Nearly a decade after a behavioral rehabilitation facility known as the Lord’s Ranch closed down, 52 people who were sent there as young children and teenagers have filed a total of five lawsuits against former administrators and employees claiming they were subjected to horrific sexual and physical abuse during their time there.

The Lord’s Ranch, founded in 1976 by Bud Suhl, a convicted felon from California, and his wife, Shirley, was billed as an idyllic facility “nestled in the beautiful surroundings of the Ozark foothills,” consisting of “over 1,100 acres of green rolling hills, small shimmering lakes, flowering trees and horse pastures,” that promised “tranquility, a restful atmosphere, peace and the beauty of nature.”

But, according to the five federal complaints by 52 now-adult plaintiffs who were sent to the Lord’s Ranch between 1985 and 2010, the remote setting of the facility in Warm Springs in far northern Randolph County near the Missouri border was a torture chamber of repeated serial sexual and physical abuse that left them with a lifetime of mental and physical scars.

“Children at Lord’s Ranch lived in constant fear,” said the complainants, “knowing they were alone in a remote, unfamiliar environment far from home and at the complete mercy of a sadistic staff and improperly supervised residents. For many children, survival meant compliance with physical and sexual abuse.”

Defendants in the five lawsuits are Ted Suhl; his mother Shirley Suhl; Emmett A. Presley, the former director of social services; Alonza Jiles, a former senior administrator who is now a member of the Arkansas Board of Corrections; 10 “John Doe” defendants and 19 business entities associated with the Lord’s Ranch, including Maxus, Inc. and Trinity Behavioral Health. One of the lawsuits, filed on behalf of seven female and seven male plaintiffs, names an additional defendant: Tyree Davis, who is specifically accused of sexually abusing at least two residents — one male and one female — while they were at the Lord’s Ranch between 1999 and 2003.

The Lord’s Ranch closed down after Ted Suhl went to prison in 2016 following a federal bribery and fraud conviction. He was originally scheduled to be released Feb. 5, 2023, but then-President Donald Trump commuted his sentence in 2019.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee and Bud Cummins, a former U.S. attorney who was state chairman of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign in Arkansas, had both sought leniency for Suhl.

At the time, the White House said that Suhl’s life had been exemplary.

“Mr. Suhl was a pillar of his community before his prosecution and a generous contributor to several charities. He has been a model prisoner while serving his sentence, maintaining a spotless disciplinary record,” it said.

On Nov. 7, 2023, the first of the five lawsuits was filed in federal court in Little Rock by Little Rock attorney Joshua Gillispie on behalf of eight “John Doe” plaintiffs, whose identities have been sealed by the court, alleging sexual and physical abuse at the hands of Emmett A. Presley, formerly the senior director of social services at the Lord’s Ranch, and others. Gillispie has since filed two additional lawsuits on behalf of another 22 plaintiffs.

Plaintiff attorney Martin Gould, an attorney with Stinar Gould Greico & Hensley in Chicago, said Friday that the abuse suffered at the hands of the children sent to the Lord’s Ranch over the 25-year period covered by the lawsuits was far removed from the pastoral and peaceful setting described in brochures and on the website for the Lord’s Ranch.

“It’s remarkable how they were pitching themselves,” Gould said. “Get away from the dangers of the urban city and it’s rolling hills out here, horseback riding, religion, they pitched themselves as this great place with unparalleled treatment and it was the total opposite. It was basically being run by serial predators.”

Gould said Presley was in charge of the treatment plans for all of the residents, many of whom had already suffered tremendous physical, psychological and sexual abuse before they arrived at Lord’s Ranch.

“In many ways they were the perfect victims,” he said. “The worst part is that, one after another, the residents were reporting his predatory behavior, his abuse, to the most senior people and nothing was being done.”

The alleged abuse described in the complaints ranges from systematic sexual abuse and rape perpetrated by Presley and others upon teenage boys who were under Presley’s care to an allegation of a forced marriage between a teenage girl who was placed at Lord’s Ranch in the mid1980s by a California court and a social worker at the facility identified in a complaint as William Sweetwood.

