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I -
118 1 Q.
Now, from time to time I assume that employees -- when 2 I say staff wages were set, correct? 3 A.
Yes, sir. 4 Q.
And who set those wages? 5 A.
Brother Wills. 6 Q.
And who had input into that? 7 A.
I did. 8 Q.
All right. What about Brother
Gerhardt, did Sam have 9 input? 10 A.
Mostly Brother Wills and I. 11 Q.
Now, when I say staff, we're talking about everybody 12 that's been sued, right? You have inside staff, correct? 13 A.
Yes, sir. 14 Q.
And then tell the jury what this outside staff is that 15 you've referred to. 16 A.
These are hourly wage people that come in and do 17 outside work; building, cooking,
things like that. 18 Q.
All right. Those people that -- you
have cooks, people 19 that cook? 20 A.
Yes, sir. 21 Q.
Do you have people that work in yards? 22 A.
Yes, sir. 23 Q.
People that do mechanic work and things like that? 24 A.
Yes, sir. 25 Q.
Who hires and fires those people at Mountain Park?
I - 119 1 A.
Brother Wills and I. 2 Q.
Okay. And who sets their wages and
hours of 3 employment? 4 A.
Brother Wills. 5 Q.
All right. And who sets the job
requirements? 6 A.
Brother Wills. 7 Q.
Okay. Now, in Mountain -- at Mountain
Park are 8 financial records kept? 9 A.
Yes, sir. 10 Q.
And who keeps those records? 11 A.
Mrs. Gerhardt. 12 Q.
And where does Mountain Park bank, what state? 13 A.
Missouri. 14 Q.
And does it have its own set of books? 15 A.
Yes, sir. 16 Q.
Now, you made reference to a tax exempt letter, 17 correct? 18 A.
Yes, sir. 19 Q.
And that's a letter you received from the State of 20 Missouri that says you don't have to
pay sales tax, correct? 21 A.
Yes, sir. 22 Q.
That letter has been issued to you by the State, right? 23 A.
Yes, sir. 24 Q.
Now, at Mountain Park, are the operations of Mountain 25 Park kept separate from the operations
of Palm Lane?
I - 120 1 A.
Yes, sir. 2 Q.
All right. Now, there is a newsletter,
correct? 3 A.
Yes, sir. 4 Q.
What's the name of the newsletter? 5 A.
Mountain Park Update. 6 Q.
And is Palm Lane news published in that newsletter? 7 A. Yes,
sir. 8 Q.
Why? 9 A.
Because Palm Lane can't afford its own newsletter. 10 Q.
Does Mountain Park when they graduate have a 11 graduation? 12 A.
Yes, sir. 13 Q.
And do you publish some kind of yearbook? 14 A.
Yes, sir. 15 Q.
And are Palm Lane students in that yearbook? 16 A.
Yes, sir. 17 Q.
And why is that? 18 A.
Because they can't afford their own yearbook. 19 Q.
Now, when you say that, who are you talking about? 20 A.
The students at Palm Lane. 21 Q.
Now, let's talk about Palm Lane. Palm
Lane was 22 established in what year? 23
A. 1997. 24 Q.
It's a corporation, correct? 25 A.
Yes, sir.
I - 121 1 Q.
And it's located where, in Arcadia, Florida? 2 A.
Yes, sir. 3 Q.
Has about 19 or 20 girls? 4 A.
Has 19. 5 Q.
Currently the maximum number of girls down there is how 6 many? 7 A.
Currently it's about 40. 8 Q.
That would be the maximum you could take? 9 A.
Yes, sir. 10 Q.
How many boys? 11 A.
We don't have any boys right now. 12 Q.
All right. Now, in 1997 why did you
and Pastor Wills 13 start Palm Lane? 14 A.
Because we felt like that there was some teenagers that 15 when they turned 17 they still needed
help. And in Missouri 16 at 17 if they wanted to leave they
could leave. And we were 17 wanting to help them more so we went
down to Florida and 18 opened up Palm Lane. 19 Q.
And this would give you -- 20 A.
-- another year with them. 21 Q.
When you say teenagers or troubled teenagers, tell the 22 ladies and gentlemen of the jury what
kind of audience your 23 ministry is aimed at Mountain Park's
ministry? 24 A.
Young people that are in trouble, rebellious, runaways. 25 Q.
What do you mean by trouble? Trouble
is a cop-out.
