Robert Lichfield, one of Mitt Romney's money men, has legal troubles

Robert Lichfield is a Utah businessman and philanthropist who is a co-chair of Mitt Romney's fundraising campaign.

Lichfield helped to organize a February event in St. George, Utah, that raised about $300,000 for the Romney campaign. Romney has six finance committee co-chairmen in Utah. Since the beginning of 2003, Lichfield has given money to at least seven other Republican candidates and also to the National Republican Congressional Committee and Bush-Cheney ’04 Inc.

Overall, Romney has raised $2.7 million in Utah for his presidential campaign, far more than any other candidate, according to data compiled by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has raised the second most in the state, $113,000.

There are two class-action suits going against the organizations Robert Lichfield has invested in. One is specific to Ivy Ridge; the other is broader.

You can read the Ivy Ridge class action suit yourself:

Download IvyRidgeClassAction.pdf

General class action suit  (The "Wood Complaint"): (defendants include Lichfield, Ken Kay, Karr Farnsworth, David Gilcrease, and "John Does I through XX).

The amended complaint:

Download WoodAmendedComplaint.pdf

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, 133 plaintiffs have alleged that Robert Lichfield, co-chairman of Romney’s Utah finance committee owned or operated residential boarding schools for troubled teenagers where students were “subjected to physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse.”

The complaint, which plaintiffs amended and resubmitted to the court last week [week of June 14, 2007], alleges children attending schools operated by Lichfield suffered abuses such as unsanitary living conditions; denial of adequate food; exposure to extreme temperatures; beatings; confinement in dog cages; and sexual fondling.

The attorneys filing the Wood suit:  http://www.wturley.com/

These are two active lawsuits against Lichfield. Several other suits have alleged child abuse on behalf of dozens of plaintiffs, but judges have thrown out the suits for procedural reasons. As a result, the merits of the allegations have not been weighed. In some suits, plaintiffs have settled their cases for undisclosed amounts of money.

[snip]

Lichfield did not respond to requests for comment made through the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS). WWASPS is his co-defendant in several lawsuits and Lichfield sits on its board of directors.

Plaintiffs represented by the Dallas-based Turley Law Firm claim Lichfield and WWASPS helped to run boarding schools where staff abused students and “acted in concert” to “fraudulently conceal the extent and nature of the physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse occurring at its [member] schools,” their complaint states.

The plaintiffs include former boarding school students and their parents.   

The president of WWASPS, Ken Kay, said in an interview the lawsuits are a ploy to get money and dismissed the credibility of former students making allegations.

“Most of them are ludicrous,” Kay said of the claims made against his organization and the boarding schools. “A certain percentage of the kids [who participate] are never going to be happy. They weren’t happy with public schools, they weren’t happy with law enforcement, and they have a long history of lying, fabricating and twisting the story around to their own benefit.

“Many of them have done poorly and have filed suits [since leaving the schools],” he added. “They have had problem with their families, churches, public schools and outpatient therapy. A large percentage of these kids have been [in] other treatment programs.”

The legal disputes shine light on the obscure world of boarding schools for troubled teens.

Years ago, parents set their troublesome teenagers to military schools. In recent years, boot-camp boarding schools, where staff emphasize discipline, have become popular. The schools affiliated with Lichfield and WWASPS fit this mold.

The parents suing Lichfield sent their kids to WWASPS-affiliated schools such as Cross Creek Center for Boys in LaVerkin, Utah; Majestic Ranch Academy in Randolph, Utah; and The Academy at Ivy Ridge in Ogdensburg after they got into trouble for insubordination, drug use or petty theft.

The parents learned of the boarding schools through Teen Help, a business owned by Lichfield that matched parents and their children with boarding schools around the country and in Mexico, Costa Rica, and American Samoa. Lichfield had consulting relationships with nearly all the schools, according to Kay. In some instances Lichfield rented property to the schools, said Kay, who did not name the properties specifically.

Plaintiffs have alleged that Lichfield made millions from the schools. 

