In this post, we will go over the last part of the sentencing. In this part of the transcripts, the victim statements are read. After they were read, Ben made his own statement and the judge delivered the sentence. We will go over the highlights below and post a link to the full transcript below that.
Dxxx’s mother read her victim statement. In it, she confirmed her son came out of Midwest Academy with an unhealthy BMI. She also stated that her child was sexually abused in his “family” at the school and Ben did nothing to prevent it or stop it. She reiterated that Ben told her that her 12 year old son had consented to the sexual contact with the other boys but as she rightly pointed out, he was 12 years old and not legally able to consent. Her son was told that he would have to do this sexual things in order to level up. If you haven’t read the transcripts from the trial, some important facts to know: Ben told this mother that he couldn’t do anything to prevent her son from being sexually abused while in the school and claimed this 12 year old boy was experimenting. Ben also made a comment about how her son would sexually abuse her younger daughter if she were to pull him out of the school. FBI Agent Pearson interviewed Ben on the day the search warrant was executed and Ben told him that supervising this boy to prevent the sexual abuse was not his responsibility. During Ben’s own cross examination, it was brought up that there was a 16 year old convicted sexual offender in this Midwest Academy “family” and he did not tell the parents. According to Ben, they wouldn’t understand if they didn’t know the facts of the case. Her son now suffers from PTSD for being locked in a 8×8 cell for 100+ days, being starved, and being sexually abused at the age of 12 while at Midwest Academy.
MS. [victim’s mother]: My name is [victim’s mother]. My son Dxxx was a–
THE COURT: Can you give the initials, ma’am?
MS. [victim’s mother]: Yes. I’m sorry. My name is [victim’s mother]. My son is A.X. He attended Midwest from May of 2014 to April 2015. He was there eleven months. This was a decision that we did not take lightly on sending our child to Midwest.
As I told Ben–and Ben had records that our son was not an easy child. Obviously, that’s why we chose Midwest. Ben told us when we went to tour the school that they were very equipped and knowledgeable of handling children with anxiety, depression, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder.
He said that their school offered good education; they offered therapy for family and for the children; and, that they could help our son. Unfortunately while Dxxx was there, he was not compliant to the rules. He spent a lot of time in the OSS room, which was a room that I was concerned about when we toured.
Ben told us that he did not foresee any reason why A.X. would be spending a lot of time there. However, A.X. did spend 60 percent of his time there. He would spend from a couple of hours to a couple of days to a couple of weeks at a time.
During this time, A.X. went from weighing 120 pounds down to 90 pounds. He was in a healthy BMI when he went there. When he came home, he was at an underweight BMI.
A.X. also suffers from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, what his doctor feels comes from the OSS time from being–having a child with anxiety and depression being locked into this little room with no interaction with other people.
And again, like I said, my child was not compliant to the rules. Sometimes he would have to be restrained. They would restrain down his arms, his legs. A.X. cannot have people in his face. He can’t have people close to him.He suffers with food issues now because it was so restrictive there. Now he tends to overeat. He is getting better now that he’s more active in football, wrestling, track.
A lot of the things– when Dxxx came home, he wasn’t better. He was still struggling on a daily basis with his anger issues. He had trust issues. He thought everybody had an ulteriortive (sic)–I can’t talk–motive about why they were wanting to be nice to him.
THE COURT: Take your time, ma’am.
MS. [victim’s mother]: When A.X. came home, I feel that Midwest did not help him at all. There were things with the OSS room. He was placed into the Pride Family where there was sexual abuse that happened. We talked to Ben about that.
You told us that you would keep our son safe while he was there, and this happened. You said that this was a consensual activity that happened between boys. He was 12 years old. He wasn’t old enough to consent to anything. He was doing things to get attention from the other kids to do something so he could level up. He thought that’s what he hadto do to level up.
We eventually, of course, brought A.X. home. We sent him–he went back into public school. He had trouble at the behavioral school, so they sent him to the alternative school through the town that we are near. That school is what turned our son around. They had people who cared about him, loved him. They showed him support. They showed him ways to handle his anger and his anxiety issues. That’s what saved our son.
He’s doing well now. He’s making friends. He’s doing okay in school. He’s joining sports, but we still don’t know everything that happened there. He refuses to talk about it. He won’t even cross the bridge to come into Keokuk. My husband has a second job that brings him into Keokuk. A.X. will not even come across here.
We talked to him about testifying. He would not–he will not talk about anything that happened there. He breaks down. He gets very anxious. He gets very angry.
We went to meet with Ms. Timmins here. A.X. would not even get out of the car it got him so upset. We saw a decline in behaviors when we talked about this. We saw a decline in behaviors at school.
We may never know everything that happened there. And you’re right, everything that we–I testified to came from you (indicating to the Defendant). It came from Gary. None of it came from Dxxx. I’m sorry. A.X.
So we are going to have to deal with this for a lifetime. You may be sentenced for a few months to years. And I feel sorry for your wife and your children that you will be away from them, because I do have compassion to other people. However, it’s a life-long sentence that my child has to deal with everything that happened there.One thing to note: According to American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, therapies that have been shown not to work on ODD include: tough love, bootcamps, and scare tactics. This should have been assessed when the child first entered Midwest Academy and his needs taken into account. Unfortunately, that’s now how Midwest Academy works
One thing to note: According to American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, therapies that have been shown not to work on ODD include: tough love, boot camps, and scare tactics. This should have been assessed when the child first entered Midwest Academy and his needs taken into account. Unfortunately, Midwest Academy did not take this into account and her son was not given the care he needed. Unfortunately, her son suffered for it.
