A mental wellness treatment center based in downtown Springfield is facing at least three civil lawsuits in progress.
All three suits allege the plaintiffs faced child sexual abuse linked to employees of Lakeland Behavioral Health System.
The suits were filed in Greene County courts since November and include 32 plaintiffs in total. All say they were underage when treated by Lakeland.
On Friday a lawyer representing three of the plaintiffs, Elizabeth McNulty, shared a written statement with Ozarks Public Radio through a representative of her law firm, Simon Law, of St. Louis.
“The allegations in this lawsuit speak for themselves,” McNulty said. “We plan to vigorously seek justice for our clients in this matter and look forward to holding all who failed our clients in this case accountable.”
What does the most recent lawsuit say about child sex abuse allegations linked to Lakeland?
On May 7, a group of 28 plaintiffs represented by Onder Law of St. Louis — who all say they were minor children when they were admitted for treatment at Lakeland’s Springfield adolescent residential facility — filed a 78-page lawsuit in Greene County courts.
The lawsuit petition names defendants including Lakeland Behavioral Health, its Tennessee-based parent company Acadia Healthcare, Lakeland CEO Nate Duncan, Lakeland director of risk management Nate Schwartz, Lakeland HR director Michaela Hill and Lakeland COO Rebecca Granden. The executives are being sued in their professional capacities.
For each plaintiff and each count in the lawsuit, the plaintiffs are asking the court for at least $25,000 in damages or more, to be determined by a jury.
Along with specific, graphic accusations centered on acts of sexual abuse against the anonymous plaintiffs — most of whom were born between 2000 and 2009 — the May 7 lawsuit accuses Lakeland and Acadia of having employees “routinely use” so-called “booty darts.” The "booty darts" were believed to contain psychotropic medications, “which render the residents incapacitated and vulnerable to sexual assault.”
The suit also notes that because Lakeland residents “are not allowed voluntary to leave the facility on their own volition, the residents are in an enclosed area, which makes them vulnerable to sexual abuse.”
The plaintiffs say they faced sexual abuse from unnamed Lakeland staffers, along with two former staffers who were named in the lawsuit.
Missouri court records show Greene County prosecutors charged former staffer Lessie Butler with several counts of statutory rape and statutory sodomy last year, along with one count of fourth-degree child molestation. Prosecution is in progress, with a case management conference scheduled for May 27.
Former staffer Mark McMannamy received a plea deal from prosecutors last year. Court records show he pleaded guilty on two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. According to the judge’s sentence order in the case, McMannamy was given credit for time served. The case docket shows he was released from state custody on February 27, with five years’ probation. KSMU was able to identify the former Lakeland staffers due to reporting by news partner Springfield Daily Citizen published May 9.
Onder Law and the 28 plaintiffs also made general allegations against Lakeland, citing whistleblower and shareholder lawsuits against the company, news media reports and government investigations: “Defendant Acadia has a well-documented history of increasing profits by cutting costs" and "understaffing their facilities.”
The lawsuit accuses the four Lakeland executives of “shredding writing witnesses statements, disciplinary reports, warning and write-ups in employee files, proclaiming that said evidence was ‘gone with the wind’” along with “not reporting incidents to law enforcement.” The suit also claims Lakeland and Acadia had a practice of “paying bonuses to employees who made positive statements to inspectors.”
The lawsuit quotes from a 2022 letter reportedly sent to Acadia and three other healthcare providers by two Democratic U.S. Senators, Patty Murray of Washington State and Ron Wyden of Oregon. Their letter said in part, “We are concerned by numerous stories of exploitation, mistreatment and maltreatment, abuse and neglect, and fatalities in these facilities.”
Following the letter, a U.S. Senate Finance Committee investigation launched in 2022 concluded that “harms, abuses and indignities” faced by children at Acadia and other facilities “are the direct causal result of a business model that has incentive to treat children as payouts and provide less than adequate safety and behavioral health treatment in order to maximize operating and profit margin.”
