Missouri reform school records show abuse, caller said. The staff was destroying them
At 3:45 p.m. March 16, an Agape Boarding School employee called the Missouri Highway Patrol, which was investigating allegations of abuse at the Christian reform school.
Records that would document the abuse of students were “being destroyed by members of the Agape Boarding School Staff to prevent their discovery by law enforcement,” the employee said, according to search warrant information obtained by The Star.
The anonymous call came three weeks after students had told authorities they were being physically abused, and investigators had to scramble to ensure that more records wouldn’t be tampered with.
At 6:30 p.m. that same day, a Highway Patrol investigator filed a search warrant application in Cedar County Circuit Court. Twenty-five minutes later, a judge issued the search warrant. And at 7:30 p.m., the patrol was searching the southwest Missouri school near Stockton. They would be there for almost two hours.
Documents show that investigators seized two bags of current student medical records from the infirmary, four bags of current student discipline records and one bag of staff discipline records from dean of students Julio Sandoval’s office, and staff discipline records from school director Bryan Clemensen’s office.
The employee’s call added urgency to the case started Feb. 24 by the patrol’s Troop D Division of Drug and Crime Control Criminal Investigative Unit. Details of that investigation have not been made public.
The team had initiated multiple child abuse investigations at Agape, according to the documents obtained by The Star. Students told authorities that staff members were using extreme force and inflicting pain as a form of discipline.
“As a result of those investigations which involved interviews of student and staff members, conservatively, over 50-60 specific acts of physical child abuse upon different students were documented,” the records said. “The abuse involved staff members of the Agape Boarding School physically restraining students by force for the purpose of disciplining students.”
During that discipline, staff regularly use “restraint pain compliance techniques,” the students told authorities. As a result, students “have suffered physical injury including bruising, nerve damage, and lacerations, requiring stitches.”
The documents show that an investigative subpoena issued by the Cedar County Associate Circuit Court was served to Agape on March 9 — a week before the employee’s call — demanding that officials produce the records.
Ty Gaither, the Cedar County prosecuting attorney, said Friday he had “no comment on this investigation.”
And Capt. John Hotz, a Highway Patrol spokesman, said he could not comment.
“The Missouri Attorney General’s Office has taken over this case,” Hotz said in an email to The Star. “... Any inquiries should be directed to them.”
An Attorney General spokesman said the office could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
On March 2, the documents say, an investigator interviewed Clemensen — son of the school’s founder. During that interview, Clemensen said that student discipline and physical management records are kept in several offices and hallways in the main building and in storage boxes in outbuildings on the school grounds. Investigators learned that student records also were stored on computers.
Clemensen did not respond to a request for comment.
Authorities also interviewed Sandoval, the dean of students, who “admitted that pain compliance techniques were regularly used to discipline students at the Agape Boarding School,” according to the search warrant application.
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. The Star has been investigating the schools for months, and students have recounted stories of physical, emotional and sexual abuse they say were inflicted by staff and fellow students.
In November, The Star detailed allegations from dozens of former Agape students whose time at the school spanned more than two decades. Founder James Clemensen moved the school to Missouri in 1996 after leaving two other states where it was scrutinized or investigated, The Star’s investigation revealed.
Former students said the owners were attracted to Missouri because of its lack of oversight and regulations and viewed the state as “The Promised Land.”
Allegations from students at several Missouri boarding schools have prompted a legislative effort to place more oversight on these religious-based facilities. A measure requiring that schools register with the state, adhere to health, safety and fire inspections and perform employee background checks unanimously passed the House on March 29 and is now under consideration by the Senate.
Over the years, former Agape students said, they tried to get local authorities’ attention. Several times, boys said they ran away to get help from the sheriff’s department, only to be driven right back to the school.
The Star has reported that two Cedar County deputies, including Robert Graves — son-in-law of Agape founder James Clemensen — have worked at the school, and other part-time and full-time sheriff’s employees have close ties to Agape.
Last fall, Sheriff James “Jim Bob” 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 February, Hotz told The Star that the Highway Patrol was conducting a criminal investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at Agape.
Hotz said the patrol’s investigation was being conducted “at the request of the Cedar County Sheriff and the Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division.”
This isn’t the first Cedar County boarding school to come under investigation. In August, authorities removed 25 girls from Circle of Hope Girls Ranch outside Humansville amid an investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect.
On March 9, Attorney General Eric Schmitt — whose office began assisting with that investigation in November — announced 102 charges against Boyd and Stephanie Householder, who owned Circle of Hope before closing it in September.
All but one of the charges, including statutory rape, sodomy and physical abuse, are felonies. The couple is being held without bond in the Vernon County Jail. Both have pleaded not guilty and told The Star in a September interview that they have never abused a child.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson directed the Attorney General’s office last month to assist in the investigation of Agape. Gaither said at the time that he knew from the Circle of Hope investigation that he and other authorities would need additional help and resources with Agape.
