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Owner of St. Ann's Retreat Defends Caretaker's Action Against Teens
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Owner of St. Ann's Retreat Defends Caretaker's Action Against Teens
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Reasonable force is questioned as property owner defends the actions of caretakers.
Owner of St. Ann’s Retreat Defends Caretaker’s Action Against Teens
By Tom Zoellner and Vince Horiuchi, The Salt Lake Tribune
LOGAN-A man hired to watch St. Ann’s Retreat felt he was “in serious fear for his safety” when he allegedly tired up 20 local youths and threatened to kill them, said one of the owners of the property.
“He was just trying to sound aggressive,” said Mark Epstein, a San Francisco attorney who has an owners hip share in a mountain lodge and several cabins that became the scene of the real-life nightmare for some pre-Halloween trespassers.
The 50-year-old caretaker reportedly fired guns near the heads of the teen-agers he caught sneaking onto the property in Logan Canyon on Friday.
One 16-year-old boy said he was whacked in the head and knocked unconscious with a billyclub, and a girl reported being fondled when a guard frisked her for weapons.
The head caretaker and his two assistants could now face a variety of criminal charges, said Cache County sheriff’s deputies, who said they will present the case to County Attorney Scott Wyatt by the end of the week.
The caretaker made repeated references to his military service in the Vietnam War, and allegedly told the trespassers, “I’ll kill you like I killed the Vietnamese.”
He also reportedly bound the frightened teens together neck-to-neck with nylon cord and told them it was “detonating cord” that would blow their heads off if they moved-a trick he said he learned in Southeast Asia.
But Epstein said the man has no record of service in Vietnam that he knows of. Epstein said he hired the resident of Pocatello, Idaho, two months ago to do maintenance work and help save the place from vandals.
“He’s someone we were put in touch with by a Mormon youth group,” Epstein said in a telephone interview from his San Francisco office. “He called and asked if he could spend some time up there and go fishing and spend the weekends-basically enjoy the land.”
When called at home, the caretaker said only “no comment,” and hung up. The Tribune does not print the names of criminal suspects until they are charged in court.
His two assistants, who live in Tooele County, could not be reached for comment.
St. Ann’s Retreat, formerly owned by the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, has been a favorite subject of ghost stories and juvenile trespassing for decades. Epstein said he bought the compound in 1992 with several families in Utah and California, which he would not identify.
Tying up the trespassers was appropriate, Epstein said, because a group of teen-agers who had sneaked onto the grounds had allegedly been threatening the caretaker.
“I don’t think tying them up was excessive,” said Epstein, who has spoken with the caretaker.
“He had been threatened by the first group, and he didn’t know whether they had come up there with weapons or what.”
Some of the Halloween trespassers said it appeared the night watchmen set a trap to catch them.
When 18-year-old Tito Thanadabouth and seven of his friends sneaked into the compound at about 4:30 a.m. Friday, they found the front gate open and all the “no trespassing” sign removed, Thanadabouth said. The guards later surprised them inside the empty swimming pool.
Thanadabouth said he and his friends then were subjected to a diatribe of death threats and cursing while they were tied by the neck. Cache County deputies were called and the eight were charged with criminal trespassing. Police said they were not told of the alleged abuse at that time.
About 16 hours later, 16-year-old Matt Clark and 29 other young people, mainly from the Smithfield area, reportedly were ambushed by a shotgun-wielding guard just after they stepped onto the grounds of St. Ann’s.
Clark said he was hit on the head with a club and knocked to the ground unconscious when he refused to obey the guard’s order to lie down. His girlfriend had a pistol stuck into her back, he said.
“They were loony, they were out of their minds,” said Clark. “It seemed so unreal to me.”
The guards led the 30 teenagers to the drained swimming pool-the subject of numerous grisly legends-and tied 20 of them together by the necks with the phony “detonating cord,” The youths also were bound with disposable plastic handcuffs and told to remain on their knees for almost two hours while the police were called.
One boy who tried to get away was shoved to the ground and a shotgun round was fired near his head, Clark said.
They were taunting us to run,” he said. “They said, ‘It’s no fun if you don’t run. We want to shoot someone tonight.’”
Cache County sheriff’s Deputy Troy Linquin found several of the teen-agers crying from the tightness of the handcuffs when he arrived.