Source: https://www.aacap.org/App_Themes/AACAP/docs/resource_centers/odd/odd_resource_center_odd_guide.pdf
This is the victim statement of the sexual abuse victim. Since her time at Midwest Academy, she now has a hard time trusting people – especially those who claim to be good family men. She has lost over 40 pounds out of depression. She doesn’t want to be pretty because she doesn’t want any man to look at her the same way that Ben looked at her. She wondered what it was that made Ben target her or if she’s at all responsible because he felt she sent him the wrong signals. The only thing she hopes is that he never does this to anyone else again. It should be noted that she took time off of work again and paid to come to Iowa to watch the sentencing. Ben claimed in his testimony that she only made up the sexual abuse because she was upset about not getting a visit with her sister. If she really just was lying to get out of Midwest Academy or upset about a visit with her sister she didn’t get, why would she continue to go back to testify and then go back again to see Ben sentenced?
MS. TIMMINS: Your Honor, [sexual abuse victim] prepared a statement and did not want to read it herself. And so our victim witness coordinator, Candis Lockhard, will read it for her.
THE COURT: Ms. Lockhard. And can you come up here so we can all hear. I think it will be better if you’re speaking at us.
VICTIM WITNESS COORDINATOR: Judge Kruse, I am not quite sure where to begin with this. The ways that I have been impacted by the things that Ben Trane did to me are numerous and have not lessened throughout this entire process.
My time since the academy has been spent trying to understand why he chose me, attempting to protect myself from shame, from the same thing happening again in the future, and not just trying to cope and live with what this has done to me.
I’ve spent the past two years trying to figure out what I did to make Ben decide to do this to me. Was it how I spoke to him? The way I looked at him? The way I acted? I’ve gone over again and again what I did that made him think it was okay to do what he did and what I could do to make sure that no one ever has the urge to do these things to me again.
I’ve lost confidence in my own thoughts and opinions, rarely contributing to conversations unless directly spoken to me. Even then, when asked a question that has to do with my specific opinion, I typically shrug and say, I’m not sure. I don’t really care. I do this always thinking, what if I say something that shows what he’s done–what if I say something to someone that shows what has been done to me, or worse, shows someone else that I am vulnerable and gives them an opportunity to take advantage of me just like Ben did?
Thinking the way I looked possibly had something to do with the decision to hurt me, I went on a diet so restrictive that I’ve lost over 40 pounds since my time at the academy, causing my 5 foot 7 inch frame to drop from nearly 127 pounds to nearly 85. I started small and now have blown out of control. Now I am at least certain that no man will look at me the same way that Ben did, and no man will have the same urges that Ben did that led him to hurt me.
I now also think poorly of many people who are authority figures. I am suspicious of anyone that appears to have a nice happy family. I am suspicious of nearly every adult male that I meet regardless of the circumstances for which under we meet.
When I was in school, I made sure not to be too friendly or to engage much with my male teachers, fearing that anything I did could be misinterpreted as a sign to make the relationship inappropriate.
At work I don’t speak to my male co-workers about anything even remotely personal, not even something as simple as discussing how my weekend went because I’m concerned that any friendly behavior could be taken the wrong way and used against me the same way that Ben used my trust and exploited it.
I look down on anyone that appears to be a good husband, father, and so forth because I know exactly how Ben appeared to the people around him and what he portrayed and continues to attempt to portray. He makes himself out to be a family man, one who loves and cares deeply for all the children and teenagers and a man who loves his family, his church, and helping others.
The reality is that Ben enjoyed teenagers like me because it gave him the perfect setting to take advantage of them, while simultaneously seemingly everyone was praising him for taking on the task of healing troubled teens.
I no longer feel comfortable in my own thoughts, whether it be day or night. During the day, no matter what I may be doing, I often have times where I completely pause, stare off into space, and think about the things that Ben did to me. These thoughts are intruding and nearly uncontrollable and extremely upsetting when they do come up. The only way I can cope with them is by shoving them back down inside of me as far as I can.
I’ll occasionally get looks from my co-workers and be questioned on what I was thinking about. I always give a small smile and try to laugh it off saying, Oh, nothing, in order to not arouse any concern or suspicion.
At night I rarely sleep more than four hours. Any sleep I do get is typically restless, riddled with nightmares so vivid upon waking me up. I will regularly take several seconds to realize that I’m not back in my bunk at Midwest Academy.
After waking up from a nightmare, I’ll often force myself to stay awake for the rest of the night fearing that if I do fall back to sleep, I’ll fall right back into another nightmare about the academy where Ben is hurting me and there’s absolutely nothing I can do to stop it.
On the outside I may appear to have mostly recovered from my time spent at Midwest Academy and from the abuse I suffered at the hands of Ben. I have had two jobs to support myself. I live on my own. I take care of myself. I am able to attempt to engage with friends. I am able to go out in the world. But none of this is done with confidence.
I don’t value my own thoughts, and I don’t even trust my own intuition. I thought Ben was a good guy, and it turned out to be so horribly wrong. How could I ever trust myself again?
Even throughout this process, and even with the people who have helped me most, I’ve found myself questioning their intentions. Are they being nice to me because they care? Are they being nice to me so they can hurt me in the future once they’ve completely gained my trust? I hate this part of myself, and I hate that Ben has created this massive loss of trust in me.
I want to believe that there are good people in the world. I want to believe that there are people who would never think of taking advantage me, and I want to have faith in people. But because of what Ben did to me, it is impossible.
I never want another young girl or anyone to feel the way I do. I never want someone to question their intuition or lose confidence in themselves and their own thoughts. I never want someone to be scared to fall asleep at night. I never want someone to fear being beautiful because they think a man will exploit them. I never want Ben to hurt someone in the way he hurt me, causing them the same pain he caused me, which is why I am asking that you please give him the strongest sentence possible. It will show him that what he did was wrong. He can’t get away with all the sick things that he has done. It will also hopefully prevent him from repeating these offenses when he is free.
It will give me some peace of mind to know that he isn’t out doing whatever he pleases to whoever he pleases. It will send a message to him and to anyone like him that this type of behavior is absolutely unacceptable.
