Paul Babeu seeks to shake Massachusetts school past

• Paul Babeu maintained Massachusetts officials didn't faulted him for problems at a school he headed
• Babeu filed a bar complaint against U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark for saying he thwarted the state probe
• Babeu is trying to shake lingering questions about his time at the now-closed DeSisto School

Congressional candidate Paul Babeu tried to clarify Monday his role at a private Massachusetts school for emotionally troubled youths in an effort to redefine a part of his background that has dogged him during his runs for public office.

Pushing back against Democratic critics, the Pinal County sheriff filed a bar complaint against a member of Congress in his native state, claiming she improperly accused him of obstructing an investigation of the school when he no longer worked there. He also maintained he didn't oversee discipline or education of the students.

With a 1,600-page report on a table next to him, Babeu told media assembled outside the state Capitol that he had been vindicated by Massachusetts authorities.

“In this investigation, I wasn’t interviewed. I wasn’t deposed. My name’s only referenced once for having a car at the school and two other times copied on letters. That’s it. That’s the extent of this," he said.

“There’s allegations of neglect of those students or even abuse of those students, and it all sounds dramatic now today, many years later. The evidence here proves my complete and full innocence of any of these false allegations.”

Babeu’s forceful insistence that he was not tied to wrongdoing at the now-shuttered DeSisto School put on full display his combative political style. The news conference was also implicit acknowledgement that his ties to the controversial school have become a liability in his race for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. Babeu is the Republican nominee in the race.

Babeu's history at the school

Babeu served as headmaster at DeSisto in Stockbridge, Mass., from 1999 until 2001. During that time, the state launched an investigation into multiple reports of abuse, neglect and concerns about students' safety at the boarding school.

The probe resulted in a court order to stop specific activities, including punishments that put students in chairs facing corners for hours at a time, withholding food from students and strip-searches. The court also ordered the school to stop group showers and allow students to use the bathroom in private.

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The state did not find Babeu personally responsible for abusive behavior by the time the school closed in 2004. Babeu left western Massachusetts for Arizona not long afterward, but his oversight of the school has remained at issue.

Asked whether he viewed tactics like cornering or group showering as reasonable, Babeu said, “If I had that information, absolutely not. This is where my 20 years in the military, 14 years in law enforcement, I’ve worked to protect children. ... If I knew, of course, I would be a party trying to stop any of that.”

In a Babeu family videotape taken during Christmas 1999, Babeu seemed to discuss the nature of cornering in some detail.

"They are cornered if they have turn-ins, if they aren’t being honest, things like that," he said in the video. "They can be cornered for weeks. And they have to sit in the corner. It’s up to their timetable."

On Monday, he struggled to explain why he considered those techniques acceptable at the time, but inappropriate today.

Babeu suggested aggressive discipline was part of the school's approach to intervening with children whose lives were careening out of control.

“Was I aware of the philosophy of the school?" he said. "Absolutely I was aware of the philosophy of the school, that this was a last chance for a lot of these children. These parents had no place to go.”

A political issue

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has pilloried Babeu in recent weeks with an alarmist ad using a portion of videotape where he explains how students could be cornered on an extended basis.

"Because they’re hopeless. They need to get through, this is why," he said. "They need to feel hopeless and feel depression and complete failure. ... They have to bottom out and then be able to work through it."

Since the tape surfaced earlier this year, the person who headed the DeSisto probe, U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., told KNXV (Channel 15) that Babeu "stonewalled her investigation at every turn." Clark was special counsel for the Office of Children’s Services for the state of Massachusetts at the time.

MORE: Video shows Babeu praising harsh student discipline

On Monday, Babeu said he filed a formal bar complaint against Clark, saying he never met with Clark or was questioned about it. He maintained his role at the school was more of financial manager than disciplinarian. In a sworn statement from October 2001, Clark noted her staff having problems with getting access, but she said the staff was blocked by someone other than Babeu.