“As I looked at their hands, on the girls particularly, their hands were turning white in color, almost bluish in color,” wrote Linquin in his report. “Visible swelling as well as red marks were observed on the majority of individuals.”
Several of the teenagers came forward immediately with the story of their brutal treatment, Linquin noted.
Despite this, the guards were not arrested because police needed time to sort out all the witness statements and figure out the truth, said Cache County Sheriff Lynn Nelson.
“We know who they are,” Nelson said. “They aren’t going anywhere. We didn’t want to jump in and make a rash decision.”
Linquin said the police gave a warning about “the use of deadly force” to the caretaker, who was still visibly upset and began talking about Vietnam and how this was similar to troops being placed in Vietnam and went on with some conversation about police powers in the war.”
The sheriff said the case presents an interesting conflict between the rights of trespassers and the rights of property owners.
“The law says you can take reasonable steps to detain trespassers. The question is: Was this reasonable? They were protecting their property, and whether that was reasonable is a focus of our investigation,” said the sheriff, a native of Logan who admitted to peering into St. Ann’s from the bridge when he was a teenager.
Police said there is no evidence the teenagers-who were all given misdemeanor citations for criminal trespassing-were a party to any of the vandalism that has recently plagued St. Ann’s, which is about 10 miles from the center of Logan.
By Tom Zoellner and Vince Horiuchi, The Salt Lake Tribune
LOGAN-A man hired to watch St. Ann’s Retreat felt he was “in serious fear for his safety” when he allegedly tired up 20 local youths and threatened to kill them, said one of the owners of the property.
“He was just trying to sound aggressive,” said Mark Epstein, a San Francisco attorney who has an owners hip share in a mountain lodge and several cabins that became the scene of the real-life nightmare for some pre-Halloween trespassers.
The 50-year-old caretaker reportedly fired guns near the heads of the teen-agers he caught sneaking onto the property in Logan Canyon on Friday.
One 16-year-old boy said he was whacked in the head and knocked unconscious with a billyclub, and a girl reported being fondled when a guard frisked her for weapons.
The head caretaker and his two assistants could now face a variety of criminal charges, said Cache County sheriff’s deputies, who said they will present the case to County Attorney Scott Wyatt by the end of the week.
The caretaker made repeated references to his military service in the Vietnam War, and allegedly told the trespassers, “I’ll kill you like I killed the Vietnamese.”
He also reportedly bound the frightened teens together neck-to-neck with nylon cord and told them it was “detonating cord” that would blow their heads off if they moved-a trick he said he learned in Southeast Asia.
But Epstein said the man has no record of service in Vietnam that he knows of. Epstein said he hired the resident of Pocatello, Idaho, two months ago to do maintenance work and help save the place from vandals.
“He’s someone we were put in touch with by a Mormon youth group,” Epstein said in a telephone interview from his San Francisco office. “He called and asked if he could spend some time up there and go fishing and spend the weekends-basically enjoy the land.”
When called at home, the caretaker said only “no comment,” and hung up. The Tribune does not print the names of criminal suspects until they are charged in court.
His two assistants, who live in Tooele County, could not be reached for comment.
St. Ann’s Retreat, formerly owned by the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, has been a favorite subject of ghost stories and juvenile trespassing for decades. Epstein said he bought the compound in 1992 with several families in Utah and California, which he would not identify.
Tying up the trespassers was appropriate, Epstein said, because a group of teen-agers who had sneaked onto the grounds had allegedly been threatening the caretaker.
“I don’t think tying them up was excessive,” said Epstein, who has spoken with the caretaker.
“He had been threatened by the first group, and he didn’t know whether they had come up there with weapons or what.”
Some of the Halloween trespassers said it appeared the night watchmen set a trap to catch them.
When 18-year-old Tito Thanadabouth and seven of his friends sneaked into the compound at about 4:30 a.m. Friday, they found the front gate open and all the “no trespassing” sign removed, Thanadabouth said. The guards later surprised them inside the empty swimming pool.
Thanadabouth said he and his friends then were subjected to a diatribe of death threats and cursing while they were tied by the neck. Cache County deputies were called and the eight were charged with criminal trespassing. Police said they were not told of the alleged abuse at that time.
About 16 hours later, 16-year-old Matt Clark and 29 other young people, mainly from the Smithfield area, reportedly were ambushed by a shotgun-wielding guard just after they stepped onto the grounds of St. Ann’s.
