Kansas camp for adults and kids apologizes after visit by man accused of sex crime
A campground for adults and children in northeast Kansas apologized Wednesday after a man accused of an attempted child sex crime was present at a recent event.
The Gaea Retreat Center, a 168-acre campground for adults and children in McLouth, Kansas, said in a Facebook post that the man was allowed to drop off food at an Aug. 6 memorial service. The statement said the man was kept under supervision before leaving the premises.
On its website, the campground describes itself as a recreational space for cultural and spiritual education and says it aims to promote tolerance and acceptance between all groups. The center also allows nudity on some parts of the campground.
The man, 43-year-old Blair Marshall, had been arrested in May for attempted second-degree sodomy after he tried to solicit oral sex from a child in what turned out to be a sting carried out by Independence police and federal agents, according to court documents. He was released on $50,000 bond on the conditions that he wouldn’t have contact with anyone under the age of 17 and can’t use the internet.
Marshall also previously worked as a supervisor for various school bus companies in the Kansas City area, including First Student and Student Transportation of America.
An attorney for Marshall had no comment on his visit to the retreat center.
According to the Facebook post, not all members of the Board of Directors were aware of the charges against Marshall when he volunteered to pick up and transport food for the memorial service. At the time, Blair Marshall’s wife, Erin Marshall, was a member of the board. Her resignation was accepted Tuesday.
The post also said the camp didn’t have a policy at the time against people with pending charges being on the property. Camp officials only enforced a ban against registered sex offenders, the post said.
“He has not been convicted or even gone to trial,” the post read. “ ... The justice system in this country has always held that a person is innocent until proven guilty.”
Board members wrote that the grief and stress of the day prevented them from seeing that “such a short task would be problematic.”
They apologized for the incident and said a new policy was created the next morning banning anyone with pending charges related to a sexual offense until there is a resolution.
“Over the years, there have been many changes made at Gaea, in an effort to provide a greater level of safety for the community,” the board wrote. “From things like the ban against sex offenders, to the development of a volunteer safety team, to the system of required online registration. Each of those changes have increased the level of safety on property. Of course there is always room for improvement.”
The camp has faced similar issues in past years.
In 2016, an Olathe man and previously registered sex offender was arrested at Gaea on a federal child pornography charge. The man, Christopher Jon Saemisch, was sentenced in 2019 for distributing child pornography to a federal inmate.
