More than 100 now suing Lord’s Ranch in federal lawsuit

LITTLE ROCK — Former operators and employees of an 1,100 acre residential treatment facility for children now face five federal lawsuits, with a total of 107 former clients accusing them of physical, mental and sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, a defense attorney has put state Attorney General Tim Griffin on notice that he will be challenging the constitutionality of the Justice for Vulnerable Victims of Sexual Abuse Act, Ark. Code Ann. § 16-118-118, which made it possible to file the lawsuits.

Lawyers on all sides of the cases filed mountains of court documents last week, including three new lawsuits.

Attorneys Jay Bequette and Phillip M. Brick, who are defending former employees Emmett Presley and Alonza Giles, filed notice of the constitutional challenge in the case.

The legislation went into effect on Aug. 1. Rep. Jimmy Gazaway of Paragould sponsored the bill in the House, and David Wallace of Leachville was the Senate sponsor.

“The Arkansas Supreme Court has ‘long taken the view, along with a majority of the other states, that the legislature cannot expand a statute of limitation so as to revive a cause of action already barred,’” Bequette and Brick wrote in a motion to dismiss lawsuits against Presley and Giles, citing a 1992 state Supreme Court decision.

“Under Arkansas law, ‘after a cause of action has become barred by the statute of limitations, the defendant has a vested right to rely on that statute as a defense, and neither a constitutional convention nor the Legislature has power to divest that right and revive the cause of action.’” Also named as defendants are Theodore E. Suhl and Shirley Suhl and their corporate entities associated with the Lord’s Ranch near Warm Springs in Randolph County: Maxus, Inc. d/b/a Arkansas Counseling Associates Incorporated d/b/a Trinity Behavioral Healthcare Systems, Inc. d/b/a The Lord’s Ranch; Maxus, Inc. Individually and d/b/a The Lord’s Ranch; Trinity Behavioral Health Care System, Incorporated, Individually and d/b/a The Lord’s Ranch; The Lord’s Ranch Christian Boy’s Home, Inc.; The Lord’s Ranch Christian Center And Children’s Rehabilitation Unit; The Lord’s Ranch Psychiatric Unit, Inc.; Christian International Medical Sciences Foundation, Inc.; Cornerstone Treatment Center, Inc.; Burklyn Corporation; Good Samaritan Rehabilitation Center, Inc.; Warm Springs Christian Center, Inc.; Trinity Dynamics, Incorporated; The Lord’s Ranch Behavioral Healthcare System, Incorporated; Triennia Health Care, Inc.; Horizon Sunrise Management; Millenia Health Care, Inc.; LG Property Management, Incorporated; Green Valley Asset Management, LLC; Rolling Hills Investments, LLC; Regal Property Developments, LLC.

All of the accusers are identified publicly as John Doe.

“The Suhl family, including Defendants Ted Suhl and Shirley Suhl, made an intentional, fully conscious decision to allow child predators such as Presley, their Director of Social Services, to rape and sexually molest male children under their care; they and their underlings like Alonza Jiles, Gary Jackson, and Philander Kirk never once lifted a finger to help the children or prevent their sexual abuse by Presley. Rather, they did everything in their power, including the use of threats, intimidation, and physical violence, to silence the many children who spoke up and reported sexual and physical abuse to them over the years, thereby ensuring that child predators including Presley could continue their horrific abuse unabated, in turn allowing the Suhls to continue profiting financially from operating the Lord’s Ranch unchecked by the outside influences and prying eyes that would follow should the outside world hear about these crimes,” Joshua D. Gillispie, an attorney for the first 30 John Does wrote in the third lawsuit.

Most of the plaintiffs in the original lawsuits were residents of other states who had been assigned to the Randolph County facility.

The newest lawsuit, filed by the Paul Byrd Law Firm of Little Rock, includes primarily Arkansas residents who were sent there.

The lawsuits claim the Lord’s Ranch entities were paid about $95 million by the State of Arkansas in Medicaid funds from 2002 through 2008. From 2009 through 2014, they were paid more than $135 million for Medicaid inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services.

The facility closed in 2016 after a federal jury found Suhl guilty of charges related to paying up to $20,000 in cash bribes over four years to a state health official in hopes of receiving inside information to benefit his businesses.

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He was sentenced to seven years in prison, but was released after former President Donald Trump commuted his sentence to time served.

The White House in 2019 called Suhl “a pillar of his community before his prosecution and a generous contributor to several charities” in its statement announcing Trump’s commutation. Suhl’s clemency request had been supported by former Gov.

Mike Huckabee, The Associated Press reported.

All five cases are expected to be tried at the same time.