Clark said he was hit on the head with a club and knocked to the ground unconscious when he refused to obey the guard’s order to lie down. His girlfriend had a pistol stuck into her back, he said.
“They were loony, they were out of their minds,” said Clark. “It seemed so unreal to me.”
The guards led the 30 teenagers to the drained swimming pool-the subject of numerous grisly legends-and tied 20 of them together by the necks with the phony “detonating cord,” The youths also were bound with disposable plastic handcuffs and told to remain on their knees for almost two hours while the police were called.
One boy who tried to get away was shoved to the ground and a shotgun round was fired near his head, Clark said.
They were taunting us to run,” he said. “They said, ‘It’s no fun if you don’t run. We want to shoot someone tonight.’”
Cache County sheriff’s Deputy Troy Linquin found several of the teen-agers crying from the tightness of the handcuffs when he arrived.
“As I looked at their hands, on the girls particularly, their hands were turning white in color, almost bluish in color,” wrote Linquin in his report. “Visible swelling as well as red marks were observed on the majority of individuals.”
Several of the teenagers came forward immediately with the story of their brutal treatment, Linquin noted.
Despite this, the guards were not arrested because police needed time to sort out all the witness statements and figure out the truth, said Cache County Sheriff Lynn Nelson.
“We know who they are,” Nelson said. “They aren’t going anywhere. We didn’t want to jump in and make a rash decision.”
Linquin said the police gave a warning about “the use of deadly force” to the caretaker, who was still visibly upset and began talking about Vietnam and how this was similar to troops being placed in Vietnam and went on with some conversation about police powers in the war.”
The sheriff said the case presents an interesting conflict between the rights of trespassers and the rights of property owners.
“The law says you can take reasonable steps to detain trespassers. The question is: Was this reasonable? They were protecting their property, and whether that was reasonable is a focus of our investigation,” said the sheriff, a native of Logan who admitted to peering into St. Ann’s from the bridge when he was a teenager.
Police said there is no evidence the teenagers-who were all given misdemeanor citations for criminal trespassing-were a party to any of the vandalism that has recently plagued St. Ann’s, which is about 10 miles from the center of Logan.
Source
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, FOLK COLL 32
Publisher
Rights
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Libraries Special Collections and Archives, phone (435) 797-2663.
Relation
Utah State University Folklore in the news collection, 1973-2012, FOLK COLL 32
http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv04849
St. Anne's Retreat
Language
Type
Identifier
http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p16944coll20/id/18
SCAFOLK032Bx003Fd07Item0009.pdf
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Owner of St. Ann’s Retreat Defends Caretaker’s Action Against Teens
By Tom Zoellner and Vince Horiuchi, The Salt Lake Tribune
LOGAN—A man hired to watch St. Ann’s Retreat felt he was “in serious fear for his safety” when he allegedly tired up 20 local youths and threatened to kill them, said one of the owners of the property.
“He was just trying to sound aggressive,” said Mark Epstein, a San Francisco attorney who has an owners hip share in a mountain lodge and several cabins that became the scene of the real-life nightmare for some pre-Halloween trespassers.
The 50-year-old caretaker reportedly fired guns near the heads of the teen-agers he caught sneaking onto the property in Logan Canyon on Friday.
One 16-year-old boy said he was whacked in the head and knocked unconscious with a billyclub, and a girl reported being fondled when a guard frisked her for weapons.
The head caretaker and his two assistants could now face a variety of criminal charges, said Cache County sheriff’s deputies, who said they will present the case to County Attorney Scott Wyatt by the end of the week.
The caretaker made repeated references to his military service in the Vietnam War, and allegedly told the trespassers, “I’ll kill you like I killed the Vietnamese.”
He also reportedly bound the frightened teens together neck-to-neck with nylon cord and told them it was “detonating cord” that would blow their heads off if they moved—a trick he said he learned in Southeast Asia.
But Epstein said the man has no record of service in Vietnam that he knows of. Epstein said he hired the resident of Pocatello, Idaho, two months ago to do maintenance work and help save the place from vandals.
“He’s someone we were put in touch with by a Mormon youth group,” Epstein said in a telephone interview from his San Francisco office. “He called and asked if he could spend some time up there and go fishing and spend the weekends—basically enjoy the land.”
When called at home, the caretaker said only “no comment,” and hung up. The Tribune does not print the names of criminal suspects until they are charged in court.
