Season 1 Episode 29: Michael Robinson Tells What He Knows About Sexual Abuse at TLR. 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 29: Michael Robinson Tells What He Knows About Sexual Abuse at TLR.

July 04, 2023 • Ryan & Sammi

Michael Robinson went to The Lord's Ranch in the late 90's/early 2000's. If you've been listening to previous episodes, you've heard his name mentioned more than once.

Michael Robinson is now the first person to go on record about an elderly male counselor who allegedly routinely pursued sexual intercourse with young black residents. Mike goes into detail about where and what his counselor allegedly attempted to