Sex trafficking, racketeering alleged at Missouri boarding school in federal lawsuit
An Oklahoma woman is suing the former owners of Circle of Hope Girls Ranch in federal court, accusing them of sex trafficking, racketeering, forced labor and fraud.
Maggie Drew, 30, filed the suit against Boyd and Stephanie Householder on Friday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The Householders were charged last year with 99 felony counts of child abuse and neglect, including statutory rape, sodomy and physical abuse.
The lawsuit also names four other defendants: Agape Boarding School and its owner, the late James Clemensen; Agape Baptist Church, which oversees the school; and Jeffrey Ables, a former Circle of Hope board member and current pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Springfield.
“I brought this suit on because they robbed me,” Drew told The Star. “They robbed me of my inheritance, they robbed me of my mental health and have robbed me of my physical health through the abuse that I endured there, and I think justice for all of it is due.
“They can’t scare me out of standing up for myself anymore.”
In the 29-page filing, Drew alleges that Clemensen and Ables knew that she and other girls were being abused and mistreated but failed to report it, even “holding (Circle of Hope) out to be in good standing.”
“Defendants ignored reports that Boyd and Stephanie Householder were engaging in inappropriate sexual and physical activity and harassment with vulnerable children,” the suit says. “Defendants deliberately failed to warn, report, or inform any other individuals or organizations about the Householders’ use of their positions of power to injure others.”
Drew’s lawsuit requests a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages. It is the fourth case to be filed this year against Circle of Hope and the 23rd that has named Agape as a defendant in the past 18 months. It is the first filed in federal court.
Five other lawsuits filed against Circle of Hope, from September 2020 to March 2021, were settled last year for undisclosed amounts.
The Householders ran Circle of Hope Girls Ranch in Cedar County from 2006 until closing it in September 2020 amid allegations of abuse and an ongoing investigation by local and state officials. The couple was released on bond and await trial, which is scheduled for late 2023.
In a September 2020 interview with The Star, the Householders denied the allegations against them and said they had never abused their students. They said the lies were the machination of their estranged, troubled daughter and a group of girls whose lives didn’t turn out the way they wanted after they left the ranch.
Agape officials have not responded to repeated requests from The Star for comment on any of the stories it has published.
Agape and Circle of Hope are among the numerous facilities The Star has examined in an ongoing investigation into Missouri’s faith-based reform schools, which are exempt from state licensing.
Drew attended Circle of Hope near Humansville beginning in October 2007 when she was 15 and left in January 2013 when she was 20.
She has spoken to The Star on multiple occasions, describing how she told two Missouri Highway Patrol troopers in 2018 about the abuse she said she and others at the school endured. At that time, Drew said, she thought authorities were serious about investigating the school and that the girls there would be rescued. But federal prosecutors declined to file charges at the time.
As unlicensed boarding schools have been under intense scrutiny in the past two years, Drew has been an outspoken critic, attending a rally in November 2020 of former students in Cedar County.
She submitted testimony to Missouri legislators in the months before a law passed last year implementing some oversight over unlicensed boarding schools.
Her suit includes detailed descriptions of what she says she and other girls went through at the southwest Missouri Christian boarding school.
“During the first thirty days at Circle of Hope, Maggie was not allowed to speak to her father or stepmother,” the suit says. “She also was not allowed to participate in any kind of schooling. The girls were not allowed to speak to each other and could be disciplined for doing so.”
Drew herself eventually was required to “administer punishments to the children at the Circle of Hope Boarding School on threat of serious bodily injury,” according to the lawsuit.
Students were used as “non-paid workers,” the suit alleges, forced to buck hay for neighbors and the community, clear trees and drag brush while on their hands and knees.
“They weeded out rows and rows of gardens,” according to the lawsuit. “They fed, watered, and otherwise cared for the livestock. Sometimes Boyd or Stephanie would require them to scrub the floors with toothbrushes. They cleaned out nasty buildings and trailers, moving furniture for the Circle of Hope property and others in the community.
“The Householders required the girls to carry two five-gallon buckets at a time in the freezing temperatures to water the horses and other animals in the winter. Water breaks were often not allowed in the summer, and in the winter the girls were given only light clothing to wear.”
Some girls, the suit alleges, were restrained with zip ties around their wrists and ankles. Others were handcuffed.
Drew also accuses the couple of sexual misconduct. She said Boyd Householder’s interest in her grew, and he began “grabbing her buttocks when he passed by. He progressed to putting his hands across her breasts and touching her when she was in the office. He would kiss her and fondle her whenever they were in the office together alone.”
After reporting the behavior to Stephanie Householder, she said she was punished and demoted.
“Maggie Drew was required to raise her hand if she needed to scratch, pass gas, or engage in other involuntary bodily functions,” the suit says. “She was given pushups and other punishments if she passed gas either without asking permission or if permission was not granted.”
The allegations spelled out in the lawsuit include sexual assault.
“Defendants Circle of Hope, Boyd and Stephanie Householder coerced Plaintiff into performing sex acts and/or allowing Boyd Householder to perform sex acts upon her by means of force, threats of force, fraud, and/or coercion,” the suit says. “Defendant Boyd Householder patronized Plaintiff, requiring her to perform sex acts upon him and/or performing sex acts upon her after she attained the age of 14 but had not attained the age of 18…”
In addition, Drew accuses the Householders of stealing money from her, which the lawsuit says is a violation of the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and fraud under Missouri law.
“Plaintiff’s grandfather left her $25,000 for her to go to college,” according to the suit. “The Householders made her sign papers that gave them that money, under threat.”
When Drew’s father died while she was attending Circle of Hope, the suit alleges that the Householders through “coercion, force, and deception” took her Social Security payments.
This story was originally published August 16, 2022 at 12:00 PM.
