Report details alleged abuse at camp (23 June 2006)

By JOE RUIZ
jruiz@sastandardtimes.com or 659-8262

Accusations of excessive manual labor, physical abuse and denial of medication are among the charges contained in documents in a case involving the arrest of three men this month on a charge of injuring a 13-year-old.

Robert Gene Kelly, 18, Jason Brian Baker, 30, and James Edward Esther, 33, worked as volunteers at U-Turn for Christ, a youth camp in Quail Valley designed for children with behavioral and substance-abuse problems.

The camp, at 2065 East Valley Drive just north of San Angelo, is an unlicensed child-care facility, said Marleigh Meisner, public information officer with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. The Residential Child Care Licensing division of her agency plans to investigate the facility.

According to the search warrant affidavit sought by Tom Green County sheriff's investigator Sgt. Ron Sanders, the children at the camp, ranging in age from 12 to 17, reported:

-Being denied food or fed spoiled food.

-Being forced to stand in above 90-degree heat without shade for hours at a time.

-Being forced to push a 20- to 40-pound rock around.

-Being pushed into pig excrement.

-Being forced to dig a hole, place a dead goat in the hole, fill the hole, dig up the carcass and repeat.

-Being punched, kicked, shoved and thrown to the ground.

The report states children were denied clothing, money and other personal property sent to them by their families, and denied access to prescribed medications.

Seven containers of medication were taken into evidence by the sheriff's office, according to the property seizure forms.

Sheriff's officials originally received a complaint about the facility on June 10 from a passing motorist who believed a youth was made to stand in the same place in a field for hours.

The specific charge relates to the physical abuse of a 13-year-old boy. According to the Texas Penal Code, a charge of injury to a child is a third-degree felony punishable by a prison term of two to 10 years and a fine not to exceed $10,000.

Sanders and Esther testified during a bond reduction hearing for Esther on Wednesday that the charge pertains to kicking a child. Sanders said Thursday that Kelly is the person alleged to have abused the teenager.

Esther and Baker are accused of allowing the incident to happen, Sanders said at the hearing. Sanders and Esther testified that Esther was simply an overseer of the children.

The investigation is ongoing, Sanders said Thursday.

Esther's bond, originally $150,000, was reduced Wednesday by Judge Jay Weatherby of the 340th District Court to $35,000. According to Tom Green County Jail records, Esther posted the reduced bond and was released Thursday.

Baker and Kelly were released late Thursday afternoon on $35,000 bond each, jail officials said.

Andrew Graves, Esther's attorney, argued the amount of the bond was excessive because Esther has no means to pay such a large amount and that he would pose no flight risk. Graves also pointed out his client was not the person directly involved with the alleged abuse.

All three men were originally held in lieu of $150,000 bond each.

Some people who have worked with the facility say they believe the charges against the three men are unfounded.

''James and the other boys ought to be commended for what they were doing, instead of being up here in the jailhouse,'' said R.F. Ford, pastor at Water Valley Baptist Church, after Esther's hearing.

Ford said he visited the camp a number of times and never saw any evidence of abuse or mistreatment.

''I saw the kids learning about the Lord, I saw them learn to be respectful, I saw them changing their lives and turning their lives around,'' Ford said. ''I saw all of those things, but I never saw them abused in any way.''

Any of the children's bruises seen by law enforcement could have come from the volunteer work the campers did for Ford and his church, Ford said. The camp was previously designed to work with adult men in a similar capacity, but changed to a youth facility in December.

An attempt to speak with people Thursday at the camp's residence was unsuccessful. According to county records, the single-family residence sits on 5 acres.

Jail records indicate all three men live at the home, and Esther testified Wednesday he lived there. No one returned a message left Thursday evening at a number listed for the camp.