Legend has it that if you stand in the pool of St. Anne's Retreat in Logan Canyon you can hear the wails of children who were drowned there years ago.
It's a good Halloween story. But just before Halloween last year, Cache County prosecutors say children were bound, verbally abused and beaten at the deserted compound.A jury trial began this week for the three men accused of orchestrating the abuse. John Lemon Jeppson, 51, Christopher Lynn Doerr, 20, and Arthur Benjamin Peasnall, 22, each face six counts of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony. Jeppson has also been charged with forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
"Not only was the force successful, but they enjoyed it," said County Attorney Scott Wyatt in his opening statement Tuesday.
Shortly before 5 a.m. Oct. 10, a group of eight teenagers decided to hike up to the compound and look for the legendary ghosts. Although the buildings are privately owned, the land is owned by the Forest Service and therefore public property.
The youths were wandering around the pool when Jeppson, Doerr and Peasnall stormed into the area holding shotguns and screaming "extraordinarily bad language," Wyatt said. The men had taped flashlights to their shotguns and the only way to see the youths was to point the shotguns at them.
During the "citizens arrest," the kids were "hog-tied" and forced to lie on their bellies. One teenager, who is Cambodian, reported the men being particularly abusive because of her race, Wyatt said.
Jeppson told her that he was a "Vietnam veteran and that he had a problem with her ancestors," and that he was "taking (her) out." He then allegedly held a gun to her head before firing to the side, Wyatt said.
Defense attorneys contend that if Jeppson and his men used any unusual methods, it was to "keep (the youths') attention and to keep them from running," said Jeppson's attorney, Greg Skordas.
They were "simply trying to keep order and discipline so that no one acted out," Skordas said. It was the kids who were "at a place they shouldn't be, at a time they shouldn't be."
The owners of the property had allowed Jeppson to live in the compound in exchange for some maintenance. Upon returning from a hunting trip, however, Jeppson found the place had been vandalized. Someone had apparently shot through a glass window, and there was blood on a floor and graffiti on walls.
Local deputies advised Jeppson he had the right to "detain" any trespassers. Upon his wife's urging, Jeppson allowed Doerr and Peasnall to sleep at the compound so that he would not be alone.
The men were asleep at 5 a.m. when "loud noises and pounding" awoke them, Skordas said. When police officers arrived to take the youths into custody, the officers gave Jeppson "every indication that they'd done the right thing."
On their way out the youths promised they "would be back." That's why Jeppson wasn't too surprised when a larger group of kids showed up at the compound, Skordas said.
"All he knew was that eight angry kids had left about 14 hours earlier and 30 are now walking through in complete abandon," Skordas said. The men took the same steps to detain these individuals, who later said they had also gone to the compound to look for ghosts.
"Had anyone in this scenario thought for a minute that what they were doing was bad, they wouldn't have called police to verify that," Skordas said. "It was never (their) intent to do something inappropriate."
But that doesn't justify why a boy was hit on the head and knocked unconscious and a girl fondled over the breasts, Wyatt said.
"It was such a traumatic thing for them," said Ruth Ann Clark, the mother of the 17-year-old who was hit on the head. "I just don't think we ought to tolerate the abuse of anybody."
Jeppson, Doerr and Peasnall are expected to testify during the trial, which is expected to last through Friday.