WWASPS Lawsuit Fails to Silence Critical Parent

The tables were turned on WWASP, a corporate giant that tried to silence a mother who spoke out against the company’s alleged abuses against children. On Friday, August 6, 2004, U.S., BBC, and other European journalists were present in Salt Lake City when a 12-person jury found unanimously against World Wide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP), and in favor of Florida mother Sue Scheff and P.U.R.E., the organization she founded. WWASP brought three civil counts against the mother to silence her reports of fraud, child abuse and neglect at WWASP-run children’s programs. The counts by WWASP included charges of defamation, civil conspiracy, and false advertising. Attorney Richard Henriksen in Salt Lake City, Utah represented the mother.

Some of the jurors cried as they watched video clips of the “Box,” where American children were reportedly hog-tied, hand-cuffed, duct-taped, starved, and slugged by staff. The program was closed after the government found “credible allegations of abuse.” Videos showed children covered with skin infections, and flies in their sparse food, at WWASP’s Paradise Cove; other clips showed photos of children in dog cages at WWASP’s High Impact in Mexico, and other alleged abuses by WWASP.

Although the St. George, Utah businessmen, Robert Lichfield, Karr Farnsworth, and Ken Kay, claim High Impact was not affiliated with WWASP, former employees and parents testified otherwise. Employees said they were told not to reveal the program’s affiliation with WWASP. One former employee testified she had personally traveled to High Impact with current WWASP President, Ken Kay, who solicited her silence.

One of the victims of WWASP, a boy of 19, sat in the court and sobbed as defense lawyers showed video clips of the children in dog cages. The boy said his ordeal began at age 12, as WWASP trafficked him through five of their children’s programs over 4 ½ years. The child was the subject of an alleged murder plot at Paradise Cove, having his head banged against a coral reef and knocked unconscious as the older boys attempted to drown him in a desperate effort to close the program. The boy weighed only 80 pounds during his confinement at Paradise Cove, and he said he was hidden from television reporters covering the program. His confinement within the WWASP Empire of children’s programs ended 4 ½ years later with his removal from the cages at High Impact.

Robert Lichfield told Dateline that he would not at all be surprised by an alleged plot by adolescents to murder another child at Paradise Cove. Lichfield said, the children “brought that with them.”

Robert Lichfield was observed smiling in the corner of the Salt Lake federal courtroom, while WWASP lawyers were observed laughing in the presence of the federal jury.

Two emotional fathers testified about their children's ordeals. One child was reported to having been trafficked through Cross Creek in LaVerkin, Utah, Casa by the Sea in Mexico, and High Impact, where American children were forced to lie, face down in dirt, in on-the-cross positions, and sometimes hog-tied. According to the father, his child’s thumb was broken while in WWASP’s custody, the boy had been beaten by staff and other children, he was forced to lie in a pool of blood that formed around the boy’s chin from injuries, and he was forced to lie in his own urine.

The father described witnessing duct-tape over the mouth of a female child at Cross Creek in LaVerkin, Utah on the day the father removed his son. The father, Chris Goodwin, testified that the reality of being fraudulently “taken” by WWASP came crashing down on him the day he visited Cross Creek, another WWASP program run by Karr Farnsworth.

Jay Kay, a Utah resident, and director of Tranquility Bay Academy in Jamaica, displayed no emotion in the court while a video clip on PrimeTime was shown with Jay Kay admitting: "Do I have pepper-spray? You bet I do. And, I haven't had to use it in five and a half or six months." Earlier, however, a 15-year-old-boy, now in his 20s, said he was sprayed with pepper-spray, almost daily for eight or more months, by Jay Kay and one his former employees. At times, he said his clothing was soaked from the torment.

John France, a psychologist, testified that his child was kept in a small, cold structure without adequate heat or food at WWASP’s Spring Creek Lodge. The temperature was so cold that the orange his son had stowed away was frozen by morning. His child had to urinate in his drinking cup in the night. Mr. France’s child was forced into the “Hobbit,” a small structure at WWASP’s Spring Creek Lodge, for almost nine months. His son had scratched the words, “Let Freedom Ring” on one of the shelves where he slept during his ordeal.

Amberly Knight, the former director of Dundee Ranch Academy, described a former student who was raped and had her skull cracked. She described children being forced into a tiny isolation room and forced to kneel or lie on lumpy concrete up to 14 hours a day. The children were further punished with food deprivation. Ms. Knight reported WWASP’s alleged child abuse to Costa Rican protective services, resulting in the arrest of Narvin Lichfield and closing of Dundee Ranch Academy in May 2003.

WWASP lawyers asked the Utah jury to send a strong “message” to the Florida mom and to warn other advocates. The jury, however, sent the message to WWASP, finding against them on all counts. Two other cases filed by WWASP to chill First Amendment rights were dismissed earlier this year by federal judges. A number of advocates say they have been sued by the corporate giant in an effort to silence their attempts to expose the fraud and child abuse by WWASP.

WWASP continues to keep some 2,400 children from all over the United States in its programs. Ken Kay and Robert Lichfield say their numbers are growing with today's social problems. They deny all allegations of fraud, child abuse and neglect. The company admitted to annual revenue in excess of $90,000,000 from all its corporate shells.

In the meantime, Congressman George Miller continues to demand a criminal investigation into WWASP activities. Attorney General John Ashcroft has refused, claiming that private children’s programs, regardless of how abusive, cannot be investigated. Congressman Miller disagrees, citing the ongoing criminal investigation by the New York Attorney General in relation to the WWASP program, Ivy Ridge Academy, where a child was reportedly beaten by Utah escorts and a female child was asked to perform oral sex on a male staff member in exchange for cigarettes.

P.U.R.E. (954) 349-7260
Henriksen & Henriksen (801) 521-4145