In this post, we will examine the testimony of a former student who was also the stepdaughter of Devon Dade – the former director of Midwest Academy. While she is testifying for the defense, she does say several things that contradicts Layani and Ben’s own accounts of how Midwest Academy worked.
She admits her dad is Devon Dade and became the director of Midwest Academy in the summer of 2015. Devon Dade was a family rep as well. He was not a licensed therapist or counselor.
Q. And now your dad is Devon Dade; correct?
A. Yes.
Q. Your dad worked at Midwest Academy for years; correct?
A. Uh-huh (in the affirmative).
Q. Is that a yes?
A. Yes.
Q. In the summer, around the summer of 2015, he actually became the director of Midwest Academy; correct?
A. Yes.
Q. He was also friends with the Defendant, with Ben?
A. Yes.
Q. And you yourself never once went to the OSS room when you at the Midwest
Academy?
A. Right.
She testified that the program wasn’t too hard for her to move up in. As a daughter of a ranking staff member, one wonders if the same staff who Stephen Jensing testified would sometimes hand out consequences to get a kid to mentally break would have attempted to do so with her or if she had the same program as everyone else. She states that she continued to have contact with her counselor after she left – it wasn’t hard because she claims it was her dad. If you’re confused by this because he was just a family rep and not supposed to be administering counseling according to Ben and Layani Trane, you’re not alone in this.
Q. And we’ve heard a lot of testimony about the level system and the point system. Did you graduate the program?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you have any significant difficulties in doing that?
A. No. Not any unless I brought on a problem myself.
Q. Is it fair to say that Level 1 is an eye opener?
A. Yes.
Q. My understanding is there are a lot of rules to learn and abide by?
A. Yes.
Q. Once you left the school in October of 2015, did you continue to have contact with the school?
A. Yeah. Actually, I we nt there–a part of my contract after I graduated was to go there after school every day. It kind of just helped me stay in a good environment, and I talked to a lot of the girls still and just, like, was surrounded around good people. And I think it helped me. So I was there every day Monday through Friday.
Q. You say it was part of your contract after graduation. Why do you have a contract after graduation?
A. It kind of–like, it transfers you from the program to where you’re structured 24-to when you go home and there’s kind of–it could be no structure for some families.
And the contract just kind of lays out how, you know –there’s like a Level 1, and it’s not as strict as when you’re a Level 1 in the program, but you make it yourself, you know. You make it with you and your family. It’s just guidelines on how every level is going look up until you’re a Level 6 when you come back to the school and graduate. It just kind of helps your family, like, stay connected and keep you on your feet. Q. So it’s more a contract with your parents rather than the school?
A. Right. The only thing that was tied in to the school is you’d call your counselor and just make sure you’re doing okay, and they’d call you. I think –my counselor was my dad, so I ’d just talk to him about weekly, and we just caught up on, like, how I was doing and some things I needed to work on.
She states that she has never been to OSS for her behavior or a consequence. The FBI and DHS might want to look into the OSS logs to see if they have any information on this. We spoke to a couple students who recall she was sent to OSS once and dropped her levels. If it is confirmed that she did lie, that calls her whole credibility into question.
Q. Did you ever have occasion to go into OSS for behavioral issues or consequences?
A. No, I didn’t.
When cross examined by the prosecution, she admits that family representatives and counselors are the same thing. This goes against everything Layani testified the day before about what a family representative’s role is for the children. Neither Layani or Devon Dade were licensed or trained to be counselors in any capacity.
Q. Your dad was your family representative?
A. No. He was my family rep, I think , the last two months I was there.
Q. And you said he was also your counselor?
A. Just the last two months. Well, it’s kind of like the same thing. We counsel with our family rep. He was just my counselor for the last two months because I was transitioning, going home.
Q. Counselors and family reps are like the same thing; right?
A. Yeah. We had– Yeah.
The witness testifies that girls would use Ben’s cell phone and pass it around to take pictures.
