Those words are part of the website description of Camp Tracey, the church-run facility for troubled youth located in northern Baker County. But those idyllic words don’t tell the scandals of sexual and physical abuse that have plagued the camp since the 1980s. Camp Tracey Children’s Home was started in 1982 by Rev. Wilford McCormick under the auspices of Harvest Baptist Church in Jacksonville. The camp website calls itself "an integral and inseparable ministry" of Harvest Baptist Church. Six lawsuits by former students have been filed since 2003 against the camp and Harvest Baptist Church citing repeated sexual and physical abuse by staff and senior residents. Five have been settled. One of the cases was voluntarily dismissed for procedural reasons prior to the hearing in front of Circuit Judge Aaron Bowden, according to attorney Joel Magonick, of the De la O, Marko, Magolnick & Leyton law firm in Miami, who has represented each client.
The church has repeatedly denied all allegations. Those lawsuits were not the first time Camp Tracey’s methods and operations have been in question. Complaints began almost immediately when the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services investigated child abuse allegations in 1983 by three camp runaways. The State Attorney’s Office cleared the camp at that time. In 1987, a Baker County Grand Jury issued a report on Camp Tracey after years of physical abuse allegations. Their report criticized the camp for excessive corporal punishment and noted that physical restraints such as ropes and handcuffs were not to be used.
(Scroll down for more information on past allegations and the grand jury report)
Now North Florida News Daily is the first to break the new allegations of sex acts between students and abuse from a long-time camp employee that have brought the camp back into the media glare. Two have been arrested on unrelated charges after a month long investigation by the Baker County Sheriff's Office. The recent trouble when BCSO investigators began looking into allegations of sex crimes involving several students at the camp. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that seven juvenile students ages 14 to 17 were possibly engaged in sexual activity with each other. Legally, this is not in violation of the law since the boys were all juveniles and sex was consensual. But, during questioning, another student named Ben Lewis, was discovered to be 18 making him an adult legally and making any sex acts with the other students unlawful.
Lewis, a student at Camp Tracey for several years, was questioned about the allegations and admitted he had engaged in sexual activity with a 14-year-old juvenile. Lewis stated that he and the other student had been discussing the idea of having sex for a few days and one day while working on the farm they "went into the woods, removed each other’s pants and proceeded to masturbate each other." Lewis stated that he "really didn’t see what the big problem was" and said he was unaware that this was illegal. He was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious conduct on a minor.
While interviewing the juvenile residents regarding the sex allegations, it was revealed that the dorm father, John Edward Wilson had been abusive to students. Several of the students said Wilson, 46, would become physically physically abusive when he became angry. One victim reported that just a couple of days before "Brother John" came over to him and started choking him before slamming his head into the wall. Others told similar stories. The police reports notes that a boy who witnessed the attack stated that Wilson had an anger problem that all of the juvenile residents are aware of and when he gets angry with his wife or one of the boys, he will take it out on all of them.
Wilson was investigated for nearly identical charges in 2003 when his adoptive son ran away and contacted the BCSO citing abuse. Those charges were deemed unfounded and were not pursued. A warrant for Wilson was signed by Judge Joey Williams on June 30 and Wilson was taken into custody. He denied the claims of abuse, but refused to answer any questions until he had a lawyer. He has since been released from jail on his own recognizance under the condition that he stay away from the camp. However, Rev. Wilford McCormick, the man they all just call "Preacher" told a reporter that Wilson will continue to work at the camp. Department of Children and Family Services was contacted regarding the abuse and it is expected they will also conduct an investigation.
LAWSUITS
The lawsuits detailing sexual and physical abuse filed by former residents of the facility all raise similar abuse allegations about Camp Tracey.
**While there have been a total of six cases filed by attorney Joel Magonick against Harvest Baptist Church (d/b/a Camp Tracy) only five of those cases were settled. One of the cases was voluntarily dismissed for procedural reasons prior to the hearing in front of Judge Bowden.
GRAND JURY REPORT
The 1987 Baker County Grand Jury report on Camp Tracey noted there was no qualified medical personnel on the premises and emergency medical procedures were inadequate and "woefully lacking." The report also criticized that there was no qualified physical, mental, or psychological evaluation upon admission.
In addition the Grand Jury report cited:
•"There is no adequate system in operation to document medical injures for the review diagnoses or record keeping of cases of suspected physical abuse of residents.
•There is no procedure as does exist for other child and youth facilities for contacting of the state of Florida’s Health and Rehabilitative Service (HRS) Agency in cases actual or suspected child abuse on resident of Camp Tracey. The attitude of the management and staff of Camp Tracey is both resistant and opposed to this necessary protective review of the program operation.
•There is no individual knowledgeable nor trained in health or nutrition to review or oversee the preparation of proper meals.
•The educational program at Camp Tracey is sub-standard and frequently resulted in loss of grade matriculation of students when returning back to public schools. This has had detrimental consequences to the students.
•More disturbing findings noted that children residing at Camp Tracey should not be forced to work for private citizens and runaways should not be labeled "misfits" or given GI style haircuts as a disciplinary action. The report found that physical restraints such as ropes or handcuffs should never be used as "has been done at Camp Tracey."