Netflix documentary sparks investigation of abuse at Academy at Ivy Ridge

Mar. 11—CANTON — The district attorney and law enforcement officials are investigating abuse allegations reported by former Ivy Ridge students in the wake of the Netflix documentary "The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping."

Officials said members of the public who were not students at the Academy at Ivy Ridge should not contact them, as it impedes their investigations. They are also urging any former students who wish to come forward with abuse allegations to do so.

Ivy Ridge was open in the town of Oswegatchie from 2001 to 2009. The facility was advertised as a place for parents to get help for troubled teens. The three-part miniseries talks about the physical, mental and sexual abuse the director and several others who went there say they suffered at the hands of staff. They had all been sent there by their parents and detained against their will until they either "graduated" or were pulled out by their families.

During a Monday afternoon press conference, St. Lawrence County District Attorney Gary M. Pasqua and Sheriff Patrick "Rick" Engle both said their offices have been inundated with phone calls and emails since the documentary premiered on March 5.

"We have received reports of physical abuse as well as sexual abuse," Pasqua said. "Those reports we've received regarding physical abuse and sexual abuse will be investigated by law enforcement here in St. Lawrence County. Any individual who was a student at Ivy Ridge who believes they are a victim of a crime can and should reach out to my office or the sheriff's department to report that. We welcome that."

Any former Ivy Ridge students who want to report physical or sexual abuse to law enforcement can contact the St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office at 315-379-2222 or the St. Lawrence County District Attorney's Office at 315-379-2225.

Pasqua said members of the public who didn't go to Ivy Ridge are also flooding his and the county sheriff's office with phone calls and emails looking for updates or making suggestions on how to investigate. They said those can impede what will already be a lengthy process to work through all of the criminal complaints.

"I ask the public, if you were not a student at Ivy Ridge, please do not reach out to simply look for information," Pasqua said. "Please do not reach out to ask what we are doing ... to provide suggestions or advice as to how we should conduct the investigation."

"A lot of the comments we're getting is what's being done ... I can assure you something is being done," he added. "It's going to take time. We're talking about incidents, in some cases, that occurred 20 years ago. It's not going to be a quick resolution."

In "The Program," the makers gain access to the shuttered Ivy Ridge and discover a trove of files and surveillance videos that were left behind after it closed in 2009. They took some of those materials from the property, both to use for the documentary and to send to former students who want to see their old files. However, the filmmakers didn't take everything. What's left behind is now being treated as potential evidence of crimes.

"Let us do our job. Let us collect that evidence," the DA said. "The owner of that (building) is voluntarily letting us do what we need to do."

He said members of the public who trespass at Ivy Ridge or harass the people named in the documentary could open themselves to criminal charges.

"Law enforcement has received numerous calls from individuals who've been harassed because of the documentary that came out," Pasqua said. "I understand the feelings that come from watching the documentary. You do not know the whole story at this point, especially if you were not there ... It does not help the victims of these crimes ... it may set back the investigation."

One of the former staffers named in the documentary is Thomas A. Nichols. He was Ivy Ridge's public relations coordinator and is now St. Lawrence County's Republican elections commissioner. Reached by phone on Monday morning, Nichols said he's been advised not to comment on the allegations in the mini-series. When asked who had given him that advice, he declined to say.

The documentary accuses Nichols of participating in fraud. The makers say the photographs he took to use in promotional brochures did not show typical day-to-day life at Ivy Ridge. Rather, they say the pictures were used to paint a rosy picture to convince parents of the kids sent there that Ivy Ridge was something it wasn't. At one point, the filmmakers confront Nichols at Galilee United Methodist Church near Ogdensburg, where he is a pastor. In an audio recording, when asked if his photos were an accurate representation of Ivy Ridge, Nichols told them, "No."

Ivy Ridge touted their graduation diplomas as official New York state high school diplomas. However, there is a scene where John Sullivan, a former New York State Attorney General's Office regional director, says he was part of an investigation into Ivy Ridge in the mid-2000s that revealed the diplomas were fraudulent.

"So they were issuing diplomas that were bogus, and we were then able to go in and say, 'you know what? You are an educational fraud," Sullivan says on camera in the series. "It was the largest educational fraud case in the history of New York state, until Trump University came up."

The filmmakers also confront Nichols with an email they said they recovered from the building where he talks about using MySpace, which he describes as a "hate site," to monitor former students. It's dated Jan. 26, 2006, and says "From: Tom Nichols" at the top and has his typed signature at the bottom. Here's what the email says:

"Jason (Finlinson, Ivy Ridge director), I have mixed feelings about 'us' going to parents to 'out' students who frequent hate sites (My Space) and blister us verbally or in writing. On the one hand, its [sic] very offensive and hurtful when they say these things about us after all the hard work AIR put into helping them. Part of me wants to confront them.

However, on the other hand, we do have an opportunity to keep track of where they are and what they are doing. It gives us a chance to keep an eye on them to see if lawsuits are being formulated or if their behavior is getting worse. It is important to know their state of mind if they are trying to access the bbs in some way or get back to our facility to "visit." If we expose their activity, we likely lose that ability to track them if they disappear because mom or dad got after them for their posts. I think it is good for us to know what they are up to and also find it helpful if someone wants to come back to know if they are friend or foe. It helps to know if they are coming here to quietly contact other kids for no good reason or to really say hi to staff, etc.

For example, knowing what we now know, I would not likely ask Tiffany [last name redacted] to be on our Alumni [Board]. I would also not want her coming back for a visit to go through the entire facility visiting or to be employed as staff or attending a dance etc. However, if we tell her mom and we lose that window, we lose that chance to track what others are saying and doing (lawsuits) that could harm AIR. They love to spill their guts there and that is a great advantage for us. If the kids find out we are actively browsing the site, they will go elsewhere to create another that we just need to hunt down.

As painful and angering as it is, I think we should monitor them but let the kids do their thing on the site and track them quietly. I know of a few times that posts have given us the heads up and information that helped head off people who wanted to access the website. George and Dave will also have more information to decide if people can return to visit. The only time it would be good to intervene would be if they threaten to hurt themselves or someone else."