WEBVTT - “An Impossible Bond” 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.360 Campell an Awake is a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:06.800 The views and opinions expressing this podcast are solely those 0:00:06.840 --> 0:00:09.960 of the author and participants and do not necessarily represent 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.000 those of I Heeart Media or its employees. Due to 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:17.919 discussion of traumatic, sexual and violent content, listeners discussion is advised. 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.479 Staff at Camp and Awake would not talk about the 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.320 g b I investigation into possible financial irregularities and alleged 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:29.200 sexual misconduct between youngsters and camp counselors. The more than 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.479 twelve acre camp is home to around one hundred children. 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:35.360 Neighbors living here Camp an Awake say they are concerned 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.000 about a lack of supervision at the camp. Two years ago, 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.640 a thirteen year old boy left the facility allegedly stole 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:42.840 a gun and while attempting to steal a car, shot 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:48.640 and kill the homeowner. By six, word had started to 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.959 get around that some inappropriate actions were being taken by 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:56.680 the staff at an Awake. Following Sarah Tillis's realization that 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.200 there may have been sexual abuse taking place on the 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:03.520 annual Mexican co trips, a report was made to Social Services. 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:08.160 In June, social worker Pat Griffin laid out her concerns 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:12.319 and a correspondence to Brett Baxley and Jim Wamack, two 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:17.040 heads of management at Anawaki. The concerns include secret packs, 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:20.280 that nothing would be repeated which happened on the Mexico trip, 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.480 that adolescents were encouraged to go into quote whorehouses, and 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.920 that homosexual acts had occurred between a staff member and 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:35.039 an adolescent. An internal investigation of Annawaki would follow, conducted 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:39.959 by Director of Therapeutic Services Jim Womack, himself a known 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:44.039 abuser in the organization. In a letter to the then 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:50.360 head administrator, James Henry Evans, Walmack reports quote the supervisors 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.000 denied any knowledge of staff encouraging the students to engage 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:58.040 in any of the activities mentioned. There is no corroborating 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.000 evidence from any of the interviews of the people who 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:05.400 were directly involved with the Mexico trip. Continued discussion of 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:10.760 the memo appears without credible value and constructive purpose. Not 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.200 only was the board of directors becoming suspicious of Petter 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:18.520 and other counselor's actions with the patients, it's financial records 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:23.800 were narrow under scrutiny as well. Here's journalist Albert Edgin 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.760 there are these money issues that they're concerned about, and 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:30.000 they've been rubber stamping pretty much. The board has been 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:34.799 rubber stamping everything. He suggested. Now they've lost trust, so 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:39.079 how do you deal with that? And we're beginning to think, well, 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:44.160 with Pedigo dead, Pedigo was a guy that Petter was 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.760 able to control. Let's just stop and see how much 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:50.679 he was controlled. That was the important thing in their 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.840 minds that they were at a at a juncture in 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.680 an administrative time for Antawaiki where they could get control 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.800 of things that they were frust traded that they didn't 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.280 have control of before. So they began to look at things, 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:06.600 but they wanted to look at things. At the same time, 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.360 there was talk of sale of Anna Wake. There was 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:14.119 some rumors about sale and conversation about sale, and conversation 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:18.200 had begun about maybe Petter and his wife should retire 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:22.359 or resign. Further in fighting between the upper management of 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.080 an Awake was also going on at this time. This 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.520 came to a head following the funeral of Chief financial 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:34.119 Officer Bud Pedigo, a meeting between Sarah Tillis and two 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:37.720 other heads of an Awaki, James Henry Evans and Bud's 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:42.120 wife and Petter's daughter, Marcia Pedigo, showed some very troubling 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:46.360 information regarding Bud's death and what occurred shortly before it. 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.960 Just before his fatal car accident, Petter had directed Bud 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:55.000 Pedigo to take out a key man insurance policy. This 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.160 is like a life insurance policy, except that it pays 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.040 out the company the person worked for before their death. 