Group sex, abuse investigations lead to arrests at Camp Tracey

Group sex, abuse investigations lead to arrests at Camp Tracey

By R.L. WORTHINGTON
POSTED July 2, 2008 3:00 a.m. 
UPDATED July 3. 2008 5:30 a.m.

"On a 160-acre farm, our girls and boys enjoy the unique experience of living as a farm family... Camp Tracey is a children's home dedicated to the salvaging and changing of the lives of at-risk youth."

Those words are part of the website description of Camp Tracey, the church-run facility for troubled youth located in northern Baker County. But those idyllic words don’t tell the scandals of sexual and physical abuse that have plagued the camp since the 1980s.

Camp Tracey Children’s Home was started in 1982 by Rev. Wilford McCormick under the auspices of Harvest Baptist Church in Jacksonville. The camp website calls itself "an integral and inseparable ministry" of Harvest Baptist Church.

Six lawsuits by former students have been filed since 2003 against the camp and Harvest Baptist Church citing repeated sexual and physical abuse by staff and senior residents. Five have been settled. One of the cases was voluntarily dismissed for procedural reasons prior to the hearing in front of Circuit Judge Aaron Bowden, according to attorney Joel Magonick, of the De la O, Marko, Magolnick & Leyton law firm in Miami, who has represented each client.

The church has repeatedly denied all allegations.

Those lawsuits were not the first time Camp Tracey’s methods and operations have been in question. Complaints began almost immediately when the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services investigated child abuse allegations in 1983 by three camp runaways. The State Attorney’s Office cleared the camp at that time.

In 1987, a Baker County Grand Jury issued a report on Camp Tracey after years of physical abuse allegations. Their report criticized the camp for excessive corporal punishment and noted that physical restraints such as ropes and handcuffs were not to be used. 

(Scroll down for more information on past allegations and the grand jury report)

Now North Florida News Daily is the first to break the new allegations of sex acts between students and abuse from a long-time camp employee that have brought the camp back into the media glare. Two have been arrested on unrelated charges after a month long investigation by the Baker County Sheriff's Office.

The recent trouble when BCSO investigators began looking into allegations of sex crimes involving several students at the camp. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that seven juvenile students ages 14 to 17 were possibly engaged in sexual activity with each other.

Legally, this is not in violation of the law since the boys were all juveniles and sex was consensual. But, during questioning, another student named Ben Lewis, was discovered to be 18 

Ben Lewis

making him an adult legally and making any sex acts with the other students unlawful.

Lewis, a student at Camp Tracey for several years, was questioned about the allegations and admitted he had engaged in sexual activity with a 14-year-old juvenile. Lewis stated that he and the other student had been discussing the idea of having sex for a few days and one day while working on the farm they "went into the woods, removed each other’s pants and proceeded to masturbate each other."

Lewis stated that he "really didn’t see what the big problem was" and said he was unaware that this was illegal. He was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious conduct on a minor.

While interviewing the juvenile residents regarding the sex allegations, it was revealed that the dorm father, John Edward Wilson had been abusive to students.

Several of the students said Wilson, 46, would become physically physically abusive when he

John Edward Wilson

became angry. One victim reported that just a couple of days before "Brother John" came over to him and started choking him before slamming his head into the wall. Others told similar stories.

The police reports notes that a boy who witnessed the attack stated that Wilson had an anger problem that all of the juvenile residents are aware of and when he gets angry with his wife or one of the boys, he will take it out on all of them.

Wilson was investigated for nearly identical charges in 2003 when his adoptive son ran away and contacted the BCSO citing abuse. Those charges were deemed unfounded and were not pursued.

A warrant for Wilson was signed by Judge Joey Williams on June 30 and Wilson was taken into custody. He denied the claims of abuse, but refused to answer any questions until he had a lawyer. He has since been released from jail on his own recognizance under the condition that he stay away from the camp. However, Rev. Wilford McCormick, the man they all just call "Preacher" told a reporter that Wilson will continue to work at the camp.

Department of Children and Family Services was contacted regarding the abuse and it is expected they will also conduct an investigation.   

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LAWSUITS

The lawsuits detailing sexual and physical abuse filed by former residents of the facility all raise similar abuse allegations about Camp Tracey.

• May 2003 - Kirk Griffin filed suit naming former counselors Cedric McCormick and Robert Hood in "repeated acts of sexual abuse" against him while he lived at Camp Tracey between 1988 to 1992 when he was 12-16 years old. Harvest Baptist Church, headed by Rev. Wilford McCormick, Cedric’s older brother, was also named as a defendant.
  
  Griffin said he was forced to perform oral and anal sex with two camp counselors two or three times a week. In the lawsuit he said the counselors befriended him, gained his confidence and "used the position of authority granted to them by Harvest to satisfy their perverse desires."
   
• June 2003 - A second lawsuit echoed allegations raised by Griffin’s claim. Jason Berglund’s lawsuit said his abuse beagn shortly after he arrived at Camp Tracey in 1993. It notes that "he was continuously subjected to extreme physical abuse and was forced to engage in anal and oral sex by those placed in charge of him."
   
• June 2005 - Three lawsuits were filed by brothers Joseph and Jeremy Holt along with Morris Shedd Jr. All said they were at Camp Tracey between 1989-1996 because of problems at home or school and say they immediately began facing sexual and physical abuse that continued until they left.
  
  The Holt brothers lawsuit alleges Arthur Houde, the camp’s spiritual adviser and boys’ dean, would force them to perform sex acts. In addition, they faced assaults by older boys. Shedd names Cedric McCormick as his abuser. The lawsuits allege physical abuse including beatings, hard labor, denial of food and shocking with an electric cattle prod.
  
  Circuit Judge Aaron Bowden had recently thrown out the Holt and Shedd lawsuits saying repressed memory and dissociative amnesia, which the men said blocked them from reporting the abuse earlier, are not generally accepted conditions in the scientific community. The case was under appeal before being settled.
   
• June 2005 (or there about) - A sixth lawsuit
  
  

  **While there have been a total of six cases filed by attorney Joel Magonick  against Harvest Baptist Church (d/b/a Camp Tracy) only five of those cases were settled. One of the cases was voluntarily dismissed for procedural reasons prior to the hearing in front of Judge Bowden.

GRAND JURY REPORT

The 1987 Baker County Grand Jury report on Camp Tracey noted there was no qualified medical personnel on the premises and emergency medical procedures were inadequate and "woefully lacking." The report also criticized that there was no qualified physical, mental, or psychological evaluation upon admission.

In addition the Grand Jury report cited:

•"There is no adequate system in operation to document medical injures for the review diagnoses or record keeping of cases of suspected physical abuse of residents.

•There is no procedure as does exist for other child and youth facilities for contacting of the state of Florida’s Health and Rehabilitative Service (HRS) Agency in cases actual or suspected child abuse on resident of Camp Tracey. The attitude of the management and staff of Camp Tracey is both resistant and opposed to this necessary protective review of the program operation.

•There is no individual knowledgeable nor trained in health or nutrition to review or oversee the preparation of proper meals.

•The educational program at Camp Tracey is sub-standard and frequently resulted in loss of grade matriculation of students when returning back to public schools. This has had detrimental consequences to the students.

•More disturbing findings noted that children residing at Camp Tracey should not be forced to work for private citizens and runaways should not be labeled "misfits" or given GI style haircuts as a disciplinary action. The report found that physical restraints such as ropes or handcuffs should never be used as "has been done at Camp Tracey."