His two assistants, who live in Tooele County, could not be reached for comment.
St. Ann’s Retreat, formerly owned by the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, has been a favorite subject of ghost stories and juvenile trespassing for decades. Epstein said he bought the compound in 1992 with several families in Utah and California, which he would not identify.
Tying up the trespassers was appropriate, Epstein said, because a group of teen-agers who had sneaked onto the grounds had allegedly been threatening the caretaker.
“I don’t think tying them up was excessive,” said Epstein, who has spoken with the caretaker.
“He had been threatened by the first group, and he didn’t know whether they had come up there with weapons or what.”
Some of the Halloween trespassers said it appeared the night watchmen set a trap to catch them.
When 18-year-old Tito Thanadabouth and seven of his friends sneaked into the compound at about 4:30 a.m. Friday, they found the front gate open and all the “no trespassing” sign removed, Thanadabouth said. The guards later surprised them inside the empty swimming pool.
Thanadabouth said he and his friends then were subjected to a diatribe of death threats and cursing while they were tied by the neck. Cache County deputies were called and the eight were charged with criminal trespassing. Police said they were not told of the alleged abuse at that time.
About 16 hours later, 16-year-old Matt Clark and 29 other young people, mainly from the Smithfield area, reportedly were ambushed by a shotgun-wielding guard just after they stepped onto the grounds of St. Ann’s.
Clark said he was hit on the head with a club and knocked to the ground unconscious when he refused to obey the guard’s order to lie down. His girlfriend had a pistol stuck into her back, he said.
“They were loony, they were out of their minds,” said Clark. “It seemed so unreal to me.”
The guards led the 30 teenagers to the drained swimming pool—the subject of numerous grisly legends—and tied 20 of them together by the necks with the phony “detonating cord,” The youths also were bound with disposable plastic handcuffs and told to remain on their knees for almost two hours while the police were called.
One boy who tried to get away was shoved to the ground and a shotgun round was fired near his head, Clark said.
They were taunting us to run,” he said. “They said, ‘It’s no fun if you don’t run. We want to shoot someone tonight.’”
Cache County sheriff’s Deputy Troy Linquin found several of the teen-agers crying from the tightness of the handcuffs when he arrived.
“As I looked at their hands, on the girls particularly, their hands were turning white in color, almost bluish in color,” wrote Linquin in his report. “Visible swelling as well as red marks were observed on the majority of individuals.”
Several of the teenagers came forward immediately with the story of their brutal treatment, Linquin noted.
Despite this, the guards were not arrested because police needed time to sort out all the witness statements and figure out the truth, said Cache County Sheriff Lynn Nelson.
“We know who they are,” Nelson said. “They aren’t going anywhere. We didn’t want to jump in and make a rash decision.”
Linquin said the police gave a warning about “the use of deadly force” to the caretaker, who was still visibly upset and began talking about Vietnam and how this was similar to troops being placed in Vietnam and went on with some conversation about police powers in the war.”
The sheriff said the case presents an interesting conflict between the rights of trespassers and the rights of property owners.
“The law says you can take reasonable steps to detain trespassers. The question is: Was this reasonable? They were protecting their property, and whether that was reasonable is a focus of our investigation,” said the sheriff, a native of Logan who admitted to peering into St. Ann’s from the bridge when he was a teenager.
Police said there is no evidence the teenagers—who were all given misdemeanor citations for criminal trespassing—were a party to any of the vandalism that has recently plagued St. Ann’s, which is about 10 miles from the center of Logan.
By Tom Zoellner and Vince Horiuchi, The Salt Lake Tribune
LOGAN—A man hired to watch St. Ann’s Retreat felt he was “in serious fear for his safety” when he allegedly tired up 20 local youths and threatened to kill them, said one of the owners of the property.
“He was just trying to sound aggressive,” said Mark Epstein, a San Francisco attorney who has an owners hip share in a mountain lodge and several cabins that became the scene of the real-life nightmare for some pre-Halloween trespassers.
The 50-year-old caretaker reportedly fired guns near the heads of the teen-agers he caught sneaking onto the property in Logan Canyon on Friday.
One 16-year-old boy said he was whacked in the head and knocked unconscious with a billyclub, and a girl reported being fondled when a guard frisked her for weapons.
The head caretaker and his two assistants could now face a variety of criminal charges, said Cache County sheriff’s deputies, who said they will present the case to County Attorney Scott Wyatt by the end of the week.