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.480 This policy had earned in Awake Incorporated a sum of 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:09.520 over three hundred thousand dollars after Bud's death, leaving his 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:14.200 wife Marcia only seventy thousand dollars. This was not the 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.560 only issue Upper Management that in Awake was concerned about. 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.480 During this meeting, it was also discussed that Petter was 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:25.280 still planning to sell in Awake. Petter's son in law 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.640 James Henry Evans and Jim Womack had put in a 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:31.880 bid to buy the organization, and we're in the process 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:36.520 of getting their finances together. Louis Petter decided against the sale, 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:41.600 further aggravating the family involved in Upper Management. At an 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:46.159 annual Fellowship meeting in six Petter surprised the staff and 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.600 board of directors by announcing a new head of management. 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:55.480 Just under Petter. One Fred Fulmer Evans was outraged after 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:57.880 realizing he would not be able to buy in Awake 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:02.160 and left the gathering early. The board and upper management 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:06.920 were now beginning to become weary of Petter themselves. In short, 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:11.680 they wanted Petter out. Their trust in him began to 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.320 erode seriously with that incident in the van in Mexico, 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.280 and they began rethinking some other things that they had 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:22.560 ignored in the past. If you look at Sarah's testimony, 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:27.680 she says several times she regrets having been controlled. And 0:05:27.720 --> 0:05:29.920 it's not just by Petter, I mean Petter, it's Sarah 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:33.040 tillus Is sort of examining her whole life. At one point, 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.159 she says, I've been controlled by white men for too long. 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:42.120 Sarah Tillis is having an epiphany that starts in eighty four, 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.320 and by the time Pedigo dies, Sarah Tillis's epiphany is 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:54.440 the death knell for Lewis Petter's abuse. Over the past 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.840 several weeks, we have received member of very serious allegations 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.080 concerning both the facility out there in a number of 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:04.560 individuals involved with him. It was just a form of 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.040 their therapy. They were told to do it, and at 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.640 the time he was fourteen and a half, fifteen years old, 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.080 they didn't know any better. I asked him, why are 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.360 you letting this happen? Why are you covering up for 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.880 Louis Petcker. He had no answer to that question. Involved 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:28.839 having a new sitution, paid it little such shock district way, 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:33.080 and to do absolutely the contrary of what they should 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.560 have done. I'm disturbed over the fact of something and 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.960 he's still going on it. An I wake you. I'm 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:46.600 Josh Stean, and this is camp Hell and awake. Key 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.920 members of an Awaki's upper management were beginning to see 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.240 Louis Petter in a new light and starting to connect 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.640 the dots of the suspicious activity they had seen before. 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:00.800 Sarah Tillis would attempt to have Petter removed at a 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.120 Board of Directors meeting, but Petter had another trick up 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.000 his sleeve. Yet again, through a technicality of the Board 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:11.440 of Directors by laws, Petter made it known that Sarah 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.160 Tillis was in fact not even a part of the 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.880 board anymore. Tillis would be unable to voice her concern 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:22.040 at the board meeting, and it infuriated her. Sarah Tillis 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.600 wanted to remove Petter, believing that they were still potential 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.720 for anawaki. She would soon learn something that would change that. 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:36.000 Sarah's purpose all along was to get it back into shape. 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:40.040 She believed in the mission, the fundamental mission of the place, 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.240 because her sons had been treated there. Then one of 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.480 her sons told him that he too had been abused 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:52.040 sexually by Louis Petter, and I changed her life. That 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:56.480 changed her goals. At that point. Her goal was to 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:58.640 get rid of Petter and to get him in jail. 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:03.800 By June of six, Tillis was keeping daily notes of 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:07.960 her actions regarding an awake. She had attempted to have 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.120 Petter removed from the board, only to find that he 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:14.440 had in fact had her and another colleague removed first. 