Father Doctor Virgil Miller Newton
at Straight and at KIDS of North Jersey
(formerly KIDS of Bergen County)
by Wes FagerEspecially, do not listen to anything he says. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us; but he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien. And powerful. Do not listen. Remember that. Do not listen. From The Exorcist. Kids of North Jersey, Secaucus, N.J. Reverend Doctor V. Miller Newton, Ph.D., Ph.D. is the director of Kids of North Jersey (KNJ) in Secaucus, New Jersey. His wife Ruth Ann Newton is the associate director. KNJ is a Straight follow-on program with a reputation of abusing teenagers. Miller Newton was a Straight official from 1980 to 1983 and was Straight's national clinical director beginning in 1982.(1) (Ruth Ann was formerly associate director of Straight-St Pete.) He and his wife left Straight in 1983 when the Straights (and sometimes he personally) came under a deluge of civil suits for falsely imprisoning and for intentionally abusing children. Also there were criminal investigations in 1983 of two Straight facilities in Florida. Under these circumstances, Dr. Newton moved to Hackensack, New Jersey and set up his own Straight-like program. But almost immediately there were similar allegations of child abuse at the Hackensack program. By 1990 Bergen County prosecutors had accumulated a considerable case load of complaints against Newton's program when Newton changed the program's name and moved to Hudson County, New Jersey where he continues to operate today in spite of mounting charges of child abuse--including criminal convictions of three of his counselors.
Miller Newton and the Straight Legacy, 1980 - 1983. The following alleged events preceded the departures of Miller Newton and his wife Ruth Ann Newton from Straight in 1983. In front of hundreds of other kids, Miller Newton grabbed 15 year-old Leah Bright by her hair, threw her on the floor, said 'I want this girl the fuck out of my group,' and sentenced her to no sleep from Saturday afternoon to Monday night--80 hours.(2) When Ms Bright told her oldcomer in private that she felt suicidal, she says she was made to wear a sweat shirt with the word PSYCHOTIC on it!(3) In 1990 Karen Norton was awarded $721,000 for being abused at Straight. She testified that Newton had thrown her against a wall.(4) Marcie Sizemore was in Straight between 80-82. She says she was beaten and thrown against a wall.(5) In Feb 82 Straight-Atlanta settled with 3 kids represented by the ACLU who claimed they were suffering "inhumane treatment".(6) The Florida state agency responsible for overseeing drug rehabilitation programs was Health and Human Services (HRS). An HRS report in April 1981 found that teenage clients at Straight had been threatened by administrative staff members with being either court ordered into Straight or being committed to a mental institution unless they voluntarily entered Straight. Several former clients reported to the Saint Petersburg Times in 1981 that they had been treated similarly by Straight staffers.(7) On July 17, 1980 Michael Calabrese went to Straight to visit his brother. He claims he was detained for 9 hours by Straight staffers who threatened to retain him for two years with a court order unless he voluntarily signed himself in. He says he got into a shouting match with Miller Newton (Newton was Straight's Administrative Director in July 1981) during this intake.(
Acting on a complaint on September 30, 1980 Florida state health officials (HRS) interviewed a male juvenile client at Straight-St Pete whom they found being held against his will for treatment for a drug problem he did not have. Straight released this minor. An investigation by HRS responding to a complaint by an Orlando woman on March 4, 1981 found that her son was being held against his will at Straight. (She had previously filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus to get her other son out.) On March 16, 1981 state officials Terrell Harper and Marshall met with Miller Newton and two female clients who had recently escaped from Straight-St Pete but had been returned. In the presence of the state officials Newton threatened the two girls that they could be "sent to a mental institution," and then told one of the girls he was considering advising her parents to take her to a treatment program in Georgia where she could be "locked-up for 6 months" on just her parents signature. HRS removed one of the girls the next day. The other child was removed three days later by her mother at the recommenda-tion of a court appointed guardian ad litem. State investigators found that the locks to the bedroom doors where these girls sleep--a Ms. M's home--had been reversed to lock from the outside.(9)
Arletha Schauteet attended a sibling interview on Oct 23, 1981 in order to see her brother. She was held against her will until April 21, 1982. At one point she had escaped only to be kidnaped, in a violent 30 minute struggle, by her mother, two adult males, and a woman and taken back to Straight. At one point she says Miller Newton told her that if she persisted in saying she was held against her will, "the state of Florida would take over and put my mother in jail for kidnaping." Detective Brown from the Sanford, Fl Police Department secured her release. [Judge C. Vernon Mize signed a preemptory Writ of Habeas Corpus in the interest of Ms. Schauteet, the date is smeared, but appears to be 1982.] On Jan 19, 1983, an 18 year-old student intern in the Seminole County's sheriff's office named Hope Hyrons (photo top next page) attended a sibling interview so she could visit her brother. They tried to make her sign herself into Straight. She resisted, and she was made to walk and hitch hike back to Longwood, Fl--a 2 hour drive away. A month later she was kidnapped by her mother and father and two strange men and carried to Straight. She fought to get out of the intake room and was restrained. When she told her captors her legal rights were being violated, she says Rev. Miller Newton walked in and said, ""Well, I don't give a damn about your legal rights." Two days later a social services official secured her release. Newton and Straight settled out-of-court with her in 1983.