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Editor’s note: This article is based primarily on reporting by Brittany Hailer for The Marshall Project, which has extensively reported on abuse and oversight issues within the troubled teen and residential treatment industries.
Image by Universal Health Services, Inc., via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
The CEO of a residential treatment center for children has been arrested after police say he drove nearly 200 miles to meet someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl.
Instead, authorities say, he met an undercover police officer.
Randall J. Mackendrick, 59, was CEO of the Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents in St. Clairsville, Ohio, when he was arrested Aug. 29 by North Ridgeville police.
According to police and court records reported by The Marshall Project, Mackendrick traveled roughly 175 miles from St. Clairsville to Lorain County for the meeting.
He now faces charges including unlawful sexual contact with a minor, importuning, disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile and possessing criminal tools.
Mackendrick was released after posting a $125,000 bond.
The criminal allegations aren’t connected to any current or former Fox Run patient, according to Universal Health Services, the company that owns the facility.
But the arrest comes at an especially troubling time for Fox Run.
Just weeks earlier, an investigation by The Marshall Project reported allegations of unsafe restraints, physical and sexual assaults and medical neglect involving children housed at the facility.
Fox Run Treats Children as Young as 5
Fox Run is a 100-bed residential treatment center serving children and adolescents with behavioral and mental health needs.
Some of the children placed there are survivors of sexual assault who have been sent to the facility for treatment related to trauma.
That makes the allegations involving its former chief executive particularly unsettling, even though authorities have not accused Mackendrick of misconduct involving Fox Run residents.
Universal Health Services said Mackendrick no longer works for the company and no longer has access to the facility.
The company told The Marshall Project that, based on the information available so far, the allegations involve conduct outside Fox Run and aren’t connected to current or former patients.
UHS said it is reviewing the situation and will evaluate facility policies and practices as appropriate.
The Ohio Department of Behavioral Health, which licenses Fox Run, has also been notified of the arrest.
Fox Run Was Already Under Scrutiny
Mackendrick’s arrest follows a July investigation by The Marshall Project that raised serious questions about conditions inside Fox Run.
The investigation found that police and emergency records documented incidents involving alleged physical and sexual assaults, unsafe restraints, medical neglect, hospitalizations and arrests.
According to the report, dozens of those emergency responses weren’t reflected in Ohio’s database of reportable incidents involving residential treatment facilities.
Former patients and workers began publicly sharing their experiences after the investigation was published.
Paitin Pahoundis, who spent three years at Fox Run as a teenager during the pandemic, told The Marshall Project that survivors have been waiting for answers about what happened inside the facility.
Another advocate, Addison Torrence, said Mackendrick’s arrest raises additional questions about state oversight.
Torrence, who previously lived at a now-closed troubled youth facility and serves on a state committee examining residential placements, said he plans to ask regulators what steps they’re taking to ensure children at Fox Run are safe.
For Fox Run survivors, the latest news arrives while questions about conditions inside the facility remain unresolved.
Learn More About Troubled Teen Industry Abuse Lawsuits
Former residents of residential treatment centers, wilderness programs and other troubled teen facilities have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse, physical abuse, unsafe restraints and institutional failures. Learn more about the lawsuits, investigations and legal options that may be available to survivors in our Troubled Teen Industry Abuse Lawsuit Guide.