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.200 She then decided to take matters even further into her 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.880 own hands, meeting with the law firm to discuss trying 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:26.200 to conduct her own investigation into an awake concerning misuse 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:31.800 of corporate funds, abuse and sexual abuse happening. Tillis writes 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.000 that she was recommended to hire a former FBI agent 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.679 to conduct a private investigation for the cost of up 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.760 to one hundred thousand dollars. Jim Parum was included in 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.000 this meeting as well. Back at the helm of Annawake's 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.439 board of directors, after his stints serving in Jimmy Carter's 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:54.280 presidential cabinet, Parum stated that an in house committee would 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:58.200 clean up all of the problems at Anawaki. Sarah wrote 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.560 that as she and her husband left the office, Param's 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:06.760 last words to her were this quote, Sarah, it will 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.720 never be cleaned up. It will be a whitewash you 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:18.600 watch and see. In July, Sarah Tillis went to Jim 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.920 Parham again to show him some irregularity she had found 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:26.120 in the company's finances. A memo from Param covering the 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:31.520 concerns mentions a laundry list of illegal actions, including embezzlement 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.400 of funds from Petter regarding his pension, a new accountant 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:40.040 keeping financial records outside of the state for quote safe keeping, 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:45.080 shady real estate deals with questionable leasing for Anawak's properties, 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:48.679 a salary in the form of a scholarship from Annawaki 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.400 given to Petter's daughter Dana while she attended the University 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.720 of Georgia, and a large amount of lost or stolen 0:09:55.800 --> 0:10:00.319 money from last year's Mexico trip. Totaling twenty dollars in ash, 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:04.240 as well as over twelve thousand dollars of expended jewelry. 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.440 Harm was informed or at least aware of the concern 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:12.800 of sexual abuse taking place at Anawaki as well. In 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:15.600 a letter from PARAM to one of an Awake's lawyers 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:20.679 from July six, he asks about in Awake's liability in 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:24.200 the case of any child abuse or molestation taking place. 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.679 There is no mention of concern for the victims, only 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.640 making sure to keep the board safe from any further litigation. 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.599 In a board meeting that same month, it was decided 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.559 that Lewis Petter and his wife Mabel, would leave in 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:45.040 Awake on a sabbatical, still receiving their monthly salaries until 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:48.800 the end of the year. After that Petter would officially 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.680 retire from his role. The writing was on the wall 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:55.559 and it was time for Petter to distance himself from 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.360 the organization. The Board of an Awake was attempting to 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.680 address the issues in house as best they could, but 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:07.080 it was too late. Local law enforcement had already begun 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:29.280 their own investigation. While Jim Palm is documented as having 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:32.640 known of the allegations of child abuse as early as July. 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:38.120 Nothing was reported to local police by the Anawaki organization. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.120 PALM had, however, relaid this information to a number of 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:46.880 attorneys under its employment. The district attorney for Douglasville at 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.760 the time, Frank Wynn, says he had his suspicions about 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:54.920 in Awake for some time. Once Sarah Tillis decided to 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.600 bring her story to him, he says, Sheriff Earl Lee 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.320 began to investigate and whose scope would be far greater 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:09.880 than they originally realized. After Earl started talking to whoever 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:13.400 the ones were that he interviewed to start with, it 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:18.400 was like a snowball going downhill. Each one of them, 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.079 it seemed, would have other people's names that they would 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:26.480 suggest or tell Earl he needed to talk to, and 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:31.320 it became overwhelming a lot quicker than either one of 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:35.480 us thought as far as people to talk to. Now 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.800 he would try to talk to some of them who 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:43.640 would not talk to him. And this is purely an example, 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:48.400 without no without remembering anything specific, he would talk to 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:51.880 one of the kids. They would give him a list 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:56.400 of anywhere from two to six or seven other people 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:01.000 to talk to. Maybe only two of the would talk 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.960 to Earle and the others wouldn't, but the two that 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.880 would talk would say yes, and it was like they 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.480 were finally getting something off their chest. And one of 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:17.199 them would give Earl a list of another five names, 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:22.240 and again he would have five more that there would 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.400 be hit or missed with which ones would talk to him. 