Q. Did anyone take photographs?
A. Yeah. At some point we –I remember taking Ben’s phone, and me and couple other upper level friends, we took pictures.
Q. Were you the only one who took pictures?
A. No. I mean, it was a phone. We weren’t used to seeing phones. So I mean, it was kind of like everyone wanted to, you know, take some selfies and take pictures. I’m sure we asked, you know, to take pictures of us.
Q. So the phone got passed around quite a bit?
A. Yeah.
Per the witness, she remembers the sexual survey and was not at all uncomfortable with it. She found it to insightful. However, she couldn’t remember any other surveys she was asked to do at Midwest Academy. She was not upset by the questions on the survey. Reminder: Some of the questions included asking children what they liked during sex and what they thought about during masturbation. The sexual surveys were only given to the females in the school and Ben did not tell therapists about them.
Q. Were you also asked at some point to participate in surveys throughout your stay at the class?
A. Yes.
Q. And did one of those include a survey that was seeking information about maybe sexual history?
A. Yes.
Q. Where was that done?
A. We were in a classroom.
Q. And how many girls are in a classroom at one time?
A. Oh, there was two separate parts. So I think there was maybe like 15 to 20 computers on each side, and then there was a staff on each si de of the classroom.
Q. And do you remember who asked you to complete the questionnaire?
A. Yes. It was Ben.
Q. And when–did you have to put your name on it?
A. No.
Q. In fact, you were told specifically not to; correct?
A. Yes.
Q. Who did you turn it in to?
A. We turned it in to the staff member that was at the door, that was sitting at the door.
Q. Would that have been like the dorm parent?
A. Yes. There was one at each door.
Q. And did you complete it there in the classroom?
A. Yes.
Q. Did he say why he was having you do it?
A. No. There was like –I remember, though, that there was like — It was more for me– Never mind.
Q. Was there anything about the survey that made you uncomfortable?
A. No. It was anonymous so it never — it was more of a–like an experience for me, you know, looking back on my history more than anything else. So I think it was something that benefited me.
Q. So you found it to be more insightful?
A. Yes.
Q. About where in your program did you do this survey?
A. I don’t remember.
Q. Were you ever asked to do other surveys?
A. Not that I remember, no.
Q. But it’s possible you did?
A. Yeah.
Q. And on the questionnaires, you said the Defendant handed out the questionnaires?
A. I’m sorry?
Q. The sexual questionnaires? You said the Defendant, Ben, handed them out?
A. Yes. I remember him coming into the classroom. I don’t remember him physically giving them to us. I don’t know if he just handed it to the staff, but I do remember that he was the one that, you know, told them to pass it out.
Q. And you don’t remember any other questionnaires?
A. I don’t remember any there. I remember I took some, like, in seminars and different things, different types of questionnaires, like, in seminars. Those
were a common thing.
Q. But not in the classroom?
A. I don’t remember that, no
Per the witness, she had similar surveys at the local public high school. One wonders if the high school actually had their students fill out a survey on pleasurable activities they enjoyed during sex and what they did with that information.
Q. Have you ever done similar surveys?
A. Yeah. I’ve done them at my high school that I was a part of, Keokuk High School.
Q. And was it similar to the one that we’re discussing?
A. Uh-huh (in the affirmative).
Q. Is that a yes?
A. I’ve done those on the computer, and I’ve done, like, regular surveys where you fill in the little bubbles for that kind of thing.
According to authorities that spoke to Ben, he told them that he used the surveys for seminars. The witness states that she did attend the Marriage and Family seminar but could not remember the surveys being discussed during it.
Q. Did you ever attend a seminar called the Marriage and Family Seminar?
A. Yes.
Q. And at some point during that seminar, were the things from the survey discussed?
A. I don’t remember.
Q. Did they all start to run together after a while?
A. Yeah.
Q. Did you do a lot of seminars like that?
A. Yes.
The witness does recall Ben Trane taking girls to the Quincy Mall to go shop at Victoria’s Secret. This is interesting because when he was caught taking the girls to Victoria’s Secret in December after he told DHS that he would not be around female students, he went to a Victoria’s Secret that was much further away from the school than the usual mall that he would go to. When Layani was interviewed by FBI during in January, she stated that they never went to Quincy Mall.
