A Republican judge in Missouri has refused to order the closure of a privately run boarding school in Stockton despite entreaties from local and state officials investigating multiple complaints of abuse, the Kansas City Star reports, siding with a defense attorney who claimed scheduled victim testimony was for the benefit of the media, not the pursuit of justice.

On Monday, Judge David Munton of Missouri’s 28th Circuit Court tutted down concerns by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and the Missouri Department of Social Services, both of which have pushed to close Agape Boarding School, a school with around 60 male residential students that bills itself as a “Christian Boarding School That Turns Around Rebellious Boys.”

Munton halted all proceedings yesterday, including the testimony of two former students who were prepared to provide traumatic accounts of the abuse they experienced at the hands of staff at the boarding school.  The government has argued that students still at the school are at risk of continuing threats to their health and safety. 

The school’s attorney, John Schultz, claimed it was inappropriate for the government to present the testimony of the two students, one who was in the courtroom and the second who was going to testify being remotely.  Schultz dismissed the pertinence of the students’ testimony.   “That’s simply for publicity,” Schultz said. “And we’ve had enough bad publicity.”

Last year, Agape longtime school doctor was charged with multiple charges of abuse, and five other staffers were charged with lesser counts, by county prosecutors who have jurisdiction over the case according to state law.  State prosecutors have noted that they had sufficient evidence to charge at least 20 people associated with the school, but the county prosecutor’s office has stated there would be no additional people charged in the case.

Agape is the second Christian boarding school in Cedar County, Missouri to be investigated for abuse.  The Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch was shuttered in 2020 after more than 20 former students filed lawsuits alleging the founders of the school used them as forced labor at their properties and sexually trafficked them.  husband-and-wife founders of Circle of Hope, Boyd and Stephanie Householder, face a combined 99 charges, and the school was ordered closed by the state in 2020.

Munton halted Monday’s hearing and said the case will be taken up again on September 21st.