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:30.280 But as that list exponentially would grow, some of the 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:35.240 same names would come up more than once. So somebody 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:37.480 that might not have talked to Earl to begin with, 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:41.320 Earl would go back to him and let them know, look, 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:46.240 you're not alone, and we know from three other people 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:51.120 that you were somebody who was in the the right 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:55.040 situation it looked like, and and eventually there were several 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:59.559 people that wouldn't talk to Earl that later did. Frank 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.200 said that for Earl Lee, it didn't matter what time 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:06.520 of day or night. If someone wanted to come forward 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:10.240 and speak, he would be there to listen. I won't 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.080 ever forget Earl getting a phone call from somebody out 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:17.920 of state and said they wanted to talk to him, 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.320 and Earl basically said, you know, I'll talk to you 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.040 whenever you can get here, and he said, well, I 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.600 can come now, and somewhere around two three o'clock in 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:29.880 the morning. Earl had one of his deputies, Ryani Shattucks, 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:31.440 was the one that usually got to do it. Earl 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.680 started with the old HS type of camera video in 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.600 the interviews, and so three o'clock in the morning he's 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.040 got Ryane Shattucks out of bed at the office, you know, 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.280 making him video his interview of this kid that just 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.640 gotten in touch with him and said he wanted to talk. 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:53.440 Didn't bother Earl to get up at three o'clock, two 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:55.280 o'clock in the morning and go meet a kid. This 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.320 was important to talk to this kid. He needed to talk, 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:02.440 and Earl was ready to listen to him. It was 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:05.800 not long after local law enforcement had begun their initial 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:11.040 investigation until the Georgia Bureau of Investigations began getting involved 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:14.880 with the case against an Awaki. I can tell you 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:20.320 it's snowballed fairly quickly, and it would have been within 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:23.640 when I say, a short period of time. I'm talking about, 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:26.400 you know, just a few months, and it was more 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:31.440 a matter of manpower issues than anything. Antawaki was now 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:37.000 in damage control mode. A letter from Antawaki's attorney, Baxter Davis, 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:41.360 was sent to all employees of the organization, reminding them 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:46.240 of the confidentiality of an Awaki business. Jim Parham, now 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.280 heading the board of directors after Petter had stepped down, 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.600 fired three staff members, one including a nurse who had 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:57.120 sexual relations with a patient on the Mexico trip and 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.600 another who quote lost control while trying to restrain a child. 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.560 Frank Win says that an Awaki was anything but cooperative 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:11.800 with law enforcement during their investigation. Well, we had to 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.360 get some search warrants, so they weren't. But of course 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.520 his whole family was involved in an Awake, so some 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.280 of the stuff that was going on involved getting search 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:23.360 warrants to go out there. But I would say a 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.760 lot of the people that Earl interviewed that we're not 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:33.400 family members. I think a majority of them were were cooperative. 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.040 If it was something to do with the pet Or family, 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:44.120 the co operation was minimal and sometimes maybe superficial would 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:48.760 be a better description of the cooperation. Frank says that 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.960 Earl Lee was now going back through any files which 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.200 they had on an Awaki, one of which being the 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:59.960 suicide that had taken place a few years back. This incident, too, 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.680 seemed to fit the same pattern of abuse which they 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:06.479 had seen. I won't say enough about Earle and how 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:08.600 much he worked, but one of the things he would 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.560 also remember stuff about old cases, and he he never 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.840 forgot that. And so one of the things he knew 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.679 when we were looking at other documents was he was 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:24.080 always wondering if there was anything related to the kid 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:29.360 that had dove off the chimney onto the concrete slab. 