Q. You saw the Defendant buy gifts for kids?
A. Yes.
Q. Like what?
A. Normally just necessities they needed. It could be anywhere from clothes to hair wash to deodorant, anything.
Q. You knew that he took girls to Victoria’s Secret?
A. Yes. It was more of something that was asked though, like, for him to do. But it wasn’t like a trip for that. It was a trip to–I’m pretty sure it was Quincy. And it was just a shopping trip for them. And it was actually one of my close friends that I was close to, and she just–her family didn’t send her much, so it was of Ben and he got her and took her and got her what she needed.
The witness testified that Ben Trane took her two best friends to Victoria’s Secret and paid for it for them. The witness also testified that she didn’t personally go to Victoria’s Secret with Ben.
Q. Did somebody talk to you about that before you came in today?
A. What do you mean?
Q. Well, before you came in today, did somebody talk to you about Victoria’s Secret?
A. I was talked to, yeah, when I was interviewed.
Q. And your friend was Axxxx; is that right?
A. Yeah. Well, the one that was what? Bought the gift?
Q. Excuse me?
A. Axxxx was what friend?
Q. Was Axxxx one of the girls that had gotten things from Victoria’s Secret?
A. Yes.
Q. Who else?
A. Jxxxx
Q. Who else?
A. That’s all I remember.
Q. That’s all that you know of?
A. Yeah. They were like my two best friends.
Q. Would the Defendant buy those things for them?
A. Did he buy it for them?
Q. Yes.
A. Yes.
Q. You never went to Victoria’s Secret with him, did you?
A. No.
According to the witness, she claims that she did know the sexual abuse victim but wasn’t that close to her. She remembered her as reserved and quiet before she left Midwest Academy. Upon visiting the academy in November – after the sexual abuse would have occurred – she states that the victim seemed different. She describes her as “unopen to anything” and “angry.”
Q. Did you have occasion to meet [sexual abuse victim]?
A. Yes.
Q. Now you two would have been on very different levels, wouldn’t you?
A. Right.
Q. Because she arrived quite a bit —
A. After me.
Q. –after you?
A. Yes.
Q. And would your contact with her have been primarily as one of these peer mentors?
A. Yes.
Q. Did that continue after you left the program?
A. No. Well, after I left the program?
Q. Yes.
A. Yeah. I still came back and she was a person that I would talk to.
Q. How would you describe [sexual abuse victim]?
A. She was very quiet. She didn’t really talk about how she felt a lot. I didn’t have a super close bond with her, so I can’t really say a lot.
Q. But your impression of her was that she was pretty reserved?
A. Yes.
Q. One of the last times that you saw her, was her demeanor different than what you normally saw?
A. Yes, very different.
Q. How was it different?
A. She was more just hateful, I think is the word. Very –just unopen to anything.
Q. And that was different for her?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you know approximately when that was?
A. Around I’d say–around Thanksgiving, a little before. It was around a holiday towards the end of the year, and it was after I had graduated.
Q. Pardon?
A. It was after I had graduated in October.
Q. But you think it was around the Thanksgiving holiday?
A. Around, yes.
Q. Did she appear angry?
A. Yeah.
Q. Is that kind of what you meant by the hateful?
A. Yes.
At the end of the testimony, the witness admits that she was waiting with Ben’s wife, Layani, in the hallway of the courthouse. She also testifies that she and her family are close to the Trane Family. She also testifies that she consistently posts on her Facebook in support of Ben Trane.
Q. When you were waiting in the hallway to testify today before court, you were with Layani Trane?
A. Yes.
Q. You’re close to the family?
A. Yes.
Q. You’re on Facebook a lot?
A. Yes.
Q. You have consistently posted on Facebook your support for the Defendant and his family?
A. Yes.
MS. TIMMINS: That’s all I have. Thank you.
