Complaint Review: CIRCLE S RANCH - SALOME Arizona

My name is David, and just turned 50 years old.  My I.Q. is around 70, I never was allowed to attend school, so my friend is writing this for me, as I tell him the story. Everything I am saying is 100% true and accurate.

 I saw the other posts about Stein Ranch, and it brought back the worst memories in my life. I never knew my Dad, and my Mom was a prostitute, so the State of Arizona took me into their "care".  From the time I was 5 years old, I was a ward of the Court in the State of Arizona. I was bounced around from Foster home to Foster home for 6 or 7  years. One day, when I was 12 years old,my "Case manager" told me he was taking me to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Instead he took me to the Circle S Ranch in Salome, Arizona, where I remained confined for over 5 years. Salome, Arizona is in the middle of the desert, 110 miles NW of Phoenix. While there, I was not allowed any freedom at all.

At the Ranch, There was NO TV, radio, mail, newspapers or contact of any kind from the "outside". Leo and Ella Stein said it was for our own good, because bad stuff was in the outside world, which had made me a "bad and stupid kid". From the first day I was there, Leo Stein and his oldest son Les Stein beat the crap out of me. They beat me almost  every day. They told me I was stupid and that nobody else in the world wanted me. They told me that the Circle S Ranch was the only place that would feed and house me and that I better get used to being there, because I was never going to be allowed to leave. They said I had to work every day to earn my keep.

In my later years, I learned from the FBI and the DPS that Leo and Ella were paid $24,000.00 a year to care for me. Remember, I was only 12 years old. I asked if I got to go to school, and was told no. Leo said I was too stupid to go to school, and that I needed to work. So, I never went to school or got an education of any kind. The things I witnessed for 5 years are so bad, nobody ever believed me. Leo, Les and Ella Stein beat the crap out of all of us kids. The beatings included slapping us in the face, spitting in our face, hitting us with plywood planks and kicking us in our private parts. They subjected us to torture and molestation. They put is thru bizarre "therapy" telling all of us we were sick, stupid and morons, and that all of us wanted to "f*ck our Mother". This crazy talk was hammered into my head for 5 years, and I became brainwashed. I totally believed that I WAS  worthless, crazy and stupid. It was just a fact of life.

 Leo and Ella were EVIL. I hated watching the other guys take daily beatings and abuse, and to this day, I am disturbed. Les and Bobby Stein were crazy drug addicts. They smoked weed, took LSD and drank beer all the time. After they got high, they would round a few of us up, and abuse us in the worst way. They took us into the "shop" and threatened us with saws and hammers, and one time Les cut my arm so bad, I have a nasty scar on my arm to this day. I am telling you that it was bad, and beyond bad.  In 1978, Leo and Ella approached me and told me they needed to talk to me. Leo took a walk with me out in the desert, and told me some kids had run away and told the detectives a bunch of lies, and that the Ranch was closing. Leo handed me $10,000.00 in cash, and told me to NOT tell the detectives anything about what went on. Leo said the "outside world" would never understand all the good he was doing.

So, when the buses came the next day or so. all of us were rounded up and put on the two giant school buses. Most of the kids were from California. They took me to a Boys home, and I was interviewed by the detectives. They asked me if I was abused and molested. And I LIED. I told them, "no sir". Leo had brainwashed me, and I didn't want to get him in trouble. The detectives said all the other kids told them about the beatings and weird  sex stuff. Again, I lied and told them no. I wish I had told the truth, but I was scared and brainwashed. Today, I have no education or skills. We are getting a lawyer to sue the State and Ella Stein. This deal with Penn State is awful, but not nearly as bad as The Circle S Ranch.