(10) On June 19, 1982, Fred Collins, Jr, a B level engineering student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, (Fred now has a Ph.D. in mathematics) attended a Straight sibling interview in order to visit his brother. Fred was detained in a room with guards at the door for 7 - 10 hours, refused permission to go to the bathroom by a group of kids who related to him their stories of perverted sexual activities and drug addiction, trying to persuade him to admit to same. He finally consented to sign in for a 14 day observation period. [Thirteen years later, Marilyn Kearns' intake at Kids of North Jersey sounds remarkably similar to the experience of Fred Collins, Arletha Schauteet, and Hope Hyrons. Ms. Kearns alleges that when she was 23 years old, she attended a sibling interview at Kids, preliminary to visiting her sister. She says she was held in an intake room for hours until she agreed to sign up for treatment herself! [from author interview] ] Four and a half months later, 20 - 25 pounds lighter, Fred escaped from Straight. In a 1983 trial in which Miller Newton testified, Fred was awarded $220,000 for false imprisonment.(11)
The following 1983 civil suits/criminal investigations immediately preceded Newton's resignation: May--Michael Daniels sued Straight-St Pete for driving him insane; Aug--Newton and Straight-St Pete settled separate suits with Arletha Schauteet and Hope Hyrons.(12) Aug--Martin Brashears, an adult, sued Straight-Atlanta for false imprisonment.(13) Sept--Larry Williams sued Straight-Sarasota. Sept--Benson Williams sued Straight-Sarasota for beatings, pulling him by hair, hanging him by his underpants to a bedpost, and for torture.(14) Sept--Florida state's attorney office for Sarasota County released a damning 600 page criminal investigation of Straight-Sarasota including statements from current/former counselors of kidnapings, false imprisonments, threats of being court ordered unless client voluntarily enrolls, enrolling clients who were not drug dependent, hair pulling, neck grabbing, throwing against walls.(15) Straight-Sarasota voluntarily closed so state dropped its investigation. Principal investigator, assistant state attorney David Levin (photo right), would later say ". . . it was child abuse and torture--was directed by Miller Newton".(16) On Sept 3 a boy named Charles was brought to Straight. Charles had been kidnaped in Albuquerque, New Mexico by two private detectives hired by his mother, and placed in leg irons. A Florida judge later ruled his release because proper commitment procedures had not been followed, and because the judge found no evidence of drug addiction or abuse.(17) In Oct--Michael Keen sued Straight-St Pete for false imprisonment(18) and Jacqueline A. Stallings sued Straight-St Pete for physical assaults and false imprisonment. She eventually won case #83012161C1 for Straight committing a "malicious act" against her.(19) On Nov 15, 1983 Newton and wife resigned from Straight.(20)
Miller Newton and Kids of Bergen County, 1984 - 1990. In May 1984 Newton opened Kids of Bergen County (KBC) in Hackensack, N.J. as a Straight-like program. He also started the Straight-like franchise Kids Center of America with affiliates in El Paso, Salt Lake City and Yorbi Linda, Ca. By 1985 county prosecutors were receiving complaints of abuse. Between 1987 and 1988 Texas officials found kids being hit, pushed, assaulted, deprived of sleep, soiling their pants, and denied bathroom privileges at Kids of El Paso. At the California franchise, authorities found that kids were being denied bathroom privileges. In Dec 1988 Bergen County Superior Court dismissed charges against Miller Newton for criminal restraint and involuntary servitude.(21) In April 1989 Bergen County prosecutor's office found black eyes, strip searches, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, and denial of right to leave when some clients reached the age of 18. A third of clients at KBC were Canadians.(22) Newton withdrew his application for a license days before a public hearing in 1989 saying he intends to move to new location in Bergen County.
Jennifer Woolston alleges in sworn court deposition that she escaped from Kids of Salt Lake City in Aug 1989 [when she was an adult], but was later kidnaped by her mother, father, a male parent, and a police officer who told her she was under arrest for a felony. They took her to the male parent's home, had her stripped searched and locked into a room. Later she again tried to escape by climbing from a window, fell and broke bones in her feet and arms, dislocated her shoulder, and damaged cartilage and/or ligament in booth knees. She says she was denied medical treatment for an hour until program counselors arrived to take her to a hospital. The program released her only after receiving a Writ of Habeas Corpus on Sept 21, 1989.(23) [Ms. Woolston is not the first to be injured during an escape attempt from a Straight-like program. In 1978 a 13 year-old girl named Misereck jumped/fell 4 stories in an escape attempt from a Straight-St Pete foster home requiring her to have metal bars surgically placed in her back. Straight settled with her in 1981 while Miller Newton was there. Several people have alleged that KIDS' client Carlos Cenado broke his leg after a scuffle or fall during an escape attempt occurring at a Kids of North Jersey foster home. Several allege that he was sent to a hospital but not allowed to eat hospital food, rather food was brought in from KIDS. (Kids of North Jersey is the follow-on program to KBC.) ] Newton's franchises started closing under state investigations. After Kids of Southern California closed in 1989, Straight of Southern California started operating out of the same facility.