I - 122 1 What is trouble? 2 A.
They don't want to obey their parents. They
don't want 3 to go to school, they want to do
drugs, sex, everything that 4 goes along with rebellious teenager. 5 Q.
And is that your audience, the parents of those 6 children? Is that who these ministries are directed to? 7 A.
Yes, sir. 8 Q.
Mountain Park has a church, correct? 9 A.
Yes, sir. 10 Q.
And what -- how is the boarding academy related to that 11 church? 12 A.
It's a ministry of the church. 13 Q.
And that ministry is to do what? 14 A.
Help young people, give them an education, tell them 15 about Jesus. Have them go into the world and live a normal 16 life among other people. Not cause trouble.
Get a good 17 education. Many of them go to college, are married to 18 preachers or become preachers. Just a wonderful life they 19 have after they accept Jesus. And we want to turn their 20 lives around. 21 Q.
How rigid or structured is Mountain Park? 22 A.
Very structured. 23 Q.
How rigid or structured is Palm Lane? 24 A.
Very structured. 25
MR. OLIVER: Mr. Stilley, if you give
me your I - 123 1 Exhibits 40 and 41, please. 2 Q.
Here -- these are some pictures taken off a web site. 3 What are these pictures showing? 4 A.
Girls playing. 5 Q.
That's at Palm Lane, right? 6 A.
Yes, sir. 7 Q.
There's a fence there. What's the
purpose of the 8 fence? 9 A.
To keep the girls from running away. 10 Q.
What does it do in terms of their safety from things 11 from the outside? 12 A.
It keeps them safe. 13 Q.
There's another picture. Is that the
same kind of 14 thing? 15 A.
Yes, sir. 16 Q.
At Palm Lane you see this fence. Where
are the boys 17 located? 18 A.
On the other side of the dorm. 19 Q.
On the other side -- 20 A.
Of the house where the school is and where the dining 21 hall is, the boys are located on the
other side of the fence. 22 Q.
On the other side of the fence? 23 A.
Right. 24 Q.
The fence keeps the boys out too? 25 A.
Yes, sir.
I - 124 1 Q.
Now, at Palm Lane, do you have specific rules of 2 conduct and discipline? 3 A.
Yes, sir. 4 Q.
Okay. Let me show you from -- see if
I'm bright enough 5 to put this right side up. In your literature you list 6 specific kinds of rules that are
expected, correct? 7 A.
Yes, sir. 8 Q.
Are those rules -- describe those rules or characterize 9 them.
Are they relaxed? 10 A.
No, sir. 11 Q.
Is it fair to say they are rigid? 12 A.
Yes, sir. 13 Q.
Are they strict? 14 A.
Yes, sir. 15 Q.
Are they strictly -- or do you try to strictly comply 16 with them or ask students to strictly
comply with them? 17 A.
Yes, sir. 18 Q.
What do your rules say about violent conduct?
If you 19 look. 20 A.
Well, will not be permitted. 21 Q.
Disorderly conduct, is that permitted? 22 A.
No, sir. 23 Q.
All right. Is there literally a rule,
literally a rule 24 for most everything? 25 A.
Yes, sir.
I - 125 1 Q.
In Exhibit 9, which is the yearbook that Mr. Stilley 2 chose, look at page 19. Does the personal attitude statement 3 pretty well express the philosophy of
Mountain Park about how 4 these students are to behave? 5 A.
Yes, sir. 6 Q.
Do you have a discipline policy at Mountain Park? 7 A.
Yes, sir. 8 Q.
It says the discipline policy has the goal of giving 9 each student maximum opportunity for
self-discipline. How do 10 you do that? 11 A.
Peer pressure. 12 Q.
Do they have opportunities for correction? 13 A.
Yes, sir. 14 Q.
Okay. And do they have a list of
infractions that end 15 up being sort of the rules of the
road? 16
A. Yes, sir. 17 Q.
And how do students get to know these rules? 18 A.
They are told these rules for school; no cheating, no 19 lying, no -- 20 Q.
And at the same time that you're enforcing those rules, 21 what's Mountain Park and Palm Lane's
position about their 22 personal maintenance and maintenance
of the areas in which 23 they live? 24 A.
Must be clean. 25 Q.
