WEBVTT - “Doc" 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.480 Campell. Anna Waki is a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:07.920 The views and opinions expressing this podcast are solely those 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:11.119 of the author and participants and do not necessarily represent 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:14.160 those of I Heart Media or its employees. Due to 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:19.040 discussion of traumatic, sexual and violent content, listener discussion is advised. 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:24.439 I was twenty seven years old. I was in law school, 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:27.520 and I just thought that people would be really upset 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.920 about this. I thought people would rise up and do 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:37.880 something about it. Nothing was done. This is Robert Agastino, 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:42.560 who we heard from last episode in nine nine. Robert 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.000 and his co worker Roger Wrenn had witnessed firsthand sexual 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:49.479 abuse that was taking place at Anna Waki. Trying to 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.240 get something done about it proved to be quite difficult. 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:57.000 Here's Roger wren In those days, it was a lot 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:00.600 looser and you could suppress it, and and we were 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:05.920 pretty well suppressed. Bob and I were very frustrating. They 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:10.959 were whistleblowers. Here's journalist Albert Edgen. He spent the better 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:15.040 part of six years covering the inn Awaki story. They 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.640 did the right thing, and they brought it to the 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.880 right authorities, and they knew the hierarchy of things in 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:22.760 the state, and so they brought it to the people 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:24.480 that they needed to bring it to. That happened in 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:30.400 late and they pressed it and they were frustrated by it. 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.120 We felt like we were out on a limb. You 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:39.960 cannot imagine being year old and knowing something that is 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:46.080 horrendous and telling people in fact screaming and nobody listening. 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:49.960 It was a real rough time in my life. And 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.400 I know Bob and I've talked about it. We both suffered. 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.040 I tried left unawake. I went to de Facts and 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.680 try to get them involved. Well Burn Ellis was the 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.360 head of de Facts. He knew about it because some 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:06.840 of the students had told me they went to speak 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:12.600 with him. The earliest correspondence from the Department of Family 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.959 and Children's Services regarding wrongdoing it an Awaki is a 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:21.400 letter dated August six well Born Ellis, director for the 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.520 Division of Children and Youth, request representation from Assistant Attorney 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:30.080 General Wheeler Brian. The letter states it is quote in 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.640 regards to the probable revocation of Antawaki's license as a 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.680 child caring institution and any other legal action which may 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:42.359 become necessary. For months, the de Facts Board waffled back 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:46.680 and forth on whether hearing should happen. Rennandak Costino needed 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:49.000 more than their word if anyone was going to take 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:54.040 them seriously. Bob and I were pretty involved in trying 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.520 to get anybody who would talk to come in so 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.480 we could get some proof. Everybody kept saying, can you 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:02.240 prove it, and so we ended up having to get 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.600 some HALFI Davis and affid. David is a sworn written 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.720 statement detailing behaviors or events that you consider to be illegal. 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.480 Rennon Dakastina would need Anywaky patients to swear their abuse 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.760 in order to build their case. Boy, it was tough. 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.800 I just remember a couple of cases where I thought 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.120 they weren't going to sign, and then they finally would, 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:28.160 and then they say, no, I don't want to do it. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:33.640 They were so scared and and part of it had 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:37.440 to be fear of of the repercussions, but one of them, 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:41.160 I think was fear of letting down Lewis Petter because 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:45.200 he had developed relationships with these kids and some of 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:46.960 them believed that he was the only person who could 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.160 help him. So getting them to sign anything was tough, 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.080 and it was a rejection of him as their father figure. 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:00.040 We were involved in trying to find some way to 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.880 extricate him from the camp, and as I recall, we 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.080 started hearing a lot of negative things about us. Rennon 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.440 Dagastina were tipped off by a social worker in Douglasville. 