Thank you for taking my statement into your consideration.
Sincerely, K.X.
The prosecutor asked for the maximum. She rightly pointed out that Ben had many people write in to the judge and come to the courtroom that day but that was exactly why he was able to get away with it as long as he has. He was able to fool people with his charm and manipulation and this is exactly why he would be a risk to offend again if he was given the chance. She asked him to be sentenced as if he’s a mandatory reporter because he understood what it meant to be one and purposely did not allow his staff to be trained to be mandatory reporter for the reason that he did not want them submitting reports per his own clinical director’s testimony.
MS. TIMMINS: Your Honor, the State recommends that the Court impose prison on each count and that each count be served consecutively. Each count involved a different child. Each child deserves their own justice in this case.
The Court sat through this trial. You know what the facts are. A lot of people would say, well, he has a courtroom of people here to support him. He has over 100 letters of support that were written to the Court, and that shows that he’s a good man; that shows that he’s a man who should be released and given a second chance.
The State submits to you that it’s that support and the type of support he has is exactly how he was able to commit his crimes in the first place. He was charming. People believed what he said. Parents believed what he said. Employees believed what he said. People did what he told them to do.
And because of that charm and manipulation that he has, he was able to control that entire facility, and because of that children got hurt.
The State asks that the Court look back at the facts that it heard during trial and recognize that the Defendant’s behavior was pervasive. It was persistent. There was a pattern to it. And, again, that the people who ended up being punished by all of it were children, children that were in his care that he had promised others that he would take care of properly.
I would also ask that the Court consider the fact–you know, under Iowa law, mandatory reporters who are convicted of the exploitation count can’t have probation. Well, the Defendant wasn’t a mandatory reporter. The Court knows from the trial that he purposely and intentionally was not a mandatory reporter because he didn’t want to be subjected to those rules, and he didn’t want his employees to be subjected to those rules.
So I think that fact, too, should play into the Court’s decision on deciding what to do with this individual.
A.X., B.X., they didn’t get to decide how long they were locked in their rooms. K.X., she didn’t get to decide when the Defendant came in her room and made choices to when he was going to do things.
The State is asking that you impose imprisonment in this case and that each count be served consecutively.
Ben asked to make a statement because he claimed that throughout this entire process he has not been able to say his story. We would like to remind everyone that Ben testified for two days of his trial and there are over 200+ pages of transcripts you care read here: Part 1 and Part 2. He was quite verbose in his testimony so it’s strange that he feel he never had a chance to tell his side of the story.
THE COURT: Thank you. Mr. Trane, is there anything you want to tell the Court regarding the sentencing options in this case?
THE DEFENDANT: Am I free to speak for a minute?
THE COURT: Yes.
THE DEFENDANT: Because the one thing throughout this whole process is I’ve never been given the chance to speak and to even express my side of the story.
Ben started his statement trying to talk to his supporters in the courtroom and the victims. The judge tells him to talk to him instead.
Midwest Academy took in some of the worst kids, when you’re looking at the numbers, the bottom 5 percent of kids–
THE COURT: Talk to me, not them, okay? Stand back there. Okay. Go ahead.
The victim’s mother said in her testimony that her son dealt with depression, was defiant towards authority, self-harmed and tried to kill himself at home. His mother stated that he would threaten his sister at home but never hit her. The final straw that broke the camel’s back to get him put into Midwest Academy was when he stole $20 from a friend and made up an elaborate lie to try to avoid getting caught. While he did engage in poor choices and had a lot of anger, his mother didn’t state he was violent during her testimony. She actually spoke a great deal about why he was placed in Midwest Academy. During Ben’s statement, he decided to attempt to paint this 12 year old victim who was sexually abused in his school as a prime candidate to be a school shooter.
THE DEFENDANT: A.X. was a prime candidate for kids that are now the high risk in killing kids in school, these shooters. He had already taken a weapon to school, threatened to kill kids.
Ben went on to claim the children were mentally unstable and needed help since they were violent, doing drugs, going to shoot up schools, etc. We would like to remind the readers that Gary LaChapelle stated during his testimony that they would not give these children treatment for addiction until they were at level 3 in the program – a process which could take over a year. Ben testified that most children didn’t need therapy in the school. According to Ben’s own clinical director, Michael Davis, Ben wasn’t a big believer in therapy and it was a hostile environment towards therapy when he was hired and he was threatened with being fired by administrative staff if he tried to change certain things. According to page 6 of Midwest Academy’s welcome letter to parents, “Midwest Academy has a zero tolerance policy against acts of violence and physical aggression as well as other dangerous, severely disruptive, or extremely defiant behavior exhibited by any student” and their “admission process eliminates the acceptance of students who meet this type of criteria. Midwest Academy expulsion rate is less than 1%.” The Midwest Academy Admissions Criteria shows that they were supposed to exclude children with severe problems and violent histories. Ben testified that he never took adjudicated children and in cross examination, he confirmed that violence at the school was supposed to be weeded out during admissions to make sure they didn’t have dangerous children at that school. There couldn’t have been the most violent or worse children if Midwest Academy was following their own policies and Ben Trane was telling the truth during his testimony.
These kids are–they need help. There is not a place for these kids that are mentally unstable that need this help, and that’s why we’re seeing so many of these kids shooting up schools, killing friends, stabbing, drug overdoses.
We are not dealing with kids that are doing well. These are kids who are dangerous to society and to themselves.
