Missouri prosecutor has Agape Boarding School case. Some worry what he will do next
Three years ago, local and state authorities completed their investigations into alleged abuse at Circle of Hope Girls Ranch and reportedly begged the county prosecutor to file charges.
He refused. Then last fall, after additional allegations about the southwest Missouri school surfaced, the state attorney general’s office stepped in at the prosecutor’s request. In March the AG filed 100 charges against Circle of Hope owners Boyd and Stephanie Householder, including some sexual abuse allegations from the 2018 investigation.
Now, the same Cedar County prosecutor — Ty Gaither — has another boarding school abuse investigation on his desk. Though the AG’s office has recommended filing charges involving Agape Boarding School for boys in Stockton, this time Gaither will have the final say. And several sources have told The Star that the prosecutor appears reluctant to follow the full charging recommendations presented to him.
That concerns not just former Agape students and parents who worry they won’t get justice, but legislators who held hearings on boarding school abuse and this year passed a law to give the state some oversight of the facilities.
“It’s interesting that the prosecutor in the case of Circle of Hope didn’t feel his office was able to handle the scope of allegations and asked the attorney general to step in and take over the case,” said Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee’s Summit. “But (he) hasn’t done so in the case of Agape where there are potentially a lot more victims, a lot more allegations of wrong.
“It doesn’t make any sense. Obviously it looks like you didn’t want to mess with that one (Circle of Hope) and you want to protect this one (Agape).”
Additional concerns extend beyond Gaither. Many worry that close ties and relationships inside the county of 14,000 residents make it impossible for local law enforcement, lawmakers and the prosecutor to remain objective.
“If they can’t get it done, then some objective people need to come in and get it done,” said Kathleen Britt, whose son Jason attended Agape for five months in 2010 and later reported being sexually abused by staff during that time.
“What if these were your children … and these things happened and you were just ignored?”
On Friday, a spokesman said the Attorney General’s office remains committed to the Agape case and repeated that “we are ready to proceed with charges.”
But according to state law, the final decision lies with the local prosecutor.
After investigating Agape since February, the Missouri Highway Patrol presented its case to Gaither more than two weeks ago. He said he planned to complete his review of the case by the time he meets late this month with the patrol and AG’s office.
On Thursday, he told The Star he was still reviewing the interviews and accompanying reports from the troopers.
“We will make a decision regarding charges upon completion of that review,” he said in an email.
Gaither has said he requested the attorney general’s assistance in both the Circle of Hope and Agape cases.
“I’m the prosecuting attorney on both matters,” he said. “However, I told the assistant attorney generals who did the investigation and preparation of the Circle of Hope case that they could take the lead on that matter regarding charges, trial and disposition.”
He did not hand over that degree of authority in the Agape investigation.
Waiting for Gaither’s decision on Agape has left some frustrated.
A former student, who filed a lawsuit against the boarding school alleging abuse by staff and other students, told The Star he’d been calling Gaither’s office almost every day for weeks, asking why he hasn’t done anything.
The man, who is not identified in the lawsuit, said he got a call last month from the prosecutor’s office, telling him to stop hounding them.
“She told me, ‘Stop calling us. You’re not privy to anything,’” he said. “She pretty much told me I’m a nobody. It’s mind-boggling.”
He said he’s not the only one reaching out to the prosecutor.
“Multiple students have been calling them and saying the same things,” he said. “And they don’t even answer the phone any more.”
The Star has spent a year investigating Missouri’s unlicensed boarding schools, which are exempt from state licensure because they are religious-based. Dozens of former Agape students detailed allegations of physical, mental and sexual abuse inside the boys’ boarding school. Those allegations spanned nearly 20 years.
The investigation also found close ties between Agape and law enforcement in Cedar County. At least two county deputies, including former Agape student Robert Graves — son-in-law of Agape owner James Clemensen — have worked at the school. That deputy also is listed in current state corporation documents as a board member of Agape Baptist Church, which oversees the school.
Other part-time and full-time sheriff’s employees have connections to Agape as well, The Star found. They include Agape’s dean of students Julio Sandoval, who Sheriff James McCrary said had occasionally worked shifts at the county jail. Sandoval also owns Safe, Sound Secure Youth Ministries, a company that parents can hire to transport their troubled teens to the school. Graves and another deputy work off-duty for that transport company, the sheriff said last fall.