"Paul Babeu was no longer employed by the Defendant at the time the later disproven allegations in this case arose. He did not ever meet with Attorney Clark and was never deposed or questioned in the matter," Babeu wrote in the complaint, which was provided to reporters.

"Further, he did not do or refrain from doing any act — active or passive — that would have in any way hindered the case or legal rights of the Commonwealth with regard to their important investigation. Having averred to the contrary, Attorney Clark made a knowingly false statement to the public about Sheriff Paul Babeu in violation of her oath as a member of the Massachusetts Bar."

Clark said in a written statement: "The abuse of vulnerable children at the DeSisto School was some of the worst I encountered during my career as an advocate for children. As its headmaster, Paul Babeu was not only aware of the abusive practices at the school, he praised them. I wish he had spent a fraction of the effort he's putting into trying to save his political career into protecting the children at the school he led."

Other Democrats said Babeu could not run away from his past.

“In his role as headmaster, Paul Babeu oversaw the widespread and inhumane abuse of special needs students," said Tyler Law, a spokesman for the DCCC. "To make matters worse, he continues to brazenly lie about his role despite being caught on video touting the disturbing treatment of children that he was supposed to help. His behavior and his lies are both disqualifying — there’s just no way Arizonans can trust someone like this.”

"The ugly truth is that Paul Babeu oversaw a school where there was rampant child abuse," said Jacob Becklund, campaign manager for Babeu's opponent, Democrat Tom O'Halleran. "Now that he might lose a political campaign because of it, he claims he didn't know. But back in 2002, he applied for a job with the Chandler Police Department and claimed that he supervised 80 employees at the school, including the directors. And Babeu's words on the video make it very clear that he knew about the abuse."

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In a 2011 statement to The Arizona Republic, Babeu said as headmaster, he was responsible only for operations such as kitchen, housekeeping, facility and grounds maintenance, office-support staff and admissions.

However, interviews, court and tax records, media accounts and Babeu's police personnel records present a broader picture of his leadership role at DeSisto.

In a Chandler Police Department employment application signed by Babeu in November 2002, he wrote that he "supervised directors and 80 full-time employees" at DeSisto. He wrote that he was "responsible for budget preparation, financial accountability, legal issues, long-range planning and fundraising."

Babeu and one other employee, along with the school's founder, were listed as the highest-paid employees on the non-profit school's tax forms in 2000.

Babeu on Monday clarified his oversight of legal issues as pertaining strictly to business operations.

Students and school staff have said Babeu and other administrators sat in on morning meetings in which student safety and misconduct were routinely discussed.

The DeSisto School was founded in 1978 by Michael DeSisto as an institution to help troubled students through an intense discipline regimen and group therapy. Students were primarily from wealthy, prominent families who paid up to $78,000 a year for their children to attend.

DeSisto billed himself as a longtime educator with a host of academic degrees and employment credentials that proved to be false, according to a 1988 investigation by the Orlando Sentinel in Florida, where another DeSisto school was located.

Students accepted into the schools were considered artistically gifted and exceptionally intelligent. Most received psychological treatment before coming to the school for issues that included depression, eating disorders, anger management, self-destruction, addiction and rebellion, according to former administrators.

Because of the number of special-needs students at DeSisto, the Office of Child Care Services fought to regulate and license the school as a group-care facility "after receiving allegations of neglect and abuse of residents at the facility" during Babeu's tenure.

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The state found that students were made to sit facing corners up to 14 hours a day for weeks at a time.

In November 2001, about six months after Babeu left as headmaster, state authorities painted a dismal picture of the school environment, noting employees were poorly trained and that the school was chronically understaffed.

On Monday, Babeu said the school's finances were a mess, in part because of widespread tuition discounts.

Babeu defeated four fellow Republicans last month to win the GOP nomination in the 1st District that spans most of rural eastern Arizona. He is battling O'Halleran, a former state lawmaker who is also a former Chicago police officer.

Republic reporter Robert Anglen contributed to this report.