‘Another delay in justice.’ Missouri judge in Agape Boarding School case faces criticism
Former students of Agape Boarding School and lawmakers who pushed for it to be held accountable celebrated early Thursday, believing the school would soon be shut down.
“Tears of joy,” wrote one lawmaker.
“I am crying with emotion right now,” one former student said. “Today marks the first day of the rest of our lives.” Another added: “I can finally sleep at night knowing no more kids are being abused.”
But within an hour, they were just angry.
“Even after hearing the news that Agape potentially could be shut down today I had a feeling the local authorities would find a way to screw it up,” said James Griffey, who attended Agape from 1998 to 2001. “The fact that they have employed someone that’s a child abuser should be enough for the Missouri government to take action to protect the children there. But yet again the local judge found a way to (mess) it up.”
He and others couldn’t understand why Judge David Munton — who signed an order just the night before to close the school near Stockton on the grounds that there was an “immediate health and safety concern” for the students — now was putting it on hold and the boys at the school would remain there until at least Monday, when a court hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m.
“It’s extremely concerning and frustrating that an order like this would be delayed even a minute as there is no benefit in extending it,” said Rep. Dottie Bailey, R-Eureka, a vocal critic of the state’s previous handling of unlicensed boarding schools. “It’s another delay in justice and reprieve for these kids. It’s insulting.”
Munton served as an associate circuit judge in Dade County for 22 years before being elected in 2016 as the presiding judge for the 28th Circuit. He is a longtime member of Main Street Baptist Church in Greenfield, where he serves as worship leader.
In a November 2016 interview with the Nevada Daily Mail, Munton said, “We Baptists preach law and gospel and I entertained going into church work and did do an internship in leading choir and worship but God made it clear that instead of the gospel, the law was my true calling.”
On Thursday, many directed their anger toward Munton, as well as the small-town connections and cozy relationships inside Cedar County that they say have interfered with justice in the past and put children inside the unlicensed Christian boarding school in jeopardy.
Hours after the judge had signed off on the petition for an injunction filed by Attorney General Eric Schmitt and the Department of Social Services, Munton said he needed more information from the school. So he sent Cedar County Sheriff James “Jimbob” McCrary to Agape to confirm whether an employee with a substantiated finding of physical abuse was still working there — which was the basis for the injunction.
Prompted by stories of abuse at several unlicensed Christian boarding schools in Missouri, legislators successfully pushed through a law in 2021 giving the state some oversight of the schools. The new law gives DSS, the attorney general or the local prosecuting attorney the authority to petition the court to close a facility if there is an immediate health or safety concern for the children.
McCrary and his office’s connections to Agape Boarding School — which is overseen by Agape Baptist Church — are well documented. Several people with ties to the school work for the sheriff’s office, including Deputy Robert Graves, who attended Agape as a student then worked at the school for years, including while he was a deputy. Until recently, he also served on the board of Agape Baptist Church.
Graves has worked as the school’s resource officer, handled reports of crimes on campus and also responded to some as a sheriff’s deputy. And former students told The Star that on at least one occasion when Children’s Division workers came to the school to investigate a hotline call, Graves sat in on the interviews wearing his sheriff’s uniform.
He also is the son-in-law of Agape founder James Clemensen, and Graves’ daughter, Deanna Smock, has been a dispatcher for the Sheriff’s Office.
Thursday’s court docket shows that a “D. Smock” signed for the judge’s directive for McCrary to go to Agape. Deanna Smock’s husband, Alex, has worked as a corrections officer at the Cedar County Jail, and her father-in-law, David Smock, was a longtime medical provider for Agape students. David Smock now faces 15 child sex abuse counts in Cedar and Greene counties.
Graves and another sheriff’s deputy also have worked off-duty for Safe, Sound Secure Youth Ministries, a company that parents can hire to transport their children to Agape. That company is owned by Julio Sandoval, a former dean of students at Agape, who has occasionally worked at the jail.
Last week, a federal grand jury indicted Sandoval, accusing his transport company of violating a court order by taking a California teen to Agape in handcuffs and against his will.
McCrary told The Star last year that he was aware of the connections his employees had to Agape but said that hadn’t influenced the department’s investigations. He said if a potential conflict arose, he would pass the case to another agency to follow up.
As part of their argument for an injunction, Schmitt and DSS included those close ties to Agape, illustrating the politics permeating this small southwest Missouri community.
Also, just last year, Munton surprised many when he set a low $10,000 bond — after denying any bond multiple times — for Boyd and Stephanie Householder, the former owners of Circle of Hope Girls Ranch in Cedar County, who are charged with 99 counts of crimes against children. Those counts include allegations of statutory rape, sodomy, physical abuse and neglect.
The couple were freed from jail after four months and remain on house arrest until their upcoming trial.
When the couple was released, Schmitt blasted the decision by Munton as “completely improper” and asked the judge to again hold the couple in custody until trial. He didn’t.
Munton’s decision Thursday to hold off on executing his own order to shutter Agape immediately — and remove students — only drew further frustration.
“There’s obviously a conflict of interest,” said Rep. Keri Ingle, who was the first to call for legislative hearings after reading about the Circle of Hope allegations. “And now there’s a pattern of decision making with this judge, letting the Householders out and giving Agape this type of leniency. What changed from last night until today?
“The Department of Social Services and the AG is saying there is immediate harm. Why is the judge believing Agape over them? … When are we going to start putting the welfare of children above the good ole boys club in these small communities?”
Last year, after the Missouri Highway Patrol investigated abuse allegations at Agape for several months, the AG’s Office — which was assisting in the case — recommended 22 staffers be charged with 65 felony counts involving 36 children. But Cedar County Prosecuting Attorney Ty Gaither, who had sole discretion over charging decisions, filed only 13 lower-level counts against five staffers.
Before Gaither charged the five, Schmitt asked Gov. Mike Parson to remove the Attorney General’s Office from the investigation.
In deciding not to charge the total number of staff members the AG’s office recommended, “Mr. Gaither has expressly rejected the assistance and expertise of the Attorney General’s office, and he has indicated that he does not intend to seek justice for all of the thirty-six children who were allegedly victimized by twenty-two members of the Agape Boarding School staff,” the letter from Schmitt’s office said.
Schmitt also filed a motion to seat a grand jury to hear evidence “regarding the abuse of these 36 children at the hands of the 22 identified suspects and to sign any resulting indictments.” Munton denied that motion after Gaither wrote a letter to the judge saying that “all matters in this investigation will require my signature and must come from my office.”
Schmitt released a statement late Thursday afternoon, saying “we will continue to fight for the children at Agape, and look forward to presenting our arguments on Monday.”
“For more than a year, we’ve been fighting for accountability and justice, but have been stymied by the Office’s lack of original criminal jurisdiction and an uncooperative prosecutor at nearly every turn,” Schmitt said. “My Office has continued to monitor and investigate this situation and when we learned that there was a clear violation of the law, we took swift and decisive action.”
The attorney general said that he and those in his office have worked closely with DSS to put a “court ordered plan” in place to allow workers with the Children’s Division to have 24-hour access to the Agape facility to monitor the students until Monday’s hearing.
The hearing, which was supposed to be held on Thursday, was postponed until Monday at the request of Agape’s attorney, who was out of state.
“Agape remains open,” Agape said in a statement. “...We intend to appear at that hearing and present our case to the Court.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2022 at 6:55 PM.