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.000 The pattern had begun spreading some serious rumors about them, 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:20.520 possibly an attempt to discredit their story. There were people 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:24.479 in Douglasville who heard that we were communist. He told 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.599 the kids we were, and of course we're gone. We're 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.279 not in any position to defend ourselves, and we were 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.560 concerned that would happen when we left, and it did. 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:36.440 Several people that worked for him out there that were 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.680 pretty close to him, and they made sure that they 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.240 said as many negative things as they possibly could about us, 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:49.120 and UH tried to take our validity as reporters and 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:54.839 destroy it. He came after us. He called Bob Dagastino, 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.760 who is, I might add, a very conservative gentleman, a 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:03.200 Czechoslavaka and communist, and I was a Romanian communist, which 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:08.640 was hilarious. I'm a rock group conservative. I served under 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.560 Ronald Reagan. The Just Department was Barry Golder's county chairman. 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.320 That's when we went after him for a libel. It was. 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:21.480 It was pretty rough. Robert Agostino then filed suit against 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.719 Louis Petter for the cost of one million dollars. Rin 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.440 says that at this time, if someone claimed you were 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.719 a communist, that was a serious charge and could derail 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:35.920 your whole career. Dagostino explained that filing this suit was 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:37.440 a way to put the case in front of a 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.720 judge and hopefully get the attention of the board at 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:45.200 an Awaki and the idea was to show everybody what 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.320 was going on in an awake. Walker, who is my counsel, 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.160 said maybe that will excite the insurance company. Maybe that 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.680 will excite the board into doing something. And I laid 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:58.800 it out in that lawsuit. Laid it out had no effect. Well, 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.080 I think there's a lot of pressure. I think Pedro 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:05.119 had a lot of tentacles into Douglas County. The court 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.360 really was not interested and they put it aside, and 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.520 we really had a rough time in court. The attorney 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.520 did not do what Bob and I considered to be 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.200 a credible job of looking at the background, and so 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:22.080 we end up in court and nothing happened, absolutely nothing, 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:24.039 and it was put aside. It's probably still in the 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:31.880 being in there waiting to happen. Over the past several 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:34.920 weeks we have received the number of very serious allegations 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.160 concerning both the facility out there in a number of 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.640 individuals involved with him. It was just a form of 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:44.120 their therapy. They were told to do it, and at 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:46.720 the time he was fourteen and a half fifteen years old, 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:50.200 they didn't know any better. I asked him, why are 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.440 you letting this happen? Why are you covering up for 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:55.960 Louis Patter. He had no answer to that question, involved 0:06:56.200 --> 0:07:10.160 having asitution and absolutely the contrary of what they should 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.680 have done. I'm disturbable over the fact of something I 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.960 can still going on it and I wake you. I'm 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:23.720 Josh Stain, and this is camp Hell and Awake. By 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:25.640 now you were starting to get a picture of how 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:30.040 things operated behind the scenes at Atawaki. The mastermind pulling 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.360 the strings was the head and founder, Louis doc Petter. 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:36.560 Here we're going to take a break in the story 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:40.160 to look at who Petter was, where he came from, 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.600 and how he was able to wield so much power. 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:47.120 Whenever I asked people about Louis Petter, I usually get 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:51.040 the same type of response. Very charming. He knew how 0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:54.080 to work a crowd, if you will, and was socially 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:59.400 very competent. He's very polite. Even as his crises mounted, 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:03.800 he was very polite and civil when he needed to be. 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:07.320 Lewis Petterick was a charming person, and he definitely has 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.960 some charisma. Looking back, I can see why a lot 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:13.320 of the boys who were looking for father figures would 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.679 have been attracted to him. But under all that charm 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.840 was something much darker. I asked journalists Albert Edgin about 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:26.400 Petter's origins. He had worked in a series of jobs 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:31.160 in a state of Georgia, public service jobs with agencies 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.640 that dealt with criminal kids, you know, juvenile delinquent kids 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.040 who were in prison or are some way in a 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:42.040 jail or in some sort of supervisory situation. He was 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:47.600 fairly well educated. He was developing this reputation of being 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:51.840 innovative in child development, particularly in working with troubled children. 