MATT GRISE to be freed from Louisiana compound
Matt Grise's aunt, uncle get custody after bid to free him from Louisiana
compound
By Lou Kilzer (12/10/98)
Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
A 15-year-old Colorado honor student kept for five months in a private
Louisiana juvenile detention compound is expected to return home within
days.
A Colorado court order Wednesday
transferred custody of Matt Grise
from his father to his aunt and uncle in
Rifle.
Vincent Russo of Independence,
Mo., signed the court order
relinquishing custody of Grise on
Wednesday morning after weeks of
behind-the-scenes negotiations.
Russo sent his son to the
controversial New Bethany Baptist
youth compound in Arcadia, La., in
July. The facility, run by
fundamentalist preacher Mack Ford, uses spanking and other forms of
physical and psychological punishment to discipline an undetermined
number of youths held there.
Grise has not been charged with a crime, and no court has supervised his
detention. The teen-ager's case has focused attention on unlicensed
detention compounds that house children whose parents believe they can't
be controlled.
Roger Gomez, an aide to U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., began
working on the case after the Denver Rocky Mountain News detailed
Matt Grise's plight last month.
McInnis said the News' report prompted many calls from constituents
"concerned about the best interests of this young man."
"We don't usually get involved in domestic affairs, but this one was
interesting because no one could really get access to determine the status
of health or stability of this young man," McInnis said.
The congressman said that he and Gomez "got a sense that this case
probably went deeper than a usual complaint, so I assigned Roger to it."
Gomez said he developed a rapport with Russo and persuaded him to
resume contacts with Grise's aunt, Sharlene Grise of Rifle. The teen lived
with her and her husband, Payson, for more than a year after his mother
died of cancer in Fruita in 1995.
While at Rifle Middle School, Matt Grise was an honor student and athlete
whom everyone seemed to like. His teachers frequently checked a
standardized comment on his report cards -- "a pleasure to have in class."
Russo, who was not listed on Grise's birth certificate and who never
married the boy's mother, asked the teen to spend Christmas 1996 with
him in Independence, Mo.
The boy stayed on in Missouri after the holidays and continued earning
honor grades and was a popular athlete. However, for reasons his father
has declined to detail, their home life deteriorated. Russo's wife, Tami, told
the Grises that Matt was a "pathological liar."
Last spring, Grand Junction attorney Martelle Daniels prepared an
agreement to shift custody of the youth to Sharlene and Payson Grise. The
agreement, however, fell through, and Russo shipped the teen to New
Bethany.
There is no evidence that the Russos knew of the extreme conditions that
many say exist at New Bethany.
In interviews with the News and in sworn affidavits in court proceedings,
some former New Bethany residents have said they endured severe
beatings from Ford and staff members. One boy said that a beating left his
back and buttocks bleeding. Six affidavits were supplied to Louisiana state
officials in 1996 but New Bethany continued operating.
Part of the custody agreement approved Wednesday by Grand Junction
District Court Judge David Bottger prohibits Russo and the boy's aunt and
uncle from talking publicly about New Bethany or other aspects of the
case. The agreement also requires the Grises to shield Matt from public
attention.
Joan Grise, Matt's grandmother, is not covered by the agreement. She has
led a campaign to free her grandson from New Bethany, even traveling
alone there on Thanksgiving Day, only to be turned away at the
compound's barbed wire gates by Ford himself.
Gomez said he sympathizes with the Russos. He said he believes they
simply were trying to help the boy and they may have inadequately
assessed conditions at New Bethany.
"Unless they get in there and really live through what their kid is living
through, they really don't know," Gomez said.
Daniels, the Grand Junction attorney, said that Russo called her last
Sunday and said he wanted to renew discussions about shifting custody to
Sharlene and Payson Grise.
He asked for several special conditions, including the one prohibiting Matt
Grise and his relatives from talking publicly. Russo also won a provision
relieving him of all past and future child support payments.
Daniels credited Gomez for his efforts but also said many Coloradans
sympathized with Joan Grise's efforts to free her grandson. She said
pressure for the teen's freedom built after she tried to see him on
Thanksgiving.
"I'm guessing that the last thing Mack Ford wanted was for his place to
come under scrutiny again," Daniels said.
"There's no question in my mind that it was the public pressure that caused
Russo to give custody to the aunt and uncle," Daniels said. "Every day
Matt was in that place was a day of sadness."