The Star also found that the two legislators whose districts include Circle of Hope and Agape were friends or acquaintances of the Householders. Emails show that in 2018 Stephanie Householder kept both Sen. Sandy Crawford, R-Buffalo, and Rep. Mike Stephens, R-Bolivar, apprised of ongoing investigations into the boarding school, one of many in Missouri affiliated with the independent fundamental Baptist church, which teaches followers to separate themselves from worldly influence.
And Boyd Householder, a former Marine who worked at Agape for several years before opening Circle of Hope, used to conduct sharpshooter training for local law enforcement officers, his daughter Amanda told The Star.
The Householders are out on bond pending trial. Judge David R. Munton, of the 28th Judicial Circuit, unexpectedly set a low bond last month — after denying them bond multiple times.
Many say that the conflicts of interest have piled up in Cedar County.
“When you look at the specifics around Agape, Circle of Hope and if you get a white board out and you draw all of the lines and connections, you know that there is no way that these kids’ lives were not put at risk because of the relationships that existed,” said Rep. Crystal Quade, D-Springfield. “ … In small towns, that’s going to be unavoidable in a lot of ways. But that doesn’t mean that we just have to continue to let these types of things exist.
“The more that folks are digging, the more that reporters are uncovering, the worse and worse it’s getting.”
‘Our case stalled every time’
Immense frustration followed Gaither’s decision not to file charges against the Householders in 2018, when the investigation included allegations of sexual, physical and emotional abuse and neglect.
“I could have walked into a courtroom and won that case,” said one worker with the Missouri Children’s Division, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. “And that’s why over the years, everybody tried every route they could possibly think of, from the IRS on down.”
One law enforcement officer, she said, was so adamant that a crime had been committed that the officer went to talk to Gaither and “begged him to file charges on the Householders.” Another law enforcement official sat in Gaither’s office all day, the worker said, and tried to convince the prosecutor to either file charges or hand the case over to Missouri’s attorney general.
“He was asked several times, ‘Will you just send it to the AG’s office?’ And he said no,” the worker said. “This case could have been stopped cold in its tracks had Ty Gaither prosecuted and we had a criminal charge after the very first preponderance of the evidence case we had.”
In recent years, the state has substantiated six reports of abuse and neglect involving Circle of Hope, according to the Department of Social Services. Two were for neglect, one for physical abuse and three for sexual abuse allegations.
But because the faith-based facility was exempt from oversight, the state did not have authority over Circle of Hope’s operations. A new law went into effect last month that implements some government scrutiny over these schools.
Regarding his decision not to file charges on the sexual assault allegation from several years ago, Gaither told The Star earlier this year that he was “not going to go into the facts and circumstances of an ongoing case.”
But the prosecutor did say that information on that case was included in the information provided to Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office last year.
In May 2018, the Missouri Highway Patrol also launched an investigation into Circle of Hope. After speaking to numerous former students, Sgt. Travis Hitchcock wrote a 44-page report, which included details from the State Technical Assistance Team investigation, and presented it to federal prosecutors in Springfield. That office declined to file charges, too.
Child advocates and lawmakers say the charging delay in the Circle of Hope case is an example of what can happen when there’s a breakdown involving a team of professionals designed to protect children.
Prosecutors are members of the Multi-Disciplinary Team that is involved in Missouri’s child abuse and neglect cases. Others include the Children’s Division, law enforcement and child advocacy centers.
The team’s breakdown in the Circle of Hope investigation came up during a House committee hearing in November. The director of the Missouri Office of Child Advocate conducted a review of the case and told lawmakers she was “happy” with the work of the Children’s Division, law enforcement and the child advocacy center, which conducts forensic interviews with children.
She did not mention prosecutors.
“Were there any specific agencies that were not following best practice?” asked Ingle, who requested the legislative hearing after reading about allegations at the Cedar County girls boarding school.
Kelly Schultz, the Office of Child Advocate director, was careful with her answer, measuring her words:
“I will say other agencies that have discretion, sometimes I disagreed with those discretionary choices,” Schultz said during that Nov. 9 hearing. “I also saw other agencies get involved in parts of the investigation that I typically do not see.”
Several months after that hearing, multiple state social workers spoke with lawmakers on the House Special Committee on Government Oversight. The meeting was behind closed doors and the testimony not available to the public.