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.760 And he found in during a search we had taken 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:38.840 some documents, and he found a document related to that kid. 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.360 And of course Earle would have been looking for that 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.600 while while we're going through everything. Earl would have remember 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.040 that kid's name and look for it. And I remember 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.200 him telling me he found the file on the kid, 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.480 and and the kid had been my memory without knowing 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.480 all of the details of what the kids issues were. 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:02.119 But the kid had progressed and and it appeared that 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:07.160 Louis Petter had had some uh time with the kid. 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:12.160 So the Earl and to us, it looked like this 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:16.080 kid had progressed through the hospital in a way that 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:20.679 he should have graduated, and he was ready to graduate, 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:25.520 and he was told that you're not graduating from the program. 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:29.960 And in that file it also reflected that there appeared 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.479 to have been some time where Louis Petter had wanted 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:35.560 the kid to go with him some places, and he 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.840 may have actually gone with him. So, without knowing what happened, 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.080 we felt like there had been possibly some rejection, but 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:49.359 definitely the kid was ready to leave and was prevented 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:53.800 from leaving, and so it opened up a whole another 0:18:53.880 --> 0:19:00.440 idea or questions about why the kid committed suicide. Recalls 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.600 he had had some time with Lewis Petter and he 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.280 had been prevented from leaving when it appeared that his 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:13.760 records showed he was ready to leave. By September, news 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.760 had been informed that an official investigation into Annawaki was 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:21.840 being conducted. Parents of patients were sent letters from the 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:26.359 new head of the administration, Jim Parham. Scott Hole was 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.760 a patient during this time. He was supposed to go 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:34.280 on the annual Mexico trip that year. These plans changed, however, 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:40.119 once the criminal investigation began. So I'll probably remember the 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.679 investigation starting just before we were supposed to take the 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.480 trip to Mexico. You know, we didn't have access to 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.840 media or anything like that, so we had no way 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.960 of knowing anything. That was going on. We couldn't talked 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:54.760 to our parents for the most part unless we were 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:57.919 CRESS members, So you know, we we were in this bubble. 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.520 But then when we were not allowed to go Mexico 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:02.280 and had to go out west, that's I guess when 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:04.600 it really dawned on me that this is a serious 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:10.080 investigation and you know something's gonna happen. I don't really 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:15.399 remember an announcement about the investigation. I remember there was 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.159 a lot of scuttle butt and you know, the kids 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.080 talking amongst themselves of rumors that they had heard about 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:25.040 this or about that. Carl Moore was also supposed to 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:29.800 go on that year's Mexico trip. That summer's trip, we 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.080 didn't go to Mexico. We just went around the United States. 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.800 But before we left, I knew that something was going on. 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:39.760 I didn't think too much of it. I just knew 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:44.840 something was going on. There weren't any details that our 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:47.879 call at the time. That was at the beginning of 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:53.119 the summer. I want to say, I think when we 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:57.720 got back from that trip, it sounded like something serious 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.040 was going on, you know, but it was all post is, like, 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:03.520 you know, we got a political problem, there's a problem 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.520 with the board or something like that is I think 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:08.680 the way it was kind of played out in front 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:13.400 of me. Initially, Carl remembers a conversation with Louis Petter's 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:18.800 adopted son, Gus, a quadriplegic who Carl believes went through 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:23.720 the same abuse that he endured for years. At some 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.960 point about that time, I went to visit Gus Gus Petter, 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.359 who was I don't know if he was ever legally 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.640 adopted or not, but probably went through the same things 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:35.639 I did. I was friends with him, but he was 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:39.360 a quadriplegic, and he and I never talked about it. 