Missouri reform school investigation grows: Parson directs AG to investigate Agape
For the second time in four months, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson has directed the attorney general to assist Cedar County authorities in the investigation of a Christian boarding school.
In an email to The Star Tuesday morning, Parson’s spokeswoman said the governor was recently asked to provide additional help in its ongoing examination into abuse allegations at Agape Boarding School.
“On March 22, 2021, Governor Parson approved a request from the Cedar County Prosecuting Attorney to appoint the Attorney General’s Office to assist in an investigation,” Kelli Jones told The Star.
Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither said that on Friday he emailed the request that Parson involve Attorney General Eric Schmitt and heard back Monday. He asked for the additional assistance after talking with prosecutors from the attorney general’s office while working on the case against the owners of another reform school, Circle of Hope.
Though Gaither hasn’t yet received a finished investigative report on Agape, he said he knows from the Circle of Hope investigation that it takes significant resources to go through potential evidence and seized materials in cases like these.
Attorneys with the attorney general’s office “were aware of the ongoing Agape investigation and they basically offered their help if the governor approved,” Gaither said Tuesday morning. “I don’t know what all is going to happen on Agape, I don’t know if there will be charges filed at this point, we haven’t made that decision. But the investigative part of it is quite lengthy and involved.”
Agape Boarding School did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the action.
Gaither made a similar request last fall during an investigation into abuse allegations at Circle of Hope Girls Ranch, which also is in Cedar County.
On March 10, Schmitt announced that his office had charged Circle of Hope owners Boyd and Stephanie Householder with 102 crimes — all but one are felonies — that include statutory rape, sodomy and physical abuse. They have been held without bond in the Vernon County Jail. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Last month, the Missouri Highway Patrol told The Star that it was conducting a criminal investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at Agape Boarding School, located outside Stockton in southwest Missouri.
The investigation was being conducted at the request of the Cedar County Sheriff and the Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division, a patrol spokesman said.
Sources told The Star at the time that investigators had been at the school for several days interviewing students regarding abuse allegations.
Agape is one of more than a dozen reform schools that operate in Missouri, where there is no state oversight because of a nearly 40-year-old law that exempts faith-based facilities. That lack of oversight has allowed abuse and neglect to go unchecked for decades.
The Star has been investigating the schools for months, and former students — including many from Agape — have recounted stories of physical, emotional and sexual abuse they say were inflicted by staff and fellow students.
Agape opened in Missouri in 1996 after leaving two other states where it was scrutinized or investigated, The Star found. Former students said the owners were attracted to Missouri because of its lack of oversight and regulations.
The Star has published numerous stories about Agape and interviewed dozens of former students, some who said they had reported abuse to local law enforcement but nothing ever came of it. Several said they ran away to get help from the sheriff’s department, only to be driven right back to the school.
The Star’s investigation found that the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office had ties to Agape, employing in some capacity at least three people who have worked at the school — or still do. That included two full-time deputies. One, Robert Graves, is the son-in-law of Agape owner James Clemensen.
Last fall, Sheriff James McCrary told The Star he was aware of the connections his employees have to Agape but said they haven’t influenced the department’s investigations.
He added that if a possible conflict arose, he would pass the case to another agency to follow up.
In September, the Star’s investigation of Circle of Hope prompted Rep. Keri Ingle, a Lee’s Summit Democrat, to request a hearing. That led to two identical proposals, one by Ingle and the other by Rep. Rudy Veit, R-Wardsville, that would for the first time require some regulation of these schools.
The House Children and Families Committee unanimously passed the measures on Feb. 24, and on March 11 — the day after the attorney general announced the charges against the Householders — the House Rules Committee approved the bills on a 9-0 vote. They now head to the House floor for debate, and the sponsors say the chances of passage are good.
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 10:36 AM.