Ben referred to Gavin Glasz who killed his parents after his time at Midwest Academy. This is a big claim by the Trane supporters that if he would have just stayed in Midwest Academy for longer, this wouldn’t have happened. Ben stated that Gavin killed his parents “just a few months” after the school closed. This is factually incorrect. The school was closed in February of 2016. Gavin murdered his parents in June 2017 which was almost a year and a half after the school closed. He was above the age of 18 at the time of the murders which meant he could not have been kept at Midwest Academy against his will. We cannot speculate why this man killed his family, the underlying issues, or contributing factors but from looking at his Facebook, we see comments from various people who know him that stated that he had an underlying mental illness. We are sure of one thing: Gavin spent a lot of time in OSS during his time at Midwest Academy. If Ben thought he was going to stop these murders by simply keeping this boy in an 8×8 cell for a few more months until he turned 18, that would go against all the empirical data and research that Dr Grassian testified to about solitary confinement and it’s risks to mental health.
The boy who killed his mother and father and then killed himself in prison was in that boat. He was taken out of our school and then went and did that a few months later.
Ben claimed that all the witnesses that testified were doing better after the school. This would be untrue unless you are comparing them to how they were while locked inside the school. For example, Dxxx’s mother testified that her son had new problems and was traumatized. Bxxxxx and his mother testified to having to spend several days in a hospital for malnutrition and how Bxxxx cries much more and suffers from his time in Midwest Academy. Both boys have show progress after they got legitimate psychological help after Midwest Academy but that’s not something Ben can take credit for. One witness left the school at the age of 18 and Ben left her homeless because she chose to not graduate the program. Any progress she made, she did on her own. Ben does not get to take credit for that after leaving her homeless because she refused to be imprisoned as an adult. Many other witnesses didn’t discuss or talk about their progress after the school. In both the trial and at sentencing, Ben often would try to take credit for all the good in these former students’ lives but blame the bad on other factors or people.
Every one of the witnesses that came were suicidal, had made many attempts, and since leaving the school, every single one of them, they testified were doing better, both witnesses.
Ben started to tell Dxxx’s mother that he loved her son and had to be cut off by his attorney.
I loved your son–
(Mr. Parrish conferred with the Defendant off the record.)
Ben stated that kids didn’t like going to the school because they couldn’t do what they wanted to do. One of the things that he mentions is that they couldn’t have sex – but according to the events that happened to Dxxx and other boys and the jury finding him directly guilty of sexual abuse, it appears that people were having sexual contact with others at the school – just not in the way that any parent would want it to happen to their child. Ben let a sexual offender be around smaller boys without letting their parents know what was happening. He wrote it off as “sexual experimentation” and “consensual” when a 12 year old boy who was too young to legally consent had this happen to him. According to the victim’s mother’s statement above, the boy was told he would have to engage in sexual acts to level up and Ben didn’t do anything to protect this child. Then there was Ben’s own grooming behavior towards his sexual abuse victim where he bought her nicer things, decided to make himself her family rep against the advisement of Michael Davis, and exploited a vulnerable child.
THE DEFENDANT: I dedicated my life to saving these kids and putting them on a better path. They might not have liked the school. It wasn’t there to like. It was hard. They couldn’t do drugs; they couldn’t have sex; they couldn’t punch people and hurt people without consequences. They had to go to school; they had to exercise; they had to eat; they had to do some of these things.
Ben stated that they had a host of mandatory reporters at the school and took abuse claims seriously. As we can see in Jane Riter’s testimony, it appears that his mandatory reporter might have no problem holding back on reporting an allegation immediately and according to Michael Davis’ testimony, Ben didn’t want to get his employees trained as mandatory reporters because he didn’t want them submitting reports.
We dedicated–the people and all the support, we had the best people in the community working there. We had a whole range of people with mandatory abuse reporting licenses and teachers to see these things, and if there was something inappropriate, they did say something.
Ben made the ridiculous claim that they ran a tight ship at Midwest Academy and the moment they knew about the allegation by the sexual abuse victim, they didn’t hesitate to call. We know this to be completely untrue. Jane Riter’s testimony and the email correspondence between Ben and the victim’s parents that she was CCed on proves she knew about the allegation since before Thanksgiving. In both Layani Trane’s testimony and Ben Trane’s testimony they admitted that they knew about it since before Thanksgiving. Ben claimed in that same testimony that they only fired Cheyenne Jerred because she waited so long to report the allegation but as the DHS testimony shows, Cheyenne was the first person who called it in on December 1st and Jane Riter only did so after. Yet Cheyenne was the only staff member to be fired for “waiting to report the allegation.” Cheyenne testified that she knew she was being called in about the victim so she quickly made the call to DHS right before the meeting. Ben is being extremely dishonest if he’s claiming they made the decision to report it the second they heard about the allegation.
We called in every time there was something inappropriate. The proper staff called it in, and on me. As soon as the allegation of K.X. was made, as soon as we confirmed that with the staff, they made the call on me, the owner of the school, without (indicating by snapping his fingers) two seconds notice they made that call.
Ben claimed that the kids were getting the best education at Midwest Academy. We would like to point out that Midwest Academy was nationally accredited, not regionally accredited. Regional accreditation is considered the gold standard for educational institutions and that lack of accreditation is why some students had problems with their credits being accepted by other schools after Midwest Academy. Learn more about regional accreditation here and why it’s important for an school to have it.
These kids are doing better. You were in trial, and the girl said they had the best education, that was the only good thing that came out of Midwest. Most of these kids were getting a year to two years ahead of where they were at. The only reason a couple of these others weren?t is because their behavior was so poor that they were already kicked out of their school. They weren?t doing school to begin with. They had already been expelled from every place: the alternative schools, the regular schools, any other alternatives in the state. That?s why the State of Illinois was paying us to educate some of these kids, because they couldn?t do it.
Ben claimed one of the victims would text him to tell him how much he was helped by Ben. He didn’t submit them to the court but claimed he had them there with him. The victim was the 12 year old boy who was sexually abused at Midwest Academy and spent over 100+ days in OSS. Ben claimed at the trial that he wasn’t running the school day-to-day but he’s at sentencing, he claimed he spent all this time with the children that weren’t on his caseload. Even if Midwest Academy helped some children, it still would not make it acceptable for Ben to let a 12 year old boy sit in an 8×8 room for 100+ days, or allow Ben to have sex with a student, or allow another 12 year old boy to be sexually abused by his other students.