You have this policy, if you look at page 31 of that
I - 126 1 handbook, every student, for every
student the basic, very 2 basic of Christian character
development begin with the 3 responsibility to maintain their
personal and common areas. 4 Is that part of the philosophy? 5 A.
Yes, sir. 6 Q.
And how do the students do that? Do
they have to work 7 to do that? 8 A.
Yes, sir. 9 Q.
And what do they do? 10 A.
They have to clean the toilets. They
have to clean 11 their laundry. They have to clean their sinks. They have to 12 clean around their bed. They have to make their own bed. 13 They have to wash their own sheets. 14 Q.
Now, explain to the jury what form this cleaning takes. 15 One person doesn't go wash just his
sheets, do they? 16 A.
Oh, no, sir. They have -- every two
weeks we change 17 their duties. There will be a group that does the laundry, a 18 group that does the cleaning of the
bathrooms, a group that 19 does the vacuuming, a group that does
the different chores 20 that we have. 21 Q.
Are those called teams? 22 A.
Yes, sir. 23 Q.
And who are the team -- are there team leaders? 24 A.
Yes, sir. 25 Q.
And where do those team leaders
come from?
I - 127 1 A.
They are students that have been with us for awhile and 2 they show there's been a change in
their life and they want 3 to do what's right and they want to
help others. 4 Q.
Now, as the students develop, do they also go to 5 school? 6 A.
Yes, sir. 7 Q.
And at both schools, do you -- what kind of academics 8 do you use? 9 A.
School of Tomorrow. 10 Q.
That's a Christian school, correct? 11 A.
Yes, sir. 12 Q.
Now, in the handbook you also in addition to explaining 13 how that works, you make reference to
Landmark Freedom 14 Baptist curriculum. What's that? 15 A.
It's a bible curriculum. 16 Q.
And why is that taught? 17 A.
To teach them the bible. 18 Q.
And is that integrated with the academic program? 19 A.
Yes, sir. 20 Q.
And then it says BEKA curriculum. It
says this 21 material is prepared, distributed
through Pensacola Christian 22 College? 23 A.
Video classes. 24 Q.
And is that for that advanced education? 25 A.
No, sir, it's like Spanish, stuff like that that high
I
- 128 1 school students have to have. 2 Q.
So it allows you to have a complete curriculum in 3 Florida and Missouri? 4 A.
Yes, sir. 5 Q.
Now, Mr. Stilley's asked you a lot of things about who 6 got what and things of that nature. You and Pastor Wills 7 take any salary from Palm Lane? 8 A.
No, sir. 9 Q.
Do you take salary from Mountain Park? 10 A.
Yes, sir. 11 Q.
When do you take salary from Mountain Park? 12 A.
When they have the money. 13 Q.
That's not all the time, is it? 14 A.
No, sir. 15 Q.
And the other staff members, inside staff are paid, are 16 they not? 17 A.
Yes, sir. 18 Q.
And some of them, are their houses on Mountain Park? 19 A.
Yes, sir. 20 Q.
Some of them have houses to live in, correct? 21
A. Yes, sir. 22 Q.
Now, Mountain Park own those houses or those people? 23 A.
Mountain Park. 24 Q.
Now, you indicated that from time to time in addition 25 to cleaning that we've discussed,
students are obligated to
I - 129 1 do other chores. How does that work? 2 A.
Sometimes when -- like at my house I have a house at 3 Mountain Park when I'm up there. And the girls will beg me 4 to let them come over and wash my
windows or sweep my porches 5 off or things like this. They can do chores like that, it's 6 only voluntary like that. 7
Q. And in the afternoon,
let's take the boys, in the 8 afternoon do the boys have a work or
play period? 9 A.
Sometimes they work and sometimes they play. 10 Q.
What makes the difference? 11 A.
It's according to how much work has to be done. 12 Q.
What's the purpose of the work? 13 A.
To teach them to work. 14 Q.
Is that part of your philosophy of restoring basic life 15 skills so they can reintegrate in the
community? 16 A.
Yes, sir. 17 Q.
Part of the educational process? 18 A.
Yes, sir. 19 Q.
Now, does anybody derive any money benefit from that? 20 A.
No, sir. 21 Q.
I mean, these kids, you don't run them around town and 22 have them stack firewood for other
people, right? 23 A.
No, sir. 24 Q.
Does Mountain Park or Palm Lane make anything for sale? 25
A. No, sir. I - 127 1 A.
They are students that have been with us for awhile and 2 they show there's been a change in
their life and they want 3 to do what's right and they want to
help others. 4 Q.
