DECLARATION UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY PURSUANT TO 28 USCA 1746
I, Charles Clayton Denny declare and state as follows:
Name of Program:
Cross Creek; High Impact
Location of Program:
La Verkin, Utah; Tecate, Mexico
Period of Internment (MM/YY to MM/YY)
02/01 to 01/02, Cross Creek; 08/01 to 09/01, High Impact
Declarative Statement
When I was at High Impact I was forced to live in deplorable conditions as were all of the children surviving there. My time there was not as bad as some but believe me when I say we all found our personal Hell at High Impact.
I was forced to pick up the trash behind the bathrooms barehanded. The trash mainly consisted of used toilet paper and bloody tampons. It had been spread out in the raw sewage that drained out the back of the bathroom. There was a little puppy that had been getting in the trash and making a mess of it.
One morning while I had the “privilege” to pick up the trash the little puppy came back to the trash pile. The guard saw the opportunity to end the trash problem. He asked the female staff for a knife, which the slid through the fence to him. He began throwing the knife at the puppy. The pup was terrified and running for his life. The large kitchen knife penetrated the pups abdomen exposing some intestines. The pup wiggled under the 15′ fence then was thrown back over the fence by a female guard. After bouncing in the dirt back on our side of the fence the male guard quickly grabbed the pup up. He tried to cut the puppy’s throat but only cut the skin of his neck. This caused the dog to bleed out. Choking on his own blood and dying a slow painful death I was told to put the dog in a plastic bag and we would go bury it. I pleaded with the guard to finish the dog off quickly but he said it was too messy. There was another student cleaning trash with me that day. I don’t remember his name but he was sent there straight from home not another program and we both were released about the same time.
I was lead over to a large tree where the guard sat in the shade. He made an X in the dirt just a few feet out of the shade and in the sun where I was to bury the pup. He was still choking and crying while I dug his grave. I set aside a large stone that I had dug up. Once I had gone 3-4 feet down the guard told me to put the pup down in the hole. I tossed a little dirt over the bag and scooped up the large stone. After making sure the guard wasn’t looking I hurled the stone down the hole crushing the pup’s skull.
I was warned to not say a word about the incident or I would lose my laps and have to pay the consequences.
I was also forced to eat my own vomit on one occasion. I had not finished my food in time and was put in the cage until I did. Forcing down the gruel caused me to gag and what I did get down came back up. The puke was scooped out of the dirt and piled back in my plate. I was not allowed out of the cage until I had cleared my plate.
When I made it back to Utah I was told that no one from a program had ever graduated from High Impact as fast as I did. From the moment I arrived I kept my head down and focused every thought on the path out of there.
I still have a very hard time taking instruction from Hispanic men. I recently left my job as a line cook in a Las Vegas fine dinning restaurant. They had just hired a new chef, he spoke Spanish with the other Latinos in the kitchen. I can’t deny that part of the reason for my departure was due to my experience at High Impact.
Those are the two major incidents that I went through. I can verify other stories if needed as I did witness other children’s nightmares.
Please feel free to contact me at any time. Thank you for your time and help.
I give WWASPSurvivors permission to use this statement. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
Executed on(date: MM/DD/YY): 03/15/14
