Perkins responds to accusations

By JACOB DORAN - Bigfork Eagle

In light of the resurfacing allegations that a number of abuses occurred during his tenure at the Swan Valley Youth Academy near Condon, former director Chris Perkins recently refuted some of the accusations that have emerged within the last month.

As the result of investigative efforts to make public the previous allegations, Perkins resigned from his recent appointment as the director of Maryland's juvenile detention facilities. Perkins submitted his resignation to Secretary of Juvenile Services Donald DeVore, just one day after a Lewis and Clark County judge unsealed an investigative report alleging the abuse of at least 14 teenagers at Swan Valley Youth Academy.

The allegations, which Perkins claims were unfounded, were ultimately dismissed by Department of Public Health and Human Services hearings officer Joseph Sternhagen on procedural grounds, in December of 2006.

An official DPHHS order, dated Dec. 7, 2006, states that, "substantiation(s) of child abuse or neglect involved herein are hereby dismissed with prejudice and shall be removed by the Department from the CAPS computer system." The order was issued after state health officials failed to appear at the hearing, one day earlier, and subsequently failed to file or serve a timely response to a motion for dismissal.

"The allegations that were brought against Chris Perkins were never proven," Perkin's attorney Peter Leander said. "Apparently DPHHS never thought it worth while to even mount a case or show up for the hearing. We showed up. They didn't show up. Case dismissed."

Leander said that he did extensive investigation into the allegations, comparing timelines and other details. He further stated that he discovered "gross and glaring inconsistencies."

Perkins stated that out of 90 teenage males who came through Swan Valley Youth Academy during his tenure, not a single youth made an allegation of abuse, either during or after his directorship at the facility. He added that two complete audits of the facility were done, prior to the DPHHS investigation, and that the facility was given a 100 percent compliance only three months before the investigation.

DPHHS Quality Assurance Division assistant administrator Roy Kemp verified that the facility was found to be deficiency free in June of 2004 and June of 2005.

However, Montana Advocacy Program attorney Andree' Larose, who first investigated the abuse allegations, disagrees with Perkin's assertion that none of the youths reported abuse. According to Larose, a report of abuse was made one year prior to her own investigation.

While representing one of the academy's youth in another matter, Larose began investigating possible abuses after the young man's family expressed their concerns about what had happened to him at the facility.

According to Larose, who said that the allegations cited her report came from former employees, she found a number of similarities between each of the allegations and asked local law enforcement, as well as the Department of Public Health and Human Services to pursue the matter and determine whether there were licensing violations, abuse and neglect, or possible criminal violations.

"The allegations were substantiated by investigators in the Department," Larose said, adding that "Perkins requested a fair hearing to challenge the findings. That's where the State Department failed to respond to the challenge that Chris Perkins and other individual filed to dismiss the substantiations. As a result, there is no substantiation on record in the case."

"DPHHS cannot produce a single shred of evidence to show abuse," Perkins said. "All of the kids were seen by Dr. Richard Jenka and given a full medical evaluation. Never once was a single instance of abuse documented by a health professional. There was no physical evidence of abuse."

Not everyone would agree.

Gary Shulz, who worked as a case manager at the Swan Valley Youth Academy said that he witnessed treatment of the youth that he deemed to be inappropriate. Having watched the intake process for a couple of the youths who were brought into the facility, he described the process as humiliating and "far outside the bounds of how to treat an adolescent, regardless of their legal background."

Parts of that very intake process were cited in the DPHHS report, which was released last month. Shulz said that, while he did not witness many of the abuses referred to in the report, he was told about certain abuses by other staff.

Shultz said that one of the sergeants reported excessive physical discipline of a couple of the cadets, including a cadet being choked by a staff member. However, Shulz said that another sergeant and not Perkins was implicated in the abuse and that disciplinary action was taken.

In another instance, Shulz said a youth was isolated for several days for being unresponsive before a case manager was allowed to speak to him and determined that the cadet had been disassociating because of the emotional trauma of losing of both his father and his uncle, both of whom the boy had been close to.

Likewise, Shulz alleged that a cadet had informed him that he was made to drink hot water during the intake process to induce vomiting. Shulz said that he questioned a nurse, who confirmed the incident, and that the behavior was subsequently stopped.

Shulz also said that he was case manager for a youth who slipped away from SVYA staff for about 45 minutes and apparently attempted to hang himself in the gymnasium. This incident was also cited in the DPHS report.

Perkins, however, stated that it was Shulz's responsibility to report any abuses both to the state and to child services, neither of which was ever done.

While Perkins did not deny that some abuses might have occurred at the facility, he claimed to have no involvement in those abuses and stressed that some of them may have occurred prior to his tenure.

Perkins specifically referred to statements made by John Gisselbrecht, a consultant and spiritual helper from the Native American Cultural Center, who worked with native inmates. Perkins said he had never met Gisselbrecht and that his name did not appear on any of the sign in books.

Gisselbrecht said that most of his involvement was prior to Perkins' tenure and that he was not usually made to follow normal sign-in procedures because the staff knew him. However, Gisselbrecht said that he believed the last of the abuses he witnessed, involving a cadet being made to stand at attention in the snow with no clothing, occurred during the transition when Perkins had assumed command of the facility.

In reference to the allegations brought against Perkins and Swan Valley Youth Academy, Leander said that the investigation was one-sided.

"If allegations as serious as these are made without a thorough analysis of the statements interfacing with other documents that may prove those statements to be false, then I believe that is a violation of due process," Leander said.

Leader said that, based upon the available evidence, he believes that Perkins was unjustly accused and implicated in the allegations of abuse.

"I'm very disturbed that the State of Montana would willfully and maliciously violate due process," Perkins said, adding that as a result the facility was forced to close and that 40 people lost their jobs. "People should understand that what Montana advocacy has done is closed down the only long-term treatment center for these adjudicated males, and the report that was generated was uncorroborated, unsubstantiated hearsay."

Joe Newman, president of Colorado-based Cornerstone Programs, which operated Swan Valley Youth Academy said he terminated Perkins over the matter but feels that the State failed to follow through and do the right thing.

"If there was abuse, then it needs to be proven and the man should never be allowed to work in this system," Newman said. "If there wasn't abuse, then the man's reputation is being ruined for nothing."

Worse yet, Newman added, was that a program that he believed was helping young people was shut down because of it.