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:41.600 But when I mentioned to him that something was going on, 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:44.720 and Gus said, what's It's not about sex, is it? 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:47.239 And I said, I don't know, he says, well, if 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:50.560 it's about sex, they'll they'll eat him alive or something 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:53.359 like that. That was kind of like a moment in 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:55.800 time where I kind of felt like there was a 0:21:55.920 --> 0:22:00.639 history there that I didn't know about. That was my 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:06.000 first inkling of that. And it wasn't long after that 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:09.639 that I went down to meet Patter's attorneys. They essentially 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.960 wanted a video tape me, you know, denying everything anything 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:19.560 sexual or inappropriate, or financial or anything. I was definitely 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:22.639 on the party line at that point. At some point 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:25.360 I had an encounter with Thoroughly. I think they came 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:28.040 over actually to search the house or something. I had 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:33.040 noticed somebody was watching the house at any rate, when 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:36.800 they came to search the house, I called the attorney 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:39.320 and I think I left there and they gave me 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:43.280 an attorney. I didn't know Early. I met him there 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:48.360 at Petter's house first time, but I knew who he was. Anyway, 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:53.000 It wasn't It wasn't too long after that that Douglas County. Uh. 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.560 They had asked me to come down there for questioning, 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:58.200 and I did, but I called the attorney. They said, 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:02.359 if anything happens, you call us. I called them. Carl 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:05.440 had asked his appointed attorney if he could go pick 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:07.760 up some of his belongings, as he was going to 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:12.520 be in custody for some time. I asked if I 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:14.960 could go back and get some stuff, and he said, well, 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:17.600 I'm gonna check with Early and see if it's okay 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:19.359 for you get some of your stuff out of the house. 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:21.399 So I did. I went back there and that's when 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:27.520 they arrested me. So Carl had been arrested with the 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:31.359 charge of sodomy with none other than his own abuser, 0:23:31.640 --> 0:23:34.920 Louis Petter. Because in the state of Georgia, the act 0:23:34.960 --> 0:23:39.000 of sodomy itself was a crime, both Petter and Carl 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:43.560 could be charged with the same act. I didn't know 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:45.520 this at the time, but the way they wrote it, 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:49.080 the statute of limitations had actually expired on it. It 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:52.879 really wasn't even a valid warrant. But of course they 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:55.400 brought me in and I just denied it because that's 0:23:55.440 --> 0:23:57.840 what I was told to expect and what and told 0:23:57.840 --> 0:24:00.560 what to do. But they brought me in and put 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:03.080 me in h the room. So I just spent the 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:06.280 night in that room. It's the same thing that technically 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:09.440 they could have charged everybody who was in the accounts 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:13.280 against Petter with the same thing. That was a hard 0:24:13.320 --> 0:24:16.800 thing to get over. That was the last time I 0:24:16.840 --> 0:24:20.040 saw any of them was the day I was arrested. 0:24:21.000 --> 0:24:24.120 I never went back and saw anybody. Do you ever 0:24:24.160 --> 0:24:30.600 speak with Petter again? No, Carl says it was with 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:34.159 the help of his attorney, David Botts, that he decided 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:38.920 what he ultimately had to do. The next morning, I 0:24:38.960 --> 0:24:40.880 happened to be looking out the window and I saw 0:24:40.960 --> 0:24:44.280 my dad walking across the parking lot. I hadn't seen him, 0:24:44.280 --> 0:24:48.600 and probably five years or six years, David Botts ended 0:24:48.680 --> 0:24:51.600 up coming down and he said the perfect thing to me. 0:24:51.680 --> 0:24:54.080 He said, you can tell the truth about this stuff. 0:24:54.800 --> 0:24:58.760 It's gonna be okay. He says, you can lie about it. 0:24:58.760 --> 0:25:00.639 It's gonna be okay, but it's gonna cost you a 0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:07.479 lot more money. It was something like that, and uh, 0:25:08.200 --> 0:25:13.560 what he was doing was it was helping me to 0:25:13.680 --> 0:25:18.000 do the right thing. And uh, I'll always be grateful 0:25:18.040 --> 0:25:20.920 to him for that. I can tell you that. Well. 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:24.760 The redeeming thing about the whole thing was that they 0:25:24.800 --> 0:25:26.840 could have treated me a lot different than they did. 0:25:27.680 --> 0:25:34.800 It wasn't easy, and I was really really precarious state, 0:25:35.840 --> 0:25:38.119 and I hadn't given them the impression I was going 0:25:38.160 --> 0:25:43.960 to cooperate. And the experience of, you know, going through that, 0:25:44.320 --> 0:25:47.880 it was like, uh, it's so hard to describe this 0:25:48.000 --> 0:25:51.520 time when it was almost like I had been blind 0:25:51.680 --> 0:25:53.359 and all of a sudden I could see. It was 0:25:53.400 --> 0:25:57.960 almost just that dramatic, the stripping off of the denial, 0:25:58.119 --> 0:26:01.280 and it was just a brutal to do. It can't 0:26:01.280 --> 0:26:03.320 go back and change anything about it, and I don't 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:04.960 know if it would have worked any different in any 0:26:04.960 --> 0:26:12.520 other way. It's just the way it was. Carl Moore 0:26:12.560 --> 0:26:16.440 would have been initially charged because of what we believed 0:26:16.480 --> 0:26:20.199 he had done, and all we may have known to 0:26:20.240 --> 0:26:22.399