Mennonite Church faces suit alleging abuse of boys

Human trafficking lawsuit cites forced labor, food deprivation at Juniata County farm

Mennonite boys and young men were made to do unpaid labor, deprived of food and schooling, and subjected to physical abuse on a Pennsylvania farm where families in a conservative offshoot of the Mennonite Church sent troubled youths, a federal lawsuit alleges.

Two former residents of Liberty Ridge Farm in Juniata County filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Allentown alleging they did work for a trucking company, raised chickens, cattle and hogs; and built fences, gates and wooden pallets that turned a profit for the church, the farm and its owner using their labor.

If the adults who lived with and directed the youths believed they weren’t working hard enough or acted “against the Bible,” they were required to do additional labor such as dragging chains, breaking boulders into tiny pieces with a hammer and digging out tree stumps by hand. Sometimes the boys and young men were not allowed to eat or were put on a diet of rice

and beans until the tasks were complete, the lawsuit alleges.

The adult mentors would also physically restrain the youths, with multiple adults holding the residents face-down on the ground with their arms and legs

held behind their backs in a hog-tied position. The mentors also used zip ties to retrain the residents and dragged them around, the suit alleges.

The plaintiffs, now adults living in New Jersey and Missouri, filed the suit to ensure that the farm is closed and other youths are not subjected to the treatment they claim they suffered, attorney Renee Franchi said.

The suit names as defendants the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church, the church’s mission, Liberty Ridge Farm and

the farm’s owner, Nelson Martin.

It alleges they violated the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the Racketeering in Corrupt Organizations Act and the Pennsylvania law against human trafficking. Under the RICO and Pennsylvania human trafficking law, the men would be entitled to three times their actual damages if a jury finds the defendants liable.

Efforts to reach Martin, whose address is in Richland, Lebanon County and leaders of the church, based in Ephrata, Lancaster County, were unsuccessful.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services said it had no records of licensing involvement for the facility.

Franchi said the men, who are identified only by their initials in the lawsuit, are only two residents of the farm, which housed about six youths at a time and opened in 2011.

“We believe it is likely that were many boys and now men who were there and we strongly encourage them to come forward,” Franchi said.

She said her clients were pressured not to file the suit and she believes that others would likely experience the same.

“There have been threats made by members of the church to at least one person involved in this case,” she said.

According to the lawsuit, Liberty Ridge Farm is situated on 80 acres in Fayette Township, about 40 miles north of Harrisburg. In addition to a house, there are buildings for animals, gardens and a workshop for building pallets and fiberglass gates. A trucking company also operates from the property.

The suit alleges that the Eastern Pennsylvania Mennonite Church directed Nelson and activities at the farm.

Residents and their families are told that Liberty Ridge is “an intense spiritual atmosphere for the purpose of effecting social and behavioral changes in the lives the troubled boys in a structured, closely supervised homelike setting,” the suit says, citing a church publication.

Families who send boys and young men to live at the farm pay about $2,300 a month for them to live there, the suit says.

Residents work every day except Sunday, rising at or before 6 a.m. and working until sun-down with only breaks for meals. Many of the school-aged boys at Liberty Ridge did not receive schooling, the suit alleges.

Every resident had a mentor, who was a young man considered to be in good standing within the church. Residents were required to be with their mentors around the clock, including when they were sleeping, the suit alleges. The mentors were supervised by a house parent, who reported to Martin and the church.

“If the residents did not do what the house parent or mentors told them to do, did not perform their work to the satisfaction of the house parent or mentors, did not work hard enough, did not perform their exercises, or run fast enough, or were deemed to have acted ‘against the Bible,’ the residents would receive ‘consequences,’ ” the suit alleges.

The consequences could last from hours to weeks, the suit says.

“Most times, consequences were performed from sun-up to sun-down each day,” the suit says.

In addition to physical and mental abuse, the residents were threatened with legal action or being excommunicated from the church and their families if they attempted to leave or talked about leaving.

One of the plaintiffs was told that if he left, “they would have the police drag him back because the cops were on their side,” the suit alleges.

The man was also told that he would not be required to pay Liberty Ridge while he was there but when he escaped he learned the church had required his family to secretly take all of the money saved in his bank account and turn it over, the suit alleges.