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.520 But he also through those years, as he was working 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:59.679 in the state government, it is very meticulous about maintaining 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:05.640 relationships with people who were in physicians of power. It 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:10.720 is hard to track Petter's professional trajectory exactly. Surprisingly, he 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:13.679 managed to get his name in local papers fairly regularly, 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.040 dating all the way back to the forties. You can 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:19.960 begin to see Petter's involvement with youth dating back to 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:24.360 nineteen forty two. One article mentions him as a counselor 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:26.680 of a boy Scout camp which is about to open. 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.199 Another from nineteen forty three list Petter as the head 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:32.480 of a y m C a group from Makin called 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:36.720 the Junior Commandos composed of boys aged eleven to thirteen 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:39.360 who wanted to help with the war effort from home. 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:44.000 Activities included running military drills and learning a new form 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:48.320 of self defense called judo. Petter was married to his 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:52.680 wife and future co founder of Annawaki, Mabel Reese, in Macon, Georgia, 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.240 in nineteen forty three. At this time, he was serving 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.400 as an assistant pastor at the Mabel White Baptist Church 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:05.400 while continuing his master's degree at Mercer University. Petter's connection 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.960 to the Baptist Church would continue through the rest of 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:12.600 his life. Aside from a few wedding efficient announcements. The 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.800 next mention of Louis Petter in any newspaper comes from 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.080 an article outlining the need for a full time psychologist 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.440 for the Juvenile Court of Fulton County, Georgia in nineteen 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.920 fifty one can already begin to see Petter working his 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.640 way through the ranks of local government. Petter was working 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.800 as a part time psychologist and probation officer for the 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.040 Juvenile Court of Atlanta at the time. This would later 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.679 lead Petter to help develop and head the first juvenile 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:44.440 domestic Relations court in Savannah, Georgia. Another article from nineteen 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:49.040 fifty shows a preview Petter's future career. The headline reads 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:53.560 one thousand dollars pledged for support Buckhead Club to help 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:58.439 youth begin new life. It described a juvenile delinquent whose 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.800 stories of theft and killing were documented in a psychological 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.640 test done during one of Petter's graduate classes at Emory University. 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:09.520 The Buckhead Boys and Girls Club of Atlanta raised money 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:14.680 for the youth's re orientation and development. Already Petter was 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.800 finding ways to organize communities to raise funds in the 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:22.200 hope of helping teens. A follow up article from Ninette 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:26.000 tells the story of Jimmy, the troubled youth who had 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.200 been pulled out of a life of crime by none 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:32.200 other than Lewis Petter. The article also states the Jimmy's 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:35.280 case was receiving one hundred dollars a month from each 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:37.960 member of the Buckhead Exchange Club to help his cause. 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.720 Through the nineteen fifties, Petter's name pops up continually in 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:46.360 the Atlanta papers. Most of these are announcements of meetings 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.800 at p t A's churches and schools, with Petter speaking 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.360 about troubled teens, how the problem is only growing and 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.920 must be addressed. Many of these lectures were said to 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:01.640 pertain to youth conservation. Petter was not only serving as 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:06.160 a reverend, court psychologists, and probation officer. He was now 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:12.160 lecturing parents about the problem of juvenile delinquency. To put 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:15.840 this into perspective, Petter's influence on the community of parents 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:20.480 in Atlanta begins in the nineteen fifties. In the post 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.920 World War two age of booming babies and nuclear families, 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.520 there was also a wave of rebellious teenagers. Racial barriers 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.800 were starting the slow process of breaking down, and teams 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.880 were beginning to revolt in new ways not seen before. 