorneys address the matter because they are
not licensed with the Connecticut Bar Association.
Speaking to Benedict, Ford said, "You are the only one here representing anyone
in this matter."
Ricci's attorneys, Edward MacColl and John Campbell, both of Portland, afterward
said they will seek "pro hac vice" status for the planned hearing, which gives
out-of-state counsel temporary standing. Such status requires sponsorship of a
local attorney, and MacColl said he had "friends in Bridgeport" who would
sponsor him and Campbell.
The lawyer representing Skakel, Stamford attorney Michael Sherman, yesterday
morning filed a motion seeking an injunction against Ricci's grand jury
testimony and the use of Elan School records.
The motion said any statements Skakel made during counseling sessions, as well
as records concerning his stay at Elan School, "are confidential communications
and, as a matter of law, cannot be disclosed to this grand jury, absent a waiver
of Michael Skakel's claim of privilege."
Attached to the motion was an affidavit, signed by Skakel on Wednesday in Martin
County Court in Florida, attesting to the fact he had not authorized the
disclosure of statements or release of records.
Since Skakel's motion and Ricci's objections concern the same issue of
privilege, both matters will be decided at the Oct. 8 hearing before Superior
Court Judge John Ronan.Emanuel Margolis, a Stamford attorney representing Thomas
Skakel, was at the courthouse yesterday and said he was monitoring the
proceedings.
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