Monday, June 02, 2025
42.0°F

Judge orders ranch for adopted kids to be licensed

The Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years, 2 months AGO
by The Associated Press
| March 28, 2013 10:00 PM

HELENA — The owner of a Montana ranch for troubled children adopted abroad must submit to inspections, background checks and obtain a license from state regulators or be shut down, a state judge ordered.

District Judge James Wheelis’ March 20 order follows a previous ruling dismissing claims the Ranch For Kids should be exempt from state oversight because of its religious affiliation.

State Labor and Industry regulators and ranch owner Joyce Sterkel have been battling since 2010 over the ranch’s refusal to obtain a license from the Board of Private Alternative Adolescent and Residential Outdoor Programs.

Sterkel argued the Eureka ranch is exempt from state oversight because it is an adjunct ministry of a local church. But Wheelis agreed with the attorney for the state Department of Labor and Industry, who said the Epicenter International Missions Ministry is not a church and that Sterkel was attempting to skirt state fees and regulations.

Wheelis granted the state summary judgment in the lawsuit and ordered the Ranch for Kids to submit a completed application and employee background checks by May 20. If it fails to satisfy all the requirements, it must immediately discontinue operation of its program, the judge ordered.

Ranch for Kids also must pay nearly $25,000 in attorney fees.

The ranch can appeal, but it would have to shut its operations down while it does so, state attorney Mary Tapper said Thursday.

Neither Sterkel nor ranch manager William Sutley responded to requests for comment. Their attorney, Tiffin Hall, has filed a request with the judge to change his ruling on the awarding of attorney fees.

“The judge has not yet ruled on this motion,” Hall wrote in an email. “Once he does we will then be in a position to finally decide if we are going to appeal or not.”

A separate lawsuit by the state labor department asks Wheelis to order the ranch to stop using buildings on the property that are not up to code. The state’s injunction request says the ranch has refused to make some corrections to the buildings.

The Eureka ranch came under an international spotlight last summer when a delegation of Russian government officials showed up at its gates with a television crew demanding to be let in to check on the welfare of the Russian children there.

MORE IMPORTED STORIES

Judge rules against Eureka kids' ranch
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 12 years, 3 months ago
Montana regulators also investigating adopted kids' ranch
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 12 years, 10 months ago
Activists targeting Eureka Ranch
Daily Inter-Lake | Updated 12 years, 10 months ago

ARTICLES BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 9, 2021 12:03 a.m.

The Latest: US helped family escape Afghanistan overland

WASHINGTON — The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.

September 8, 2021 12:03 a.m.

The Latest: US helped family escape Afghanistan overland

WASHINGTON — The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.

September 8, 2021 12:03 a.m.

The Latest: Top Republican says Taliban holding Americans

WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says some Americans who have been trying to get out of Afghanistan since the U.S. military left are sitting in airplanes at an airport ready to leave but the Taliban are not letting them take off.