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:38.960 This new culture of youth included rock and roll, The 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:43.160 beatnext and recreational drug use, all bubbling up into the 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:52.280 mainstream for the first time, and it's scared parents. In 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.120 the middle of the twentieth century and the United States 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.880 of America, hundreds and hundreds of teenage boys and girls 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:04.120 are becoming hopeless dopandics every year. It's fantastic, it's unbelievable, 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:09.160 and it's terrible, but it's true. Just as fast as 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.800 rules were broken, others established in an attempt to keep 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:16.440 this new generation in line. Talk of sex was shunned, 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:20.520 and dancing and hair length were now hot topics. This 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.080 all adds up to the perfect storm for someone to 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.480 act as a hero for parents who don't know how 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:30.760 to deal with their teen's troubled behavior. It's hard to 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:36.200 grow up if a teenager has extra problems, emotional or social. 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:39.640 It's even harder. Kids like this, not wanted by any 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:43.360 other group or anyone else much, tend to hang out together. 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:49.480 Rowdy kids, troubled kids headed for trouble. Still a couple 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.240 of years from real crime, but with destruction and violence 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:58.120 their only outlet, they're on their way to it unless 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:06.600 their outlook can be changed. Louis Petter builled himself as 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.520 just the person who could help a narrative he would 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:28.840 continue to push for the rest of his career. By 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.120 the mid nineteen fifties, Lewis Petter had now fully intrenched 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.479 himself within the local government as well as many communities 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:38.560 of parents in the Atlanta area. He was moonlighting as 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.560 a Baptist minister while also serving as a juvenile psychologist 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:46.760 and parole officer for the State of Georgia. Petter worked 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:48.960 his way up to the position of Vice president of 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:52.720 the Georgia Probation and Parole Association, putting him in control 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:56.440 of many youths inside the Georgia legal system. It is 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.240 here that he would meet a young bureaucrat who would 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:05.360 prove in value build his professional career. Jim Parham. Parum 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:09.560 came up in a relatively poor household, but was brilliant. 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.800 He went to Emory University. He got himself really well educated. 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:20.240 He also was somebody who thought innovatively about child care 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.120 child development, but he had more broad interests and he 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:28.680 became a bureaucrat. Harms working relationship with Petter begin in 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:33.000 Atlanta as far back as Palm served as a night 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.400 attendant on the graveyard shift at a juveniv Attention Center 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.840 while finishing up school. During the day, Petter as a 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:45.240 supervisor and Parum as a jail guard in the county 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:48.320 jail where they were keeping these kids. They had plenty 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.840 of time over the weeks and months to have long 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:57.640 conversations at night, and Petter became a mentor to Parhum. 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.920 Petter had all of these innovative ideas and Parm was 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:05.160 a young, very smart kid, really willing to learn and 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:07.880 figure out ways to implement these kinds of ideas. So 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.680 it was a very very good relationship between the two 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:14.000 of them. For Parum, a very important relationship. He was 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:19.440 Petter's friend, Petter was his mentor. Pariam and Petter would 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.720 work in tandem holding panels to discuss the issue, which 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:27.280 they now termed juvenile delinquency. They would work in developing 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.840 a camping and cave exploring program to quote assist in 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:36.920 changing attitudes of youth on probation. In August n Parm 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.400 would follow Petter to Savannah, Georgia, where Petter was enlisted 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:44.240 as head of the states first Juvenile Domestic Relations Court. 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.360 He started a few innovative programs in Savannah that I 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:50.640 had no idea of until I read about it many 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:54.480 years later, having to do with marriage, counseling and dealing 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.600 with children who had been ruled juvenile delinquents who had 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.760 broken the law in one way or another. Robert Agastino 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.879 had heard about Petter's history with Georgia's Department of Family 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:09.520 and Children's Services during his lawsuit against Petter in seventy 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.520 Dagostino went to Savannah to see what he could find 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.959 out about Petter's time working for the government agency. He 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.840 was in Savannah first, he was in the departminent Family 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.520 and Children's Services in Savannah, and he was squeezed out 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:27.080 of Savannah as a psychologist because of, let's say, inappropriate 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:31.639 touching of juvenile boys that were under subvisit Junil Court. 