The trouble surrounding the Challenger Foundation continues.
On Tuesday, the New York girl who was abducted from herworkplace and forced to enroll in Challenger - a program that seeks to help troubled youths - filed a $20 million civil rights complaint against the foundation in federal court.
And the Utah attorney general's office issued another letter, strongly demanding that Challenger be licensed with the state Social Services Department as a residential treatment facility.
Elizabeth Zasso, 17, says that the Challenger Foundation violated her U.S. and Utah constitutional rights and violated several state and federal laws, according to the complaint.
A Delaware-based for-profit corporation that does business in Utah, Challenger has been the subject of controversy since a state judge last week found that Zasso was emancipated and that Challenger violated her rights. After the ruling, Zasso returned to her hometown, Mount Kisco, N.Y., where she is staying with friends.
Zasso was illegally kidnapped by Challenger agents June 15 from a Mount Kisco dentist's office, where she had been working as a secretary, according to the complaint.
"She was dragged kicking and screaming to a rented automobile outside the dentist's office," the complaint states.
The kidnappers had been hired by her parents, from whom she had run away 40 days earlier over disagreements about her boyfriend.
Zasso was flown to Utah, where she was taken into the desert near Escalante. After she was strip-searched, Zasso was forced to hike for three days with no food in the first part of a 63-day wilderness experience that Challenger advertises will bring troubled youths "out of their dream world and back to reality."
For the next several weeks, according to the complaint, Zasso was deprived of adequate food and water; toilet facilities and toilet paper; adequate bedding and shelter; adequate facilities for personal hygiene; adequate first aid and medical care; adequate clean clothing, including underwear; the opportunity to send and receive uncensored mail; and subjected to psychological counseling.
Named as defendants in the complaint are Challenger founder Stephen A. Cartisano; Challenger employees William "Wallwalker" Henry, Clint Dowling, Lance "Horsehair" Jaggar; Challenger psychologist and attorney D. Eugene Thorne; and several "John Does."
Also named is Provo-based Rocky Mountain Aviation, which flew a plane to Connecticut to transport Zasso to Utah.
During a press conference Monday, Cartisano's staff showed a videotape of an interview with Zasso during the experience. In it, she expresses gratitude for the program.
But Zasso's attorney, Michael Mohrman, said his client spoke positively out of fear that otherwise she would be required to stay in the program.
"She would do or say anything to get out of Challenger. She hated it," Mohrman said.
Zasso's complaint lists 14 reasons why the court should act against Challenger. Among them are.
-Assault and battery, and false imprisonment. Cartisano, Dowling and an unnamed defendant "acted maliciously" toward Zasso's rights when they forcibly took her from her workplace.
-Invasion of right to privacy. All mail to and from Zasso was read by employees of Challenger, who do so to monitor the participants' progress.
The complaint points out that Thorne, in a previous federal action, had been ordered not to review mail at the Provo Canyon Boys School, where he was a psychologist. "Thorne knew that it was inappropriate to review cor-respondence," the complaint states.
-Pattern of unlawful activity. Citing a Utah statute, the complaint accuses Challenger of assault, aggravated assault, kidnapping, unlawful detention and witness tampering.
Tuesday's lawsuit follows a civil rights lawsuit filed Monday by Challenger against the state of Utah, which had ordered Challenger by letter on Friday to meet certain minimum standards and to be licensed.
Cartisano, who believes he is being harassed by the state, responded to the letter by saying the program is not abusive and does not need to be licensed because it isn't a therapeutic program.
But the attorney general's office sent a second letter on Tuesday, expressing dissatisfaction with Challenger's responses.
Tuesday's letter also makes it clear that the state believes Challenger is required to be licensed by the state as a residential treatment program.
"It is unacceptable for Challenger to advertise itself as a program which is therapeutic in nature and then . . . to assert that licensure is not required," wrote assistant attorney general Linda Luinstra.