Matthew Callahan testified that after his third escape attempt from the Challenger wilderness therapy program, founder Stephen Cartisano struck him with his fists.
"Mr. Cartisano hit me three times in the stomach with his fists. . . . I fell to the ground," the youth testified Thursday in the negligent homicide and child abuse trial of Cartisano."Then, he took my head by the hair and he pounded it three or four times into the ground, until it started bleeding," said Callahan, who was 14 when the incident allegedly occurred in the summer of 1990.
Callahan said Cartisano stopped only when pulled off by another Challenger staffer.
The Delaware youth is named as the victim in two of the seven misdemeanor child-abuse charges against the 36-year-old Mapleton man whose Challenger program was grossing more than $3 million annually before it shut down in 1990 because of licensing, legal and tax problems.
Callahan, now 16, spent part of the trial's fourth day showing jurors scars on his stomach, back and legs.
He said they were caused by Challenger staffers trying to get him to hike out of a desert canyon by placing hot rocks on his chest and stomach, lashing him to a pole by his hands and ankles only to drop him when he fought, and then dragging him by the ankles for 200 feet over rocks until he was bloody and scarred.
Two physicians testified Thursday that Callahan had to be pulled from the program and hospitalized because of extreme malnutrition.
Dr. William Black of Panguitch testified Thursday the boy should have been treated sooner after dropping more than 20 pounds during his several-week stint in Challenger.
Under cross examination, he said that program officials made the "proper response" by trying to increase Callahan's food intake and then bringing him in for medical attention.
The negligent homicide charge against Cartisano stems from the June 27, 1990, death of 16-year-old Kristen Chase of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. The defense is challenging the prosecution's claim that she died of exertional heatstroke.