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.600 What I found out in my investigation down there is 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.920 what he was doing was measuring their penises, handling their 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.000 penises and measuring it under the theory that the longer 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:46.440 the penis, the more likely you were to be a delinquent. 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:49.880 Of course, he was trying to be psychoanalytic, I suppose, 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.320 and it was so ludicrous I didn't believe it. It 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.080 was also told to us, Bob and I that he 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.040 had a stick that he used and made the children 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.479 when he was in probation officer show their privates and 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:05.240 then he would say, ah, this one's got a good prognosis, 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:10.760 bad prognosis. Dagostino says, Peters tane in history had little 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:16.320 to no effect on his future prospects in childcare. Remember 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:21.600 that the Department of Family and Children's Services actually placed 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:25.959 boys in that camp even though they knew about what 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:32.000 he did. In Savannah. There were people in the Georgia 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:38.920 government in the late forties and who were aware that 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:45.040 there were accusations of child abuse and sexual contact between 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:49.520 Petter and young people that he was supervising all the 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:54.280 way back to the late forties. Another connection that Lewis 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.400 Petter would first meet in Savannah is Brett Baxley. Baxley 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.480 would join Petter in his quest to start an outdoor camp. 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.720 Here's what Roger Wren remembers about Mr. B He had 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.399 many talents, very patient, was good with the kids. I 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.400 thought he was very effective group therapist. I've been doing 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:16.560 it for a while, so I was pretty comfortable with it. 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:19.320 And he would come in and also added to the group. 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.040 And I thought like an uncle or like a father, 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:23.800 I thought he did a pretty good job with that. 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:29.320 I was surprised that he did not step up when 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.280 when the thing came apart, because I know he cared 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.800 about the kids. I never understood what was going on. 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:41.000 If there's probably more there than meets I. Once Petter 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.200 left Savannah, there's not much record of his actions until 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:49.320 nine the year and Awake he was founded. By using 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:53.439 his skills to raise funds through community outreach, Petter, his 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.080 wife Mabel, and Brett Baxley were able to acquire a 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:01.400 large plot of land in Douglasville, Georgia. While the details 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:05.280 of this land deal are not explicitly known, through land deeds, 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:07.680 we can see that three large plots of land were 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:11.040 sold to Bread Baxley and his wife Joyce in nineteen 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:16.280 sixty three. This place would become known as Anawaki in 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:19.800 nineteen sixty three, one year after an Awaki was founded, 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:22.800 Jim Parham would go on to take a new position 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:26.159 in Atlanta, Georgia, as the Director for the Division of 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.520 Children and Youth at the Department of Family and Children's Services, 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:33.080 the same government body that would be in charge of 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:55.000 any oversight of Anawaki. By the summer of nineteen seventy, 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:58.680 Robert Dagostino and Roger Wren were fully entangled in a 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:02.760 legal dispute with Lewis Petter and an Awake. DA Gastino 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:05.800 had filed a libel lawsuit against Petter, but did so 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.480 in a very clever way. During the libel court proceedings, 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.080 da Gastino was sure to mention the fact that he 0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:15.720 left due to concerns of sexual behavior between Petter and 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.359 patients at Ain't Awake. Filing a libel lawsuit was a 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:22.159 roundabout way to get a court hearing to address abuse 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:26.920 of patients at Antawaki, but eventually it worked. Rince says 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:29.440 this is in part due to the pressure of the lawsuit, 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:31.920 but also the fact that they were able to get 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:38.000 ridden affidavit's from former patients. Bob really pushed and we 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:40.760 had some people who would help us, and finally I 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:42.560 think they were embarrassed at the point where they had 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:46.800 to hold the hearing. I would say that they were 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.880 half hearted to begin with, and even the Assistant Attorney 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:55.520 General told us I