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Charges filed in teen's death at
boot camp
By Joey Bunch
July 15, 2008
A Montrose County grand jury
Tuesday handed up a raft of charges against operators and staff of a
youth-rehabilitation camp in connection with the death of a
15-year-old Utah boy who died in their care.
Caleb Jensen died in May 2007 from
an untreated staph infection at a court-ordered wilderness camp run
by Alternative Youth Adventures in Montrose.
The program was shuttered after his
death and surrendered its state license.
The grand jury filed various
charges of negligent homicide, child abuse resulting in death and
manslaughter against the staff and management, as well as Keith
Hooker, the camp's medical director.
"CEC stands by its position that at
all times the company acted appropriately and that the circumstances
that led to Caleb Jensen's death, while tragic, were not reasonably
foreseeable," according to a statement from the New Jersey-based
company that owns the wilderness program, Community Education
Centers.
District Attorney Myrl Serra did
not return a call for comment.
Jensen was placed in the program by
the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice Services two months before his
death.
His mother, Dawn Boyd of Salt Lake
City, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
She said last year that she
believed camp staff ignored her son's assertions that he was sick
and needed to go home. She also thought Juvenile Justice Services
failed to take into account his frequent problems with staph
infections.
A tribute website she created
includes a handwritten letter said to be the last one he sent home
from the camp.
Caleb wrote, "I wish I could go
back and be a good little boy, a nice little naïve church boy who
couldn't steal bubble gum without feeling bad about it. I want to
wear SpongeBob PJs . . . and cuddle up next to my mommy. I usta
think I was too hard of a gangsta that nobody could break me, but
they found my weakness, and I want to come home."
Alternative Youth Adventures, its
parent company, program director James Omer and Hooker were charged
with negligent homicide and child abuse resulting in death. Staff
member Ben Askins was charged with manslaughter and child abuse
resulting in death.
The defendants are to be formally
charged Aug. 25.
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