I have text messages from every one of these kids. When they went home, who did they call when they got in trouble? They called me, all night long. Anybody around me can testify that my phone was never off. These kids would call me all hours of the night: I’m struggling right now; I ran away from home; I need some help; what should I do? A.X. is one of them. It wasn’t put in, but I have it right there (indicating), the text messages to me: to be honest with you, Mr. Ben, the school helped me. I miss you. I miss the school. I miss my program family. Those are his texts, not my words. That’s him reaching out to me after this, many months after he was home. Nine months after he was home, he was texting me asking me how my family was doing. I had a wonderful relationship with him. I took him out many times to buffets and to other things. I took him outside to play with him when he was struggling because he needed to get out of OSS.
Ben claimed that no one else would take the children except him. Even if no one else accepts them, it does not give Ben the right to endanger their safety or have sex with them.
That’s the other thing that people don’t understand. Where do you send these kids? The reason A.X. came to us is they couldn’t afford another program, and they wouldn’t take him. No one would take him. No one would take B.X. No one would take K.X.
Ben claimed that he fought against sexual abuse his whole life and career.
I tell you with all sincerity of my heart that I have never abused a child. I have never sexually abused a child. I have spent my whole career stopping that from happening, fighting for kids who have been abused. It is one of the worst things in the whole world to have to deal with the consequences of abused children.
Ben claimed that he adopted a girl who was a sexual abuse victim. When we read through the court documents, this part of Ben’s statement could be taken in a more disturbing way. In the original DHS report, the sexual abuse victim claimed that Ben had offered to adopt her as part of his grooming.
I hate sexual abuse with every fiber of my being. I adopted a girl into our family that had been sexually abused for seven years and had to deal with her problems, her anxiety, her mistrust.
Ben now claimed that the sexual abuse victim had multiple proven false allegations (she didn’t) and that she was one of the smartest students there who had to teach him what grooming was. For someone who claimed that he fought against sexual abuse for his whole career with troubled teens and adopted a victim who he helped work through her issues, does anyone really buy his claims that a teenager was educating him on the definition of what grooming was?
All those things that she wrote in her letter is the reason we kept her at the school. She had made allegations against her foster family of sexually abusing her and turning it into child pornography. She accused her aunt and uncle of raping her multiple times over years and filming it. That is the only reason I, as the director of the school, got involved with K.X., because the law enforcement got involved, and we had to her to the CDC or C-whatever, to get interviewed. She is one of the smartest students we’ve ever had at the school. She knew the system. She knew exactly going to these places with the sexual abuse of what to say, what grooming–she’s the one that told me what grooming was. She knew all of this.
Ben claimed that no one would take the sexual abuse victim on their caseload and he took her as a last resort. In his testimony, Michael Davis said that he was pretty explicit that the victim should only have a female family rep and the choice to move her to Ben’s caseload was not his.
The only reason I took her on my caseload is her counselor left. Mike Davis, the director, clinical director, said nobody else will take her. She was a high-risk because of the making false allegations, a high risk. No one wanted to take her. There was no other school that would take her. Nobody would take this girl because of her past. Because of where she sat–she was getting to the point to where she was too old and that her issues nobody else would take. None of our staff wanted to take her. Nobody wanted to deal with her. I mean, their recommendation was just kick her out. But then where does she go?
Ben claimed that the sexual abuse victim threatened to make a false allegation against him if he ever pissed her off. This is completely ridiculous for the following reasons:
- This is a completely different story than he gave during his 2 days of testimony which one can read here: Part 1 and Part 2
- If the victim had really said this, why didn’t he immediately call a female staff over to start supervising her and either move her onto another female family rep’s caseload or expel her from the school?
- If Ben was never alone with her, when was she making these threats to him and who witnessed it? The victim was also on upper levels and only dropped when they found out she was suicidal. Why would he have dropped her status immediately and cut off direct contact with her the second she threatened him?
- If Ben was getting threats by a student, why wasn’t he documenting it to cover himself?
She told me that if I ever did anything that she didn’t like, she was going to make allegations against me. She told other girls that she was going to do this. All these witnesses that weren’t able to come are direct testimony that she was going to do this.
Ben complained that no one ever made those kind of allegations before against him. How could they have? It would have been hard to do so since children couldn’t just pick up the phone call the authorities. The Midwest Academy seminars also preached “accountability” which also meant taking “accountability” for any sexual abuse, rape, etc that you experienced in your life. Many former Midwest Academy students came out and stated that the seminars practice victim-blaming and wrapped it up as “taking accountability” for being in that situation in the first place. By the time that they were allowed to go home, they and their parents were believers of the program or they were labeled as “troubled teens” who didn’t complete their program and couldn’t be trusted. Previous cases of large scale abuse can teach us that victims and communities will stay quiet for decades. One just needs at cases like the Catholic Church, New Bethany Home for Girls, etc to know that victims can stay quiet for decades before the truth comes out. The Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network also confirms that the majority of sexual assaults are not reported to police and that 2 out of 3 go unreported. In this case, their statistics are focusing on college-age, elderly and members of the military. The stats probably drop when you look at children who are locked up without the ability to contact authorities.
It makes me sick to my stomach hearing that about me when I spent my entire career–1,900 students have come through Midwest Academy and not one has ever made that allegation, that insinuation, or anything nearly like that about me.
Ben spoke about how no staff ever said he did anything inappropriate. As it was covered thoroughly in trial, many of Ben’s staff lived in his condo, drove his cars and relied on him for a paycheck. When your boss if both your landlord, wheels and the one that pays you, it’s likely that most people wouldn’t step up.
