Posted on 12/11/2022 1:27:26 AM PST by Morgana
OZARK, Mo. (AP) — Two men who were facing felony charges alleging they abused boys at a private Christian boarding school in southwest Missouri have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, and the case against a third was dropped.
Scott Dumar, 46, the medical coordinator at the Agape Boarding School near Stockton, pleaded guilty Thursday to two misdemeanors and was placed on two years probation. Everett Graves, 40, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor.
The case against Chris McElroy was dropped after the alleged victim did not appear at a preliminary hearing Thursday, The Kansas City Star reported.
They were among five staff members charged in September 2021 with low-level felonies after an investigation into accusations by former and current students of widespread abuse at the school
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office had recommended prosecuting 22 staff members with a total of 65 counts on behalf of 36 students. But Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither charged only the five employees.
Last year Agape’s longtime doctor, David Smock, was charged with several child sex crimes involving students. He has pleaded not guilty.
After hearing testimony from the former students Thursday, Cedar County Associate Circuit Court Judge Thomas Pyle determined Dumar’s actions did not warrant felony charges and suggested Dumar plead to the two misdemeanors. If he violates his probation, Dumar could be sent to jail for a year.
Pyle made the same determination in allowing Graves, who like Dumar has no prior convictions, to plead guilty to a misdemeanor.
A fourth defendant, Trent Hartman, has been bound over for trial on two felony counts of third-degree assault. The preliminary hearing for the fifth staffer, Seth Duncan, is scheduled for next week.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office filed a motion in early September to close Agape, calling it “an immediate health and safety concern” for children living there. Later that month, the Republican speaker of the Missouri House, Rob Vescovo, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore in Kansas City also urging closure of Agape.
In October, Pyle canceled hearings that had been scheduled to consider Schmitt’s motion. No new hearings have been scheduled, and the school continues to operate.
There is more politics here at work.
“There is more politics here at work.”
You don’t say.
Serious freaking abuse has gone down at that school yet it’s still open. Who is being paid off to keep it open?
No I’ll say it I don’t care. Who’s dick was sucked to keep this place open?
FDRQ delenda est...
If you have some answers or theories they would be appreciated. Expressing rage alone offers little.
There was probably a bunch of them that were sucked, Morgana. Like the old saying goes, “It is not what you know, but who you blow that matters”.
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