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By Tim Rogers
Tico Times Staff
May 27, 2003
As the five remaining students at the recently closed Dundee Ranch Academy prepare to leave for the United States, a flurry of questions remain about the future of the controversial behavior modification program, a member of the Utah-based WorldWide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP).
Academy owner Narvin Lichfield -- released after being held 24 hours in jail Friday on allegations of abuse, coercion and holding kids against their will -- told The Tico Times yesterday that his lawyers finally got a copy of the prosecutor's file and were studying the charges and the evidence against him.
Lichfield and his legal team are expected to make a decision about a counter lawsuit against Prosecutor Fernando Vargas by the end of the week.
According to an email sent to The Tico Times Monday, one well-to-do former Dundee parent has offered to finance Lichfield's legal battle here.
The Dundee owner, meanwhile, insists the prosecutor's charges will not stick.
"I might have put my arm around a kid once and told him: 'you are a great kid,' but I have never been involved in the disciplining of a student," he told The Tico Times yesterday. "I was like Uncle Buck to the kids."
Vargas, who sparked a chaotic situation at Dundee last Tuesday when he told the 200 kids they didn't have to stay there against their will, was taken off the case Monday, and replaced by Prosecutor Marielos Alfaro. Vargas, an interim prosecutor, had been filling in for Alfaro during the latter's absence.
The Prosecutor's Office is still trying to gather testimony from former Dundee students -- a difficult task now that all but a few have left the country (TT Daily Page, May 26).
Lichfield, who is maintaining a skeleton staff at the academy, hopes to make the needed changes and reopen in two months. He admits, however, that it is still "too early to tell what will happen."
Child Welfare Minister Rosalia Gil agrees that the future of the correctional academy is uncertain here.
Gil told The Tico Times last April that she had informed Lichfield of several changes he needed to make in order to stay open. She said at the time that Lichfield appeared "very willing to cooperate" and to make the needed changes.
However, she said yesterday, that Lichfield never made any of the changes and it is yet to be seen if Dundee Ranch will be able to conform to the law.