Toxic waste slowing development of deadly Custer County boot camp

Nearly nine years ago Brady Folkens of Brookings died in state custody after a botched diagnosis at the former State Treatment and Rehabilitation (STAR) Academy in a county named for a war criminal on December 21, 2013 then the State of South Dakota’s Office of Risk Management and Republican Avera lawyer, then-Lt. Governor Matt Michels helped to bury the evidence of negligent homicide. 

This case stank from the very beginning. Republican former Governor Denny Daugaard's lawyer, Jim Seward and even a Democratic former lawmaker engaged in a massive coverup. A cynical observer might see Daugaard's decision to close two state-owned boot camps as a vehicle to drive kids into the clutches of the Children's Home Society where he and accused child predator T. Denny Sanford enjoy financial interests.

In the absence of adequate news coverage by South Dakota media ignoring Brady's wrongful death this blog urged his mother, Dawn Van Ballegooyen, to attach a lien to the property where he was misdiagnosed but she ultimately dropped her lawsuit.

Dawn Van Ballegooyen and I found this interesting letter in Brady Folken’s file at Gary Thimsen’s law office at Woods, Fuller, Schultz, and Smith in Sioux Falls. Thimsen was hired to defend South Dakota authorities from liability in the death of 17-year old Brady. Notice the letter was date stamped by both the Office of Risk Management (run by Craig Ambach) and by the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office (run by then-AG Marty Jackley) – under the aegis of then-governor [Daugaard]. Proves to us that the South Dakota authorities made Brady’s cover-up a very high priority – so high that the law firm of [Heidepriem], et al., backed off. [Dr. Lars Aanning, Faceberg post]

After a public whimper petered out the death camp was shuttered and the sprawling property carved from the heart of Indian Country put up for auction. The stigmatized site was sold four times at sequentially reduced prices after the first buyer bounced a check to the state, the financing was unworkable or the scope of work proved too great.

South Dakota's school to prison pipeline began in 1983 when Republican Governor Bill Janklow concocted a plan to convert the University of South Dakota at Springfield into a prison. Janklow was governor when fourteen year old Gina Score died after a forced run in 1999 then the state settled with Score's family for just over a million dollars without accepting guilt for her death. 

STAR Academy's predecessors, South Dakota Tuberculosis Sanatorium and Custer State Hospital at Sanator have macabre histories of their own. Custer State Hospital was part of my foodservice territory in the 1980s and early 90s so I heard testimony from several employees who knew of the torture and abuse heaped on clients with disabilities many unable to defend themselves. 

The State of South Dakota had been removing asbestos, lead paint and other hazardous materials even before Brady Folkens died but progress has been slow as the state's gutted environmental division is ill-equipped to advise developer Mark Nielsen. Now, Nielsen is auctioning chances to push the three buttons that would destroy historic buildings with explosives but so far the public has not been invited to witness the demolitions. Plans to crush the remaining debris and integrate the material into roadways are still being discussed.