Trial begins in Heartland lawsuit

HANNIBAL, Mo. -- Testimony began Monday in a lawsuit filed by a northeast Missouri school for troubled youths, accusing juvenile officers and a sheriff of constitutional violations stemming from a raid in 2001.

The trial, at U.S. District Court in Hannibal, was expected to last up to three weeks, said Jeremy Pingel, a spokesman for Heartland Christian Academy.

On Oct. 30, 2001, police and juvenile officers raided the school in a remote area not far from the Iowa border after a series of allegations of abuse against staff members. School buses were brought in and 115 students were removed.

Heartland officials, including founder Charles Sharpe, strongly denied the abuse allegations, and some of the accusers later recanted. Three days later, a judge allowed the children to return.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Sharpe, a millionaire insurance executive, founded the academy in the mid-1990s on 20,000 acres about 150 miles north of St. Louis. The school preaches strict discipline -- including spankings -- prompting some intervention from authorities. But no Heartland officials have ever been convicted of wrongdoing.