No employee has ever said that I was inappropriate in any way sexually, made any advances. I have never done anything or portrayed myself in that manner in any form.
Ben stated that the documents would prove he was never alone with the victim but as Cheyenne would testify, there would be situations where they dorm staff wouldn’t record a family reps’ presence such as when they were visiting girls in the living quarters and as many other testified, Ben could be outside the rules since he established them. As one witness stated, she also saw Ben alone with the victim at one point in time. His documents would not do much as “proof” that he was never alone with her. It would just prove that they didn’t document any incidents of Ben being alone with her which doesn’t mean much.
All those documents would show that I was never alone with K.X. Not once was I ever alone. All the testimony that the State has gotten, all the interviews that they did, every person said he was never alone with the student. I have never been alone with her.
He previously claimed in this very same statement that the sexual abuse victim had a proven history of false claims, that no one would take her for the risk of false accusations, that she would threaten to make a false claim against him, etc but then he stated he believed she was a sexual abuse victim and she preyed on him. Which one is it? Did she have this proven history of false claims (which the judge and court disagreed with) or did he believe she was abused in the past? Ben’s statements have been wildly inconsistent. One person’s statements have been consistent in all this and at this point, she had nothing to gain to keep going back to Keokuk to testify against Ben and watch him be sentenced.
I believed that I was helping an abused child. She said she had been sexually abused multiple times over multiple years. She knew that was a soft spot, and she preyed on that.
Ben claimed they were did everything they could to comply and become a child care center. He mentioned that they took the doors off of OSS. As we know from Michael Davis’ testimony, the doors were put back on OSS after DHS left.
In June of 2015, they came in and said, you need to change and become a child center. So we took off all the doors. We made everything–kids were going to be in there for an hour timeout and then could go back. We followed that to a T. We did everything we were supposed to at the school.
Ben claimed that he was paying out of pocket to keep the victims in the school. We don’t know how much B.V.’s mother was paying to keep her child there, but we know from Dxxx’s mother that she and her husband paid $30,000 out of pocket and his school district paid an additional $17,000. Dxxx went to Midwest Academy in May of 2014 and left in April of 2015. $47,000 for 11 months would mean that Ben was making $4,272 a month on Dxxx being in Midwest Academy. We’re not sure how he’s computing that he was “paying $1,000 a month” to have them at the school. If you give someone a discount in tuition, that does not mean you’re paying money out of your own pocket to keep them in the school. It simply means that you are reducing your profit. Given that the majority of the staff required no formal education above a high school diploma, were paid relatively low wages, and the staff-to-student ratio was low at any given point during the day, it’s unlikely Dxxx was costing him money to be there.
I was not benefiting financially. The two victims, A.X. and B.X., were paying under tuition. I was having to pay almost $1,000.00 a month out of the school money to have them at the school. There was no financial gain for us. They were paying under tuition to help them out.
Ben’s “proof” that the children were doing better was that they weren’t in jail and they had graduated school early. Other abusive programs also would make claims that the children would be “dead, insane, or in jail” if not for the methods incorporated in their programs. As far as graduating early, we would like to see how many of those early graduates were from Midwest Academy vs a regionally accredited school.
Those two are doing better. In my sense, all these kids are doing better, all the witnesses. They were home doing well. They weren’t in jail. They were graduating school a year early. They got high school diplomas where they would have never gotten that before.
In a condescending move, Ben claimed the sexual abuse victim was one of the smartest children there and points to her leaving the school as the reason she hasn’t completed her high school diploma in 2 years. Or it could be because she’s had to deal with the psychological after effects of being sexually abuse by you, Ben.
K.X. is a perfect example of that. She is one of the smartest, intellectual students we’ve ever had at the school. When she was in the school, she was preparing to go to Minnesota and go into pre-med and become a doctor. What I heard in testimony at trial was that she hasn’t even finished her high school diploma yet. So in two years she didn’t finish up her last six months or whatever it was of school.
We agree that mental illness is real. That’s why having untrained staff, applying the same strict rules uniformly, and locking them in a 8×8 cell for days is the wrong thing to do to high-risk and vulnerable youth. Dr Grassian testified that this was extremely damaging and that it was general consensus in the field. Michael Davis also testified that it was a hostile environment for him there and Ben didn’t think much of therapy. He didn’t have the power to turn away students based on their mental health and was told by Shasta and others that he would be fired if he tried to change certain things.
Mental illness is real. Emotional illness is real. These kids were suffering from mental illness and emotional illness. Those same principles apply. You have to separate these things, which is hard. You have to separate them from the things that they want to do, the destructive behaviors. It’s not fun.
Ben tried to claim what he was doing was cognitive behavioral therapy with how the school was run. If anyone would like a refresher on what real CBT is, please click here. It’s a psychotherapy treatment that breaks down behavior and the feelings associated with it in talk therapy. It’s not the oppressive bootcamp system Ben was running at the school or placing students in OSS for days or weeks. When given a description of how Midwest Academy “practiced” cognitive behavioral theory, Dr Grassian said that it was obvious they didn’t know what CBT was and gave a very good description of it in his testimony.
In the cognitive behavioral theory, it says that Step 1 feels like hell. That’s what it describes it as. That first initial three to nine months feels like hell, because they don?t feel stable; they don’t feel in control. Until they start getting to a point of self-realization is when they finally start doing better. And that is why you’ve gotten all these letters from kids and parents that are now succeeding and doing well, whereas before they were not.
Ben again denied the sexual abuse. He states there was no DNA found. That’s not entirely correct. DHS found his seminal fluid right in front of the surveillance monitors in his office. Does anyone else wonder what he was doing in front of those camera monitors in the privacy of his office? As far as finding DNA evidence, DHS agent Joe Lestina testified that most cases didn’t have DNA evidence and this isn’t out of the ordinary. Both electronic and DNA evidence were unlikely to be found because the search warrant was executed 2 months after the victim was pulled from the school by DHS. Ben had plenty of time to clean up anything or throw away incriminating SD cards if he needed to. Ben seemed to think that without DNA, he can’t be found guilty and should be allowed to be free. There’s thousands of convictions across the country – including his own – that proves that this is untrue.