Former students allege they were transported against their will — sometimes in handcuffs — by operators such as Clean and Sober Solutions and Teen Escort Services to far-away locations.

Once at the boarding schools, they say they were subject to harsh treatment. Some students say they never attended classes and simply received books to read on their own without supervision. Others allege that staff at the schools threatened them with cattle prods and punished severely violations of school rules. Several students alleged in legal complaints that they were forced to lie face down on the floor for hours at a time, forbidden from moving their arms or legs. 

Kay said WWASPS worked only with the schools and never had direct contact with the students. He also said only a very small percentage of former students have brought complaints.

Kay also said that the vast majority of former students never alleged abusive treatment. 

A survey by The Hill found at least nine lawsuits filed in the last nine years against specialty boarding schools affiliated with Lichfield. Judges threw out more than half of the complaints because of procedural objections.

For example, a suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2005 on behalf of more than 20 plaintiffs was dismissed by a judge who found California did not have jurisdiction over the matter, according to Henry Bushkin, the plaintiffs’ attorney. Bushkin said he would gather more evidence to show a California court could hear the suit.

One of the lawyers making allegations against Lichfield is Thomas M. Burton, by his own account, a relative of Romney through marriage and a one-time friend of the ex-governor’s late father, George Romney.

Burton said he has filed six unsuccessful suits against Lichfield. He said judges have thrown out his complaints because of various procedural difficulties.

Citing an example, Burton said one case could not proceed because his client, Clayton Bowman, a resident of the state of Washington, could not bear the psychological anguish of testifying about his experience at one of the WWASP-affiliated schools.

 

Previous Posts on WWASPS and WWASPS-related issues:

Challenge Day & WWASPS --March 30 2005
Boonville Says No to WWASPS--April 10 2005
Riot at Ivy Ridge--June 8 2005
Academy at Ivy Ridge--August 23, 2005
Advice for Parents Looking for A Therapeutic School -- January 21, 2005
Maia Szalavitz On Debunking "Tough Love" Schools -- April 11 2006
WWASPS Suit--September 6 2006
On Accreditation -- December 11 2006
Northwest Association of Accredited Schools -- December 11 2006

Series on Questions Parents Should Ask:

• NonPublic Schools: Part I--Overview
• NonPublic Schools--Part II Evaluating Mission, Values, & Goodness of Fit for Your Child
• NonPublic Schools--Part III Faculty and Staff Qualifications
• NonPublic Schools--Part IV: Evaluating Academic Program
• NonPublic Schools:Part V--On Accreditation
• NonPublic Schools:Part VI--More Detail on Financial Issues: IRS Status

Other Sources of Information:

• Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse (CAICA)--Royal Gorge Index
• International Survivors Action Committee ISAC --WWASPS Index
• WaspsInfo.net ("home of all the information WWASPS wants you to ignore.") --includes Randall Hinton's bio
• NoSpank on residential treatment
• Community Alliance on Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY)
• John Gorenfeld on Tranquility Bay
• John Gorenfield's writings on boot camp abuse

 

Comments

[Isabelle Zehnder]

Great job, Liz. Here are links to some other blogs:

http://romneylichfield.blogspot.com/

http://robertlichfield.blogspot.com/

http://mittromneyrobertlichfield.blogspot.com/

Articles re Romney/Lichfield:

http://caica.org/Mitt_Romney_Robert_Lichfield.htm

Also, I just found out last night that "Arizona Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has topped $1 million in contributions in Arizona, the home state of presidential rival Sen. John McCain, Romney campaign officials said Wednesday."

Wonder if there's any connection to Lichfield there.

Isabelle Zehnder
Founder and President
Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse (CAICA)
www.caica.org
info@caica.org

[alcohol abuse]

Here's a website you may find useful. http://www.addicted.com is a site for friends, families, and those who suffer from various addictions.

[Leeds Escort Agency]

The abuse of the teenagers and forcing them in doing things against their will is illegal and that boarding school who disguises themselves as 'boarding school' should be apprehended by the law.