What does the May 5 lawsuit say about child sex abuse allegations linked to Lakeland?
On May 5, three plaintiffs filed suit in Greene County courts against Lakeland Behavioral Health. All three now say in court papers that they’re currently adults, but were underage at the time they received residential treatment from Lakeland.
The three plaintiffs in this suit described allegations similar to the ones outlined by the 28 plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed two days later.
One plaintiff, known by initials A.A., alleges that an unnamed male Lakeland staffer forced A.A. to touch his genitals “and perform oral sex on him.”
The alleged perpetrator “would offer his phone to A.A. as a reward for keeping the sexual assault a secret and would threaten to kill A.A. if the sexual assault was found out,” according to the lawsuit petition.
Court papers state “A.A. reported the abuse to their mother, but no investigation followed.”
A second plaintiff, K.C., alleges he was abused by a female Lakeland staffer. The lawsuit says the staffer forced him to touch her genitals, engage in oral sex, and threatened to “get K.C. in trouble” if he didn’t comply with these demands.
A third plaintiff, D.S., says a staffer “led D.S. to their room and locked the door.” The staffer forced D.S. to engage in oral sex, kiss the male staffer and “take their clothes off.”
The staffer allegedly “then raped D.S., and attempted sodomy,” stopping after “D.S. was making too much noise due to the pain he [the staffer] was inflicting.”
These three plaintiffs are seeking at least $25,000 in damages for each of the six counts of the lawsuit.
What does the November 2024 lawsuit say about child sex abuse allegations linked to Lakeland?
A separate lawsuit was filed Nov. 7 by a John Doe plaintiff who lives in Texas. His lawsuit petition says he was a minor at the time the suit was filed. The plaintiff is represented by Cowherd, Reade, Adair & Laney.
The John Doe plaintiff in this earlier lawsuit says he was 15 years old during a two-month stint as a resident at Lakeland in spring and summer of 2022. Doe alleges that during that time, he was “physically and sexually assaulted” by a Lakeland employee on the Lakeland campus.
John Doe is seeking damages to be determined by a jury.
What does Lakeland say about the lawsuits?
The website of Lakeland says it’s currently “a leading provider of psychiatric services to children, adolescents, and seniors.” It opened in 1905 as Springfield Hospital and in 1989 was renamed Lakeland after being relicensed for psychiatric care only.
In 2011, Lakeland was purchased by Tennessee-based Acadia Healthcare, a company whose market capitalization is valued at over $2.2 billion by the Nasdaq stock index. The May 7 lawsuit says Acadia reported more than $3.1 billion in revenues to federal authorities as of February 2024.
Acadia said in a May 8 news release that it’s “the largest stand-alone behavioral healthcare company in the U.S.,” with more than 260 behavioral healthcare facilities in 39 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, employing more than 25,000 people serving over 80,000 patients per day.
In response to phone and email requests for comment by Ozarks Public Radio sent to Acadia and Lakeland, an Acadia official emailed the following written statement, attributed to Lakeland Behavioral Health. KSMU is reproducing that statement in full; it appears identical to statements sent to KOLR and Springfield Daily Citizen in recent days.
“Lakeland Behavioral Health does not tolerate assault, abuse and neglect, and the kind of behavior alleged runs counter to our standards, practices, and training. While we are limited in what we can say regarding patient situations and pending litigation, the two former employees cited in the lawsuit were terminated and no longer work at our facility.”
Lakeland has made headlines before: In 2013, a 15-year-old ran away from the facility, prompting a federal investigation, according to reporting at the time by the Springfield News-Leader archived by the Springfield-Greene County Library.
The newspaper also reported that Springfield police took reports of 10 assaults against patients and staff during 2013. And in the seven months following that 15-year-old's attempt at running away, there were five more similar incidents.
On May 7, KSMU reached out to Springfield Police Department seeking records from the past six months, if there were any possible police responses at Lakeland’s facility off Market Avenue downtown, along with its adolescent residential treatment center on West Grand Street.
Police officials were reviewing the request.