Now, as the students develop, do they also go to 5 school? 6 A.
Yes, sir. 7 Q.
And at both schools, do you -- what kind of academics 8 do you use? 9 A.
School of Tomorrow. 10 Q.
That's a Christian school, correct? 11 A.
Yes, sir. 12 Q.
Now, in the handbook you also in addition to explaining 13 how that works, you make reference to
Landmark Freedom 14 Baptist curriculum. What's that? 15 A.
It's a bible curriculum. 16 Q.
And why is that taught? 17 A.
To teach them the bible. 18 Q.
And is that integrated with the academic program? 19 A.
Yes, sir. 20 Q.
And then it says BEKA curriculum. It
says this 21 material is prepared, distributed
through Pensacola Christian 22 College? 23 A.
Video classes. 24 Q.
And is that for that advanced education? 25 A.
No, sir, it's like Spanish, stuff like that that high
I
- 128 1 school students have to have. 2 Q.
So it allows you to have a complete curriculum in 3 Florida and Missouri? 4 A.
Yes, sir. 5 Q.
Now, Mr. Stilley's asked you a lot of things about who 6 got what and things of that nature. You and Pastor Wills 7 take any salary from Palm Lane? 8 A.
No, sir. 9 Q.
Do you take salary from Mountain Park? 10 A.
Yes, sir. 11 Q.
When do you take salary from Mountain Park? 12 A.
When they have the money. 13 Q.
That's not all the time, is it? 14 A.
No, sir. 15 Q.
And the other staff members, inside staff are paid, are 16 they not? 17 A.
Yes, sir. 18 Q.
And some of them, are their houses on Mountain Park? 19 A.
Yes, sir. 20 Q.
Some of them have houses to live in, correct? 21
A. Yes, sir. 22 Q.
Now, Mountain Park own those houses or those people? 23 A.
Mountain Park. 24 Q.
Now, you indicated that from time to time in addition 25 to cleaning that we've discussed,
students are obligated to
I - 129 1 do other chores. How does that work? 2 A.
Sometimes when -- like at my house I have a house at 3 Mountain Park when I'm up there. And the girls will beg me 4 to let them come over and wash my
windows or sweep my porches 5 off or things like this. They can do chores like that, it's 6 only voluntary like that. 7
Q. And in the afternoon,
let's take the boys, in the 8 afternoon do the boys have a work or
play period? 9 A.
Sometimes they work and sometimes they play. 10 Q.
What makes the difference? 11 A.
It's according to how much work has to be done. 12 Q.
What's the purpose of the work? 13 A.
To teach them to work. 14 Q.
Is that part of your philosophy of restoring basic life 15 skills so they can reintegrate in the
community? 16 A.
Yes, sir. 17 Q.
Part of the educational process? 18 A.
Yes, sir. 19 Q.
Now, does anybody derive any money benefit from that? 20 A.
No, sir. 21 Q.
I mean, these kids, you don't run them around town and 22 have them stack firewood for other
people, right? 23 A.
No, sir. 24 Q.
Does Mountain Park or Palm Lane make anything for sale? 25
A. No, sir. I -
130 1 Q.
You buy and repair equipment or anything like that for 2 resale? 3 A.
No, sir. 4 Q.
Do you make anything that you sell? 5 A.
No, sir. 6 Q.
You run any cows or horses or anything like that at 7 Mountain Park? 8 A.
No, sir. 9 Q.
What about at Palm Lane? 10 A.
No, sir. 11 Q.
You engaged in any business other than saving of the 12 souls? 13 A.
No, sir. 14 Q.
Any business other than trying to bring these troubled 15 youth to the Lord? 16 A.
No, sir. 17
MR. OLIVER: No further questions, Your
Honor. 18
THE COURT: Any redirect? 19
MR. STILLEY: Yes, Your Honor, briefly. 20
REDIRECT EXAMINATION 21 BY MR. STILLEY: 22 Q.
Is there a particular reason on this barbed wire fence 23 that there's barbs sticking out both
directions? 24 A.
I said it was for the safety to keep the girls in. 25 Q.
Is it to keep -- but if the barbs were going both
I - 131 1 directions, you're trying to keep
people from either coming
2 in or going out; isn't that correct?
3 A.
Yes, sir.