Several sources told The Star that workers expressed concerns about some internal workings at the state’s child welfare agency as well as frustrations that no charges were filed against the Circle of Hope owners for several years.
Quade said she knows the dedication that Children’s Division workers have to protect kids in the state.
“I can’t imagine the level of frustration and pain of a worker to sit and do these investigations … and believe you have accurate information and folks need to be held accountable and when you hand it over to the folks who can actually do something about it, that they don’t,” Quade said. “There’s literally nothing a worker can do at that point.”
The Children’s Division worker who wanted to remain anonymous said abuse and neglect cases are hard enough to investigate when everyone on the Multi-Disciplinary Team is working together to protect children. She and others are still stumped as to why Circle of Hope charges weren’t pursued in 2018, yet the attorney general did file 22 charges earlier this year that covered some of those same allegations.
And that’s why some are worried about the ongoing Agape investigation still being in the hands of the county prosecutor.
“Where our case just stalled every single time was with the prosecutor in Cedar County. Ty Gaither,” she said. “And I want somebody to tell me why.”
Lawmakers know Householders well
Concern about possible conflicts in Cedar County also has escalated regarding state lawmakers whose districts include that area.
More than a week ago, Quade shared emails with members of the oversight committee that she had requested from fellow lawmakers Crawford and Stephens. Not only are Agape and now-closed Circle Hope in their districts, but so are two other unlicensed Christian boarding schools.
In an email dated May 11, 2018, Stephanie Householder detailed a situation to Crawford and Stephens in which a state child welfare worker and Cedar County deputy had visited the school. In that communication, the boarding school co-owner complained about probing questions from the deputy, including why they didn’t have medical or health certifications.
Stephanie Householder also emailed Stephens on July 31, 2020, two weeks before about two dozen girls were removed from the school. She told the lawmaker, who is a retired pharmacist and for years handled medications for Circle of Hope, that parents had removed their daughter from the school the day before.
Soon after, she told Stephens, a social worker spoke to another parent and came to the school to talk to three girls. Those girls were identified as “victims” and the Householders “were named as the abusers,” Stephanie complained to Stephens.
Quade said the communications are concerning and have led to conversations among lawmakers.
“I understand those electeds (Crawford and Stephens) have relationships with them and that’s not out of the norm for a constituent to say, ‘Hey this is going on, I need your help,’” Quade said. “It is extremely important to me that elected officials understand that if there’s an ongoing Children’s Division investigation that you can’t insert yourself into that situation.”
The reality, Quade said, is that “the title of legislator carries weight.”
“Inserting yourself into any investigation can cause problems,” she said. “The legislature determines the budget of the Children’s Division and their salaries.”
Rep. Jered Taylor, R-Nixa and chairman of the oversight committee, told The Star he is aware of the concerns regarding possible conflicts in the area around Circle of Hope and Agape. His committee, he said, is expected to meet again in the next couple of months.
Britt, whose son attended Agape, said she’s been concerned about the tight relationships in Cedar County. Now she’s worried that conflicts of interest in the small community could keep former students and her son — who recently told a Highway Patrol investigator about what he endured at Agape — from seeing anyone held accountable.
“It’s been great for my son to feel like finally someone heard him,” Britt said. “But then to go through all that and feel like you’ve done your part and brought it up, and then to still have everybody around you say, ‘OK, well, thanks, but we’re not gonna do anything.’
“Eventually, that’s got to have a psychological toll as well.”
Jason Britt told The Star earlier this summer that within minutes of talking to the trooper, he realized the criminal investigation into his attack likely would go nowhere. The trooper later told him he would include the allegation in his report, Britt said, “but don’t expect anything.”
Sources have told The Star that the scope of the ongoing investigation focuses on physical restraints, not sexual abuse allegations.
“It takes a lot to be heard,” Kathleen Britt said. “And it felt good for a moment, and then you find out, ‘Oh, I went through all that, and I was hurt, and nobody still is being held accountable.’ That’s what it is. It’s not holding these people accountable. Because they have absolutely changed my son’s life forever.
“You have to ask yourselves, ‘If not this, what would cause them to act?’ If this doesn’t horrify a county, and a state, and a government and a prosecutor’s office, what would?
“What would?”
