History of Criminal Investigation at Midwest Academy
Midwest Academy and the criminal shadow over boarding schools nationwide.
KEOOKUK, Ia. — A jury in southeast Iowa on Friday found a former boarding school principal guilty of abusing students, days after he tearfully testified that he had not harmed any children.
The jury found Benjamin Trane guilty of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of a child by a counselor and child endangerment, according to the Burlington Hawk Eye. The jury found Trane not guilty of a more serious charge, third-degree sexual assault, which could have carried a 10-year prison sentence.
The jury of nine men and three women began deliberating Thursday afternoon.
Trane will be sentenced early next year and could face up to nine years in prison.
Trane was the owner and director of Midwest Academy in Keokuk. The school was closed in January 2016 after a raid by federal, state and local officials, sending about 100 students home or to other schools.
Earlier in the trial, Trane had at times tearfully dismissed accusations that he sexually and physically abused children at the school.
Asked about the testimony that he had molested students, Trane told jurors Wednesday, “That's absolutely not the truth.”
On Friday, Trane, 39, remained stoic as District Judge Mark Kruse read the verdict. Several Trane supporters in the courtroom choked back tears.
Last month, a Lee County judge sentenced several former Midwest students and their parents in a separate civil lawsuit in absentia. A hearing to determine damages has not yet been held.
The former students alleged widespread abuse and mistreatment at the expensive former institution for troubled teenagers, including beatings, sex between students and staff, sex between students, forced silence and ignoring pleas for medical attention.
The school routinely kept the teenagers in solitary confinement in 6-foot-by-8-foot rooms for weeks, requiring them to sit for hours in specific positions with little food.
The civil suit also accused Trane of ordering the girls to undress in front of two mirrors and come out and tell him their body type.
EARLIER: The owner is suspected of sexual abuse