Twice Bergen County prosecutors escorted clients out of KBC. In 1989 CBS's West 57th Street aired a damaging segment on KBC. Former staff member Christy Johnston (photo right) said Newton told a staff member, "Bring her in her and scare her and if she hits you, hit her back." She says they wound up rolling on the ground with Newton saying, "I'll turn my back." Tony Mitchele's hospital records show he was bleeding from the scalp and having blurred vision after being dropped on his head during a rap. When he became an adult Tony left KBC, but later staff member Tony Kozakiewicz was arrested for trying to kidnap Tony back into the program. According to former staff member Christy Johnston, charges were dropped after KIDS promised Tony Mitchele that it would never take him back if he promised not to press charges. In 1988 Larry Clay(photo left), a legal adult in his home state of Texas, was led out of KBC by an FBI agent with a subpoena.(24) In August 1990 (after the West 57th Street report on KBC) 20 county officials descended upon Kids of Bergen County questioning kids about abuse.(25)
Miller Newton and Kids of North Jersey, 1990 - present. Shortly after Bergen County prosecutors moved on KBC in August 1990, Newton moved his operations to Hudson County, New Jersey, changing the program's name to Kids of North Jersey (KNJ), but retaining the old IRS #. Former KBC staff member Alexis Zdanow (photo left) recalls an incident back at KBC c. 1988 where two rebellious clients who were brothers were taken into an intake room where he and others "threw 'em around, flung 'em around, but I was told by the higher staff, 'You have to do that, you know, Doc Newton says it has to be done. . .'"(26) Later, in 1993, at KNJ three counselors--Carlos Lugo, Michael O'Connor, and George Clemence--were convicted of beating 17 year old Channery Soto. Michael O'Connor, who admitted to beating Soto, said that beatings were routine at KNJ and that he had even been beaten himself. Judge Emil DelBaglivo--the Secaucus trial judge--publicly remarked that it was "almost unbelievable" that the director of the program, a man with "supposedly " strong credentials, would allow and condone the use of violence. "We find the institution highly questionable and someone should look into it," he said. "We think there's something radically wrong."(27) Newton stayed, Judge DelBaglivo was transferred to another township.
In January 1998 KIDS counselor Patricia Logan was convicted (apparently of simple assault) for an assault against client Celena Moore (daughter of Ethyl Moore).(28) Her case stemmed from one of many criminal complaints brought against KIDS counselors in 1996. One 1996 charge is against counselor George Clemence, who has already been convicted for the 1993 Soto beating, for assaulting Michael Siculietano. Secaucus prosecutors dropped charges without Siculietano's knowledge.(29) Another 1996 charge was made by Marilyn Kearns (age 23) who claims she was kidnaped and held against her will at KNJ. She names Miller Newton in her complaint of being held against her will.(30) Also in 1996 KNJ graduate and program counselor Heather Strachey filed counter charges against Marilyn Kearns, but later sent a letter dropping the charges. Other, apparently outstanding, criminal charges involving KNJ filed in Secaucus in 1996 include Ethyl Moore against Erin Moss and Jenny Logan (she's already won a conviction against Patricia Logan, apparently Jenny's sister). [ Jennifer Logan is listed as one of the defendants in Jennifer Woolston's civil suit against KIDS of Salt Lake City in 1989, previously discussed.]. Other 1996 charges include: Andrea Jones against Erin Moss; Sharon Tyler against Miller Newton; and Chrysis Johnson against Miller Newton. In 1996 Juvenile Judge Thomas Zampino in neighboring Essex County secured the release of John Shaw from KNJ after a private interview with him.(31) In 1996 two local TV stations broadcast damaging exposés on KNJ. There is an outstanding civil case against Newton and KNJ by Rebecca Ehrlich for causing psychological damage to her daughter.(32) Bill Goldberg, a licensed therapist in Tenafly New Jersey, has treated several former KNJ clients.(33)
INSURANCE FRAUD. In Sep 1996--KNJ agreed to pay $45,000 to THE federal government to settle charges of 254 fraudulent insurance claims. Psychiatrist Raymond Edelman says KNJ used his rubber stamp after he left program for fraudulent claims.(34),(35) In December 1996 KNJ apparently lost or settled a 1996 civil case with Roger Rossano for fraudulent insurance charges. KNJ's 1994 tax returns shows Miller Newton earning $106,712 and Ruth Ann Newton, his wife and assistant director at KNJ, making $54,520. The phone book lists a PO box. Mysteriously, if you are a parent with a kid in trouble and call them, they will not tell you where they are located!
Show Posts