I want to reaffirm to you that I never committed this crime to K.X. I never touched her inappropriately. I never spoke to her in any inappropriate manner or behavior. There is no evidence of me physically, on computer, electronically. There was no DNA found. And in what she said, there would have been DNA found on a couch, on the carpet in these areas. There would have been DNA found. There was DNA found, and it wasn’t mine. I did not do this. I promise you this.
Ben claimed that the victim had a mental illness. We have seen no proof of this. In fact, in the email from the victim’s parents to Ben in November 2015, they stated that they knew Ben didn’t believe she had a mental illness. Ben had told them that the victim had made an accusation against him and they had done an “internal investigation” of it so the parents started Googling mental illnesses she might have in response to what Ben was telling them. This does not mean she was diagnosed and if Ben’s licensed therapists attempted to give her a mental health diagnosis after the allegation, it wouldn’t be worth the paper it was written on. Especially taking into account that they sat on the allegation and didn’t contact DHS immediately.
I want to put out to you that if all the information and all the witnesses would have come, they would have seen that K.X. had–she had mental–she has mental illness. It is documented. Before she came–that’s the reason she came to the school. She had a very large psychiatric evaluation that went step by step through all of these things that she does.
Ben tries to flip it onto the victim again. For someone who tells his students that they have to take accountability, he avoids accountability completely in his entire statement. The FBI was investigating him long before this sexual abuse complaint. DHS has been out to investigate multiple abuse claims over the year. Ben Trane had allowed young boys to live in the same room with a sex offender without giving their parents any warning or choice. Ben had engaged in “body image therapy” and handed out very detailed sexual surveys to only the girls without any of his clinical staff knowing about it. When the sexual abuse victim was removed from the school, he told the DHS worker he would not be around the girls until this was over and was caught in Victoria’s Secret with the girls less than a month later. He also established policies were 12 year old boys could be locked into OSS for 100+ days which would render significant psychological harm. DHS and the FBI made the choice to start interviewing children while they were executing the search warrant because they found an upper level boy locking another boy in OSS. There appeared to be substantial risk to the children if the school remained open because it appeared that Ben was not changing his grooming behaviors and other children were still being endangered. Ben tried to minimize all this at the trial but he did believe it was their choice to be in that situation and showed incredible callous towards the children during the trial.
In today’s world, if somebody takes a gun into the school and shoots it up, everybody else is a victim and they’re this monster. But in today’s society, somebody can come in and make a false allegation about sexual misconduct. It shut down the school. It killed my career. It hurt over 100 staff. They lost jobs immediately. Look at the impact of that statement.
Ben claims that all these children were sent home without therapy. That’s a hard claim to make. Of the 86 students who left the school and returned home after it was closed, we sincerely doubt their families didn’t get them any additional help and gave up on them like Ben is claiming here. It’s sad that some children died of overdoses or ran away but Ben’s claim that they did so because they weren’t able to complete their program at Midwest Academy is a long shot that would require a crystal ball and psychic abilities. If we were speculating just as Ben is, one easily could make the claim that children turned to drugs to numb trauma they received at Midwest Academy or ran away to prevent their families from sending them to another institution like Midwest Academy. By his own numbers though, 81 students are doing well and haven’t run away, shot up schools, died of drugs, or killed anyone in the years since Midwest Academy closed even though they were “sent home without therapy.” As the prosecutor pointed out during the trial, Ben is happy to take credit for the successes and blame the failures on others.
All these other kids were sent home without therapy. Their therapy was cut off immediately. All their lifelines, the help, everything that they had growing up to be stable was taken from them that fast (indicating by snapping his fingers), 86 students and their families. All of that was gone overnight, and these kids went home. Two of them ran away, and nobody knows where they’re at. Two of them have died on overdoses since they?ve left, and one killed his family and killed himself in jail.
Ben flaunted his community work and the thousands of hours of community service he had the children do. We would like to remind everyone that Ben would use students (free labor) from the school to staff these community projects that made him look good, clean his condos, work at his gas station, clean his boat, clean his cars, and babysit his children. Those “thousands of hours of community service” were done on the backs of his captives who needed to work for points to be able to level up so they could go home.
We donated thousands of dollars to scholarships of local students. We donated thousands of hours of community service every year to show each of these kids that’s what makes a good community is them giving back; and instead of taking, giving.
At one point during the statement, Ben turned to a victim’s right advocate/former student in the courtroom and made the following statement. When she publicly spoke out online about him during and after the trial, he had told his supporters that he had taken care of her children while she was in jail and all these things he did to help her. To set the record straight: His wife had watched her children while she was giving birth to another child. She also bought her own van. We welcome Ben to prove her statements incorrect. If she were in jail, there should be a public record of it. It appears that Ben likes to exaggerate a lot to make people who are critical of him look bad. This woman is in her 30’s, not insane or in jail, not on drugs and a good mother. This is more of Ben throwing petty shade at his victims in court but we felt it was important enough to mention to show Ben’s pattern of lying.
These kids that have come, they lived in my house for free. I babysit their kids when they were in jail. I paid for their U-Hauls to go home. I gave them facility vans when they didn’t have vehicles.
The judge saw right through all this manipulation and it appears to have factored into his sentencing decision.
THE COURT: The Court has considered all the sentencing provisions provided in Iowa Code Chapters 901 and 902. The following sentence is based upon my judgment of what will provide the maximum opportunity for your rehabilitation and at the same time protect the community from further offenses by you and others. The Court has specifically considered the following factors, including the contents of the Presentence Investigation: the Court did sit through the trial in this case; the victim impact statements presented here today; the letters in support that were submitted on behalf of Mr. Trane; the statements by Mr. Trane; and, everything else brought before the Court here today.