4 Q.
How tall is that fence?
5 A.
I'd say eight feet I guess. I wouldn't
know exactly.
6 It's probably more than that. I don't know.
7 Q.
Do the kids ever get out of that fence?
8 A.
Have they every gotten out?
9 Q.
Yes.
10 A.
Mountain Park they have, yes, sir.
11 Q.
How about Palm Lane?
12 A.
No, sir.
13 Q.
You said something about peer
pressure?
14 A.
Uh-huh.
15 Q.
What do you mean when you say peer pressure?
16 A.
You have good peer pressure and you have bad peer
17 pressure. You put kids with kids that want to do good and
18 you're going to do good. You put kids with people that want
19 to do bad and they are going to do
bad.
20 Q.
Is that what you mean by peer pressure?
21 A.
That's peer pressure.
22 Q.
Now, you talked about a written set of rules; isn't
23 that correct?
24 A.
In our handbook, yes, sir.
25 Q.
Correct. But the kids don't get a copy
of that, do
I
- 132 1 they?
2 A. No, sir, but their parents do.
3 Q.
Now, you said that the kids sometimes came and did work
4 for you but they begged to come and
work for you; is that
5 correct?
6 A. Yes, sir. 7 Q.
Have they ever come and worked for you when they
8 weren't begging or asking you to do that?
9 A.
No, sir, they are asked do they want to do that.
10 Q.
Are there any negative consequences for not wanting to
11 do that?
12 A.
Oh, no, sir.
13 Q.
How about cows at Palm Lane, do you have any cows at
14 Palm Lane?
15
A. There are cows at Palm
Lane, but they don't belong to
16 us, they belong to Mr. -- I can't
think of his name right
17 now, the man that is using our land to
produce cows on.
18 Q.
Do you lease your land, your pasture land to this
19 gentleman?
20 A.
No, sir.
21 Q.
What is the arrangement that you have between Palm Lane
22 and the gentleman that has the cows?
23 A.
Verbal.
24 Q.
Okay. What's the terms?
25 A.
He can just use our property.
I - 133
1 Q.
No charge?
2 A.
No charge.
3 Q.
Do you do any upkeep on the pastures?
4 A.
No, sir.
5 Q.
Do the kids have to do any upkeep on the pastures?
6 A.
No, sir.
7 Q.
You positive about that?
8 A.
Yes, sir.
9 MR. STILLEY: Pass the witness.
10 MR. OLIVER: Nothing further, Your Honor. May she
11 step down?
12
THE COURT: Very well. Thank you, Ms. Wills. You
13 may step down.
14
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
15
THE COURT: Ladies and gentlemen of the
jury, we'll
16 take our afternoon recess at this
time. Recall the
17 admonition. Be prepared to return to the courtroom at ten
18 minutes of four. We'll be out of here by five. Recall the
20
(Court in recess from 3:28 p.m. until 3:55 p.m.)
21
THE COURT: Good afternoon again,
ladies and
22 gentlemen of the jury. Shall we continue, Mr. Stilley. Go
23 ahead.
Call your next witness.
24
MR. STILLEY: Call plaintiff, Jordan
Blair.
25
THE COURT: Very well.
I
- 134
1
JORDAN BLAIR,
2 Having been first duly sworn, was
examined and testified as
3 follows:
4
DIRECT EXAMINATION
5 BY MR. STILLEY:
6 Q.
Please state your name.
7 A.
Jordan Michael Blair.
8 Q.
And you come from Arkansas; is that correct?
9 A.
Yes, sir.
10 Q.
Where were you born?
11 A.
In Fort Smith, Arkansas.
12 Q.
And where were you raised?
13 A.
In Crawford County, Alma, Arkansas.
14 Q.
Okay. And where did you go to school
in the early
15 years, first through sixth?
16 A.
First through sixth, Alma public schools.
17 Q.
Okay. Where did you go -- when you got
on into high
18 school, where did you go to high
school at?
19 A.
I attended Miami public schools in Oklahoma. I
20 attended Alma public schools. And I also attended
21 International Academy of Christian
Education.
22 Q.
Okay. Can you tell us the dates for
each of those?
23 A.
Yes, sir. Let's see, the year 2000 was
the year I went
24 to -- no, 1999 was the year I finished
my ninth grade year.
25 The year 2000 I went to Miami public
schools. And then in |
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