didn't believe this. The representative of 0:21:55.960 --> 0:22:00.199 the State of Georgia there turning General's office to know 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:02.919 what to think, except he was told that I was 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:10.360 not sir, I was lying in everything else. On September three, 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:12.960 the State Board for the Division of Children and Youth 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:16.879 held a hearing regarding possible removal of Anawak's license as 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:20.560 a child caring institution. It consisted of a three member 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:24.320 panel from the Department of Family and Children's Services, including 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:30.080 Chairman Don Howe, Zack Smith, and Mrs Lester Harbin. Over 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:33.600 four days, this panel would hear testimony from multiple patients 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:37.800 and counselors from anna Waki. Attorney Charles Edwards would represent 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:43.399 the Anawaki Foundation. Charles Edwards, who led it was of 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:46.760 course hustle from day one. He was definitely tied up. 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:52.159 Was Loui pattern one way or another financially. The hearing 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:55.560 was set to begin at two p m. John Hinchi 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:59.560 would represent the State of Georgia, with Ralph Walker representing 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:04.480 Robert Dagostino and Roger Wren. Before the proceedings had even begun, 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:09.800 Annawekie's lawyer, Charles Edwards, filed objections to Ren in Dagostino's 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:13.560 legal counsel an emotion to dismiss all charges, a sign 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:18.000 of what was to transpire once the hearing was finally underway, 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:22.000 Edwards began by examining a former patient, Van Awaki. His 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:25.920 name withdrawn from the legal document. The following is an 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:30.719 excerpt from the testimony performed by voice actors. John Hinchy, 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:39.600 counsel for the State of Georgia, started his questioning, during 0:23:39.600 --> 0:23:41.840 the time you were at an awake, did you have 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:46.560 an opinion on Dr Petter's character? Yes, Sir Charles Edwards 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:50.720 objects yet again, wait just a minute. We would object 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:54.480 to his asking that the proper foundation has been laid 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:57.760 to ask a question of Dr Petta. In fact, Dr 0:23:57.840 --> 0:24:00.520 Petta is not the man on trial, and these charges 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:05.000 my response to that charge number ten lays the foundation 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:08.160 for Dr Petter's character. In fact, it is the very 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:12.720 issue in question. Chairman Don Howe sided with the Antawaki's lawyer, 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:15.760 but reminded the room that his power was limited as 0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:18.600 it was not an official court of law. If I 0:24:18.600 --> 0:24:20.879 were a judge, I'd sustain it, but all we can 0:24:20.920 --> 0:24:24.280 do is note it. Let me make it totally clear, 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:27.639 we object to any answer of this witness to the 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:32.160 question propounded by Mr Henschey. First, he had not laid 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:35.600 the proper ground for it. Second, Dr Petta is not 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:38.960 charged here in this hearing. The Foundation is the one 0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:42.359 that charge has been made against here and not Dr Petta. 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:45.400 And we move further that at this time and make 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:48.399 this motion that it appears that this charge is leveled 0:24:48.400 --> 0:24:51.880 against Dr Petta and not really the Foundation. We move 0:24:51.960 --> 0:24:54.600 that all charges be dismissed on the ground that this 0:24:54.680 --> 0:24:58.679 particular charge, I'd say would be dismissed on that ground. 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:02.680 That charge which Edwards is referring to, states that Anna 0:25:02.760 --> 0:25:06.399 Waki was in violation of the minimum requirements applicable to 0:25:06.440 --> 0:25:11.399 a child caring institution, in particular the clause that the 0:25:11.480 --> 0:25:14.720 executive shall in every instance be a person of stable 0:25:14.880 --> 0:25:19.879 sound judgment whose integrity is above reproach. In this case, 0:25:20.040 --> 0:25:23.200 that would be Lewis Petter reported to have had immoral 0:25:23.240 --> 0:25:26.000 and illicit relationships with one or more of the patients. 0:25:26.520 --> 0:25:28.760 The fact that this was not an actual court trial, 0:25:28.840 --> 0:25:32.199 but a hearing means that objections could neither be sustained 0:25:32.320 --> 0:25:36.320 or overruled. Only noted. This would not stop Edwards from 0:25:36.359 --> 0:25:42.600 objecting at any chance he could. Hinch's questioning continued, Can 0:25:42.640 --> 0:25:45.840 you say whether or not you ever observed or participated 0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:49.399 in any acts of homosexuality while you were on the 0:25:49.400 --> 0:25:53.879 Anna Waki campus. Yes, sir, I did when I was 0:25:53.920 --> 0:25:57.679 first admitted to an awake. There are more objections by 0:25:57.760 --> 0:26:03.000 Charles Edwards. They are noted as before. Please proceed. I 0:26:03.119 --> 0:26:07.560 participated in a homosexual relationship with Dr Petter for the 0:26:07.600 --> 0:26:10.280 reason stated that my problem was that I was suffering 0:26:10.320 --> 0:26:16.239 from homosexual fright. Who told you that Dr Petter I 0:26:16.320 --> 0:26:20.520 was afraid that I was a homosexual. Then several times 0:26:20.560 --> 0:26:23.280 I was under hypnosis and he said he was going 0:26:23.320 --> 0:26:25.639 to hypnotize me and this would make it easy for 0:26:25.640 --> 0:26:28.800 me to relate, and what I needed was a homosexual 0:26:28.840 --> 0:26:32.960 experience with him. Did he recommend any treatment for this 0:26:33.720 --> 0:26:37.560 apparent problem, Yes, sir. He said that I should have 0:26:37.600 --> 0:26:41.639 a homosexual experience with him and therefore ease my tension 0:26:41.800 --> 0:26:44.439 and would no longer have a problem. Did you have 0:26:44.520 --> 0:26:48.399