According to allegations contained in the complaint, Sweetwood began raping the plaintiff — identified as “John Doe 17” — beginning when she was 14 or 15, eventually telling her that he was in love with her and wanted to marry her when she turned 16.

After reporting the abuse to staff members, the complaint said, “John Doe 17” was told that Sweetwood loved her and that she would learn to love him.

On or around May 22, 1992, the complaint said, after she turned 18, “John Doe 17” was forced to marry Sweetwood in the Lord’s Ranch chapel in a ceremony the complaint said was officiated by Jiles. After the marriage ceremony, the complaint said, she was forced to work as a counselor at Lord’s Ranch despite having no license, no training and no qualifications.

“Plaintiff ultimately escaped the Lord’s Ranch and obtained a divorce,” the complaint said. “However, she still suffers from the resulting serious psychological injuries and trauma.”

To date, Sweetwood has not been named as a defendant in any of the complaints.

Jiles is accused in the five complaints of multiple instances of turning a deaf ear to complaints from residents about the abuse they suffered and is accused of breaking a girl’s arm in 2002 while restraining her. The girl, “Jane Doe 108,” alleged that during 2002 she was trafficked back and forth by several unnamed staff members.

Jiles, who is pastor of New Horizons International Ministries in Searcy, according to the church website, in addition to his role on the Board of Corrections, has come under fire in the wake of the allegations against him, with at least three state legislators and Attorney General Tim Griffin calling upon him in recent days to resign from the board.

Jiles, 60, was first appointed to the state Board of Corrections by then-Gov. Mike Huckbaee in 2006 and was elected to be secretary of the board the following year. That term expired in 2011. Then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed him to the board again in 2022. His second term is scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2027. In a statement Thursday, Griffin said Jiles “should resign immediately” from his position on the Board of Corrections.

One plaintiff, known as “John Doe 1,” alleged that he reported his sexual abuse at the hands of Presley to Jiles, telling the senior administrator that he had been sexually abused and raped by Presley “dozens of times” over a twoyear period, but said he was warned by Jiles and two staff members — Gary Jackson and Philander Kirk — of serious consequences “should he ever utter another word.”

A week or two after reporting Presley, the complaint said, the teenager’s collarbone was broken when he was subjected to a violent physical restraint after an accusation that he was “looking at girls in church.”

To date, Jackson has not been named as a defendant in any of the complaints. Kirk died in 2011.

The five lawsuits resulted from an Arkansas law passed in 2021 and amended in 2023 — the Justice for Vulnerable Victims of Sexual Abuse Act — that created a “look-back” window to allow adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse in Arkansas to seek civil justice and accountability against their abusers. The law passed in 2021 authorized a two-year window that was to expire Jan. 30, but a 2023 amendment extended that window to Jan. 31, 2026.

That law, however, is under review by the Arkansas Court of Appeals after Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox tossed a lawsuit in February 2023 against James Darrell Nesmith, a Little Rock pediatrician who pleaded guilty in 2018 to molesting children who attended his church. In 2022, Nesmith was sued by four men under the Justice for Vulnerable Victims of Sexual Abuse who accused him of molesting them when they were teens.

Fox dismissed the lawsuit, which was filed by Gillispie, finding that the “look-back window” authorized by the Justice for Vulnerable Victims Act runs counter to the legal protections offered by long-established statutes of limitations and that the General Assembly exceeded its authority in passing the law.

Fox’s decision has been appealed to the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Gillispie said the federal lawsuits are in limbo until a final ruling is made.

“If the Court of Appeals rules in Nesmith’s favor,” Gillispie said, “all of these cases go away forever.”

In an email sent Saturday morning, Little Rock attorney Jay Bequette, who represents Presley and Suhl, along with Michael Scotti of Chicago declined comment on the case. Scotti did not reply to a request for comment.