The caretaker made repeated references to his military service in the Vietnam War, and allegedly told the trespassers, “I’ll kill you like I killed the Vietnamese.”
He also reportedly bound the frightened teens together neck-to-neck with nylon cord and told them it was “detonating cord” that would blow their heads off if they moved—a trick he said he learned in Southeast Asia.
But Epstein said the man has no record of service in Vietnam that he knows of. Epstein said he hired the resident of Pocatello, Idaho, two months ago to do maintenance work and help save the place from vandals.
“He’s someone we were put in touch with by a Mormon youth group,” Epstein said in a telephone interview from his San Francisco office. “He called and asked if he could spend some time up there and go fishing and spend the weekends—basically enjoy the land.”
When called at home, the caretaker said only “no comment,” and hung up. The Tribune does not print the names of criminal suspects until they are charged in court.
His two assistants, who live in Tooele County, could not be reached for comment.
St. Ann’s Retreat, formerly owned by the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, has been a favorite subject of ghost stories and juvenile trespassing for decades. Epstein said he bought the compound in 1992 with several families in Utah and California, which he would not identify.
Tying up the trespassers was appropriate, Epstein said, because a group of teen-agers who had sneaked onto the grounds had allegedly been threatening the caretaker.
“I don’t think tying them up was excessive,” said Epstein, who has spoken with the caretaker.
“He had been threatened by the first group, and he didn’t know whether they had come up there with weapons or what.”
Some of the Halloween trespassers said it appeared the night watchmen set a trap to catch them.
When 18-year-old Tito Thanadabouth and seven of his friends sneaked into the compound at about 4:30 a.m. Friday, they found the front gate open and all the “no trespassing” sign removed, Thanadabouth said. The guards later surprised them inside the empty swimming pool.
Thanadabouth said he and his friends then were subjected to a diatribe of death threats and cursing while they were tied by the neck. Cache County deputies were called and the eight were charged with criminal trespassing. Police said they were not told of the alleged abuse at that time.
About 16 hours later, 16-year-old Matt Clark and 29 other young people, mainly from the Smithfield area, reportedly were ambushed by a shotgun-wielding guard just after they stepped onto the grounds of St. Ann’s.
Clark said he was hit on the head with a club and knocked to the ground unconscious when he refused to obey the guard’s order to lie down. His girlfriend had a pistol stuck into her back, he said.
“They were loony, they were out of their minds,” said Clark. “It seemed so unreal to me.”
The guards led the 30 teenagers to the drained swimming pool—the subject of numerous grisly legends—and tied 20 of them together by the necks with the phony “detonating cord,” The youths also were bound with disposable plastic handcuffs and told to remain on their knees for almost two hours while the police were called.
One boy who tried to get away was shoved to the ground and a shotgun round was fired near his head, Clark said.
They were taunting us to run,” he said. “They said, ‘It’s no fun if you don’t run. We want to shoot someone tonight.’”
Cache County sheriff’s Deputy Troy Linquin found several of the teen-agers crying from the tightness of the handcuffs when he arrived.
“As I looked at their hands, on the girls particularly, their hands were turning white in color, almost bluish in color,” wrote Linquin in his report. “Visible swelling as well as red marks were observed on the majority of individuals.”
Several of the teenagers came forward immediately with the story of their brutal treatment, Linquin noted.
Despite this, the guards were not arrested because police needed time to sort out all the witness statements and figure out the truth, said Cache County Sheriff Lynn Nelson.
“We know who they are,” Nelson said. “They aren’t going anywhere. We didn’t want to jump in and make a rash decision.”
Linquin said the police gave a warning about “the use of deadly force” to the caretaker, who was still visibly upset and began talking about Vietnam and how this was similar to troops being placed in Vietnam and went on with some conversation about police powers in the war.”
The sheriff said the case presents an interesting conflict between the rights of trespassers and the rights of property owners.
“The law says you can take reasonable steps to detain trespassers. The question is: Was this reasonable? They were protecting their property, and whether that was reasonable is a focus of our investigation,” said the sheriff, a native of Logan who admitted to peering into St. Ann’s from the bridge when he was a teenager.
Police said there is no evidence the teenagers—who were all given misdemeanor citations for criminal trespassing—were a party to any of the vandalism that has recently plagued St. Ann’s, which is about 10 miles from the center of Logan.
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