Season 1 Episode 26: Former Clinician Who Worked at Ted Suhl's Outpatient Therapy Offices Artwork

What Really Happened at The Lord's Ranch?

Two former residents of The Lord's Ranch go back over 40 years and interview various generations of former residents, staff members, local towns people, and a local award-winning investigative journalist about a religious-based adolescent treatment facility in Warm Springs, Arkansas. The Lord's Ranch was founded by a financial felon from California; named Bud Suhl. After his time incarcerated, Suhl proclaimed he had turned his life around when he found Jesus. He left California and moved to Randolph County, Arkansas with his new wife Shirley. Bud Suhl opened up inpatient and outpatient treatment facilities for troubled youth. The newly found inpatient facility was in a small town of fewer than 300 residents and has since been the subject of numerous investigations that go as high up as the FBI. The Lord’s Ranch even briefly lost their license three years into business due to numerous complaints of abuse. These investigations ultimately made Bud's son, Ted a felon as well. In 2016, around 50 years after Bud’s conviction, Ted was convicted of bribery and fraud. Ted got out of prison about 4 1/2 years early when Suhl's family friend, Mike Huckabee convinced President Donald Trump to commute his seven-year sentence. As it stands right now, nobody has been able to find any documentation indicating how long Bud spent in prison. At any rate, since Ted had his sentence commuted rather than being fully pardoned, he remains a felon for financial crimes committed when his business hit a low point-- just like his father. With allegations of mental, physical, and sexual abuse at The Lord's Ranch, Sammi and Ryan decided to do a deep dive into the matter. Whether it was good, bad, or ugly, they searched for the full truth. The statements in this podcast may sound one-sided but nearly everybody who felt compelled to defend the ranch was unwilling to be interviewed on the podcast. We even offered to let defensive staff members speak while we asked zero questions and agreed to offer no rebuttals to anything the guest said. It would essentially have been a speech in defense of The Lord's Ranch. But unfortunately, most preferred to type words, rather than speaking on the phone. Some have also tried their best to prevent people from coming onto our podcast to share their story. For somebody claiming innocence, that seems rather suspect. At any rate, we continued asking anybody with any kind of experiece with The Lord's Ranch what it was like. These are their stories.WARNNG: Some of the details spoken in this podcast are disturbing. Listen at your own risk.

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What Really Happened at The Lord's Ranch?

Season 1 Episode 26: Former Clinician Who Worked at Ted Suhl's Outpatient Therapy Offices

April 07, 2023 • Ryan & Sammi • Season 1 • Episode 26

Kelly Green worked at one of Ted Suhl's numerous Arkansas outpatient facilities as a clinician. She volunteered to share her time with us and told us about multiple ethically questionable business tactics utilized by Ted Suhl. They had marketers planted at schools and courthouses who were incentivized to bring kids into The Lord's Ranch and/or Arkansas Counseling Associates. (This was the name of their outpatient treatment offices spread throughout the state.)

This conversation provided us with some fascinating insider information. In reading large portions of the court transcripts from Ted's fraud/bribery case, I find none of the information to be particularly surprising. The only part that truly shocks me is that they were allowed to use these business tactics at all. (But then again, I've seen them get away with worse.)

This office was unlike any place she had worked at in the past. She worked there until the FBI's case against Ted Suhl essentially pancaked Suhl's entire psychiatric treatment operation like an M-1A1 Abrams flattening cars during the WACO standoff.

At any rate, I also added a homework assignment for our listeners at the end of this episode. I'm hoping that this conversation will help provide insight to our listeners. And I also hope I can count on our listeners to help us answer the two questions I ask in this episode

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. Kelly is a wealth of knowledge and I'm extremely grateful for her participation! :)

The music composed for this podcast came from Blaq2ba. You can contact him at:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=199500549

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https://www.facebook.com/RyanHobbsandtheLordsRanch/