CHARLESTON — Kanawha Circuit Judge Dave Hardy ruled last week that the remaining cases involving Miracle Meadows School will remain in Kanawha County.
Hardy rejected a motion by the defense attorneys, who were hoping to transfer the remaining cases to Harrison Circuit Court. Of the nearly 140 cases that have been filed over the years be former students of the school, which was located in Salem and existed between 1987 and 2014, 110 of the cases have already been settled for more than $100 million.
Attorney Ben Salango, who represents students in the cases, agreed with Hardy's decision.
"Judge Hardy’s ruling is legally sound," Salango said in an interview with The West Virginia Record. "Miracle Meadows School, through its insurance company, was simply trying to get a second bite at the apple. These issues were already ruled upon by Judge Tabit before she passed away. Hundreds of children were sexually abused, raped and tortured at this school. The victims are looking forward to having their cases heard by a jury in Kanawha County."
Attorney Jesse Forbes, who, along with Guy D’Andrea and Scott Long, have also represented the former students of the Miracle Meadows School for seven years and achieved more than $100 million in settlements for the survivors argued successfully against the transfer motion telling the court this was “like a last-ditch effort to move the playing field in the fourth quarter of the game when the defense is down ninety to zero…nothing has changed since the prior ruling in this same Court rejecting these same arguments, other than the referee."
"The sad reality is that while the atrocities these children were forced to endure wouldn’t be believed in a Hollywood horror movie, they actually occurred right here in the hills of West Virginia," Forbes said in an interview with The West Virginia Record. "Children as young as seven were tortured in unimaginable ways. The children were handcuffed, chained and shackled to beds, sexually abused, locked in small isolation cells for months at a time, forced to sleep on concrete floors and use coffee cans in place of bathrooms, isolated and ignored, deprived of medical care, starved and malnourished, forced to perform manual labor, routinely beaten and psychologically tortured."
Forbes said this most recent move was nothing more than a last-ditch effort to move the playing field in the fourth quarter when they are down over a hundred to zero.
"Nothing has changed since we had these very same arguments more than two years ago in front of the late Judge Joanna Tabit who rejected them then and Judge Hardy has properly rejected them again," Forbes said. "This is because venue is absolutely appropriate in Kanawha County for a multitude of reasons that were before the Court. With the unfortunate passing of Judge Tabit, who was an amazing Judge and a champion for the rights of children in our state, the defense made an attempt to undue Judge Tabit’s prior rulings and seven years of precedent when nothing has changed. The Court rightly rejected what Judge Hardy described as a ‘hail mary” attempt to move to a different venue. We are extremely pleased with the ruling and hope that this continues to provide a pathway forward for the unfortunate survivors of this horrific institution."
Forbes said the reality is that he and other attorneys have litigated these cases for seven years in the court and have achieved settlements totaling more than $100 million for the former child survivors but there are still victims coming forward.
"Childhood trauma is something that often isn’t recognized or capable of being dealt with until much later in life due to the unique effects it has upon a person as they develop into adulthood," Forbes said. "There were many reasons before the Court as to why Kanawha County is and has been the proper forum for these cases and the Court has recognized that throughout this seven-year litigation."
Forbes said attorneys have already deposed law enforcement and other witnesses that were located in Harrison County but there are no longer any ties from Miracle Meadows to that area.
"The school shut its doors after authorities raided the institution in 2014 and there are no current ties to Harrison County," Forbes said. "Though the school has closed, the unthinkable atrocities these children were forced to endure will forever live on in their memories and nightmares."
Forbes said the hope is that exposing the terrifying events through the civil justice system will help shine a light on the ongoing problems in institutions throughout the world that operate inappropriately and harm children.
"The saga of what occurred at Miracle Meadows should be looked at throughout the boarding school and troubled youth community and we hope institutions throughout the country hear the message loud and clear that horrific injustices such as these will never be tolerated," Forbes said. "Our clients want to help ensure that no other child ever has to suffer in the unimaginable ways that the survivors of Miracle Meadows were forced to and by continuing this litigation in the venue where the work has been done for so many years it is another positive step forward on that mission. Abuses such as these should never be tolerated and the civil justice system is here to protect the rights of the victims. We look forward to the next steps toward justice for these current Plaintiffs."
Over the last decade years, many cases have been filed against Miracle Meadows by students who claimed they were abused during their time at the now-defunct school.
Clark, founder and director of Miracle Meadows, was sentenced to jail time and probation in 2016.
The former students, in the cases, alleged that those who ran the Christian boarding school forced them to perform manual labor, beat them, starved them, kept them in isolation rooms for long periods and would chain and shackle them to beds.