It is the order of the Court acting pursuant to Section–under Count I, Section 709.11, on the charge of Assault With Intent to Commit Sexual Abuse, the Defendant is committed to the custody of the Director of Iowa Adult Corrections for a period of time not to exceed two years and given credit for time served.
On Count II the sentence on Pattern, Practice, or Scheme to Engage in Sexual Exploitation By Counselor or
Therapist, in violation of Iowa Code Sections 709.15(2)(a) and 709.15(4)(a), the Defendant is committed to the custody of the Director of Iowa Adult Corrections for a period of time not to exceed five years and given credit for time served.
On Count III, the Child Endangerment charge, it’s an aggravated misdemeanor, in violation of Iowa Code
Sections 726.6(1)(a) and 726.6(7), the Defendant is committed to the custody of the Director of Iowa Adult Corrections for a period of time not to exceed two years and given credit for time served.
The fine on each of those, on Count I, will be $625.00; on Count II, it will be $750.00; on Count III, it’s $625.00. A 35 percent surcharge will be added on each of those fines. Given your financial circumstances as shown in the Presentence Investigation, the Court will suspend or waive the fines and related surcharge in each of those counts.
Counts I and II are sex-related offenses, so within five days from this date, the Defendant shall register with the county Sheriff or within five days of release from custody or placement on probation, parole or work release, and shall complete all necessary sex offender registry forms as directed and shall pay a $25.00 sex offender registration fee pursuant to Section 692A.110(1) of the Code of Iowa.
You are informed of your duty to inform the county Sheriff of any changes of address in this state or any other state within five days.
A civil penalty in this case will be imposed in the amount of $250.00 under 692A.110(2).
In addition to the sentences imposed above, the following sentence is hereby ordered under 901B and shall commence at the end of the sentence imposed for the underlying offense, and the Defendant shall be under supervision as if on parole, as provided in the Iowa Code for a period of ten years.
Each of the sentences imposed in this case, Counts I, II, and III shall run consecutive to each other. There is no mandatory minimum in this case. The Defendant is given credit for time served. Again, taking into account all of the circumstances, the sentence in each of these cases is not suspended.
A no contact order in this case shall issue for the protection of K.X. for a period of five years from this date.
The Defendant will be liable for court costs in this case. Again, given your financial circumstances, there are court-appointed attorney fees in this case as set forth in the document here today. The Court will limit that to $5,000.00 on a reasonable ability to pay adjustment. Pursuant to Iowa Code Sections 901.5(9)(a) and (b), the Court will publicly announce the Defendant’s term of incarceration may be reduced from the maximum sentence because of statutory earned time, work credits and program credits. The Defendant may be eligible for parole before the sentence is discharged.
Pursuant to Iowa Code Section 81.2, the Defendant shall submit a physical specimen for DNA profiling. In reaching the sentence, I’ve taken into account what will be the maximum opportunity for your rehabilitation; protection of the community from further offenses by you and others; your age; your prior record, which is non-existent; your employment circumstances, family circumstances; the nature of the offenses committed.
In reaching this decision, sir, I’ve taken into account primarily–it’s a very difficult decision when a man of your promise, and I consider you a young man yet, an extremely talented person, you have the ability to impress people; you have the ability to inspire people, if you choose to do so.
On the other hand, let me also mention I did take into account your family very significantly, with five
children and a wife. In the other circumstances I took that into account. I just wish you had.
I’m sentencing you for the crimes the jury convicted you of. What you’re saying here today is there should be a different result because you didn’t do them.
In this case, there was a large breach of trust of your legal duty, and the jury found that to be the case in this case.
It is of the utmost serious nature. Your acts against very troubled and vulnerable young people is one that merits serious consequences. This was done while they trusted you. They were totally reliant on you, as you pointed out in your statements here today. This is something that just cannot be tolerated.
Consecutive sentences in this case were based on that these are separate acts over time, as pointed out in the arguments made here today, extended over time.
Finally, nothing you said here today gives the Court any confidence that things will change for you. I’ve considered every factor imaginable not to come up with this result. Given the circumstances, I believe it to be the just result in this case.
Finally, and very importantly, your statement here today just–you’re switching the tables. The people who are the victims, who the jury found to be the victims, are now victimizing you. And you are just re-victimizing them by what you’re saying here today. So that’s the reasons for the sentence, sir.
Now that you’ve been sentenced, it is the Court’s duty to advise you of your right to appeal. Under Iowa law, you have the right to appeal your judgment and statements here today. This is something that just cannot be tolerated.
Consecutive sentences in this case were based on that these are separate acts over time, as pointed out in the arguments made here today, extended over time.
Finally, nothing you said here today gives the Court any confidence that things will change for you. I’ve considered every factor imaginable not to come up with this result. Given the circumstances, I believe it to be the just result in this case.
Finally, and very importantly, your statement here today just–you’re switching the tables. The people who are the victims, who the jury found to be the victims, are now victimizing you. And you are just re-victimizing them by what you’re saying here today. So that’s the reasons for the sentence, sir.
Now that you’ve been sentenced, it is the Court’s duty to advise you of your right to appeal. Under Iowa law, you have the right to appeal your judgment and this Court for the appointment of a lawyer, the furnishing of a transcript of the evidence, the printing of any record on appeal, and necessary briefs on appeal at the expense of the State.
However, you must file an application showing that you cannot afford to pay for these items before the Court
would order the State to pay for these expenses. If you have any questions concerning that, bring those to the attention of your attorney at once. Appeal bond will be set at $50,000.00. Is there anything else by the State?
MS. TIMMINS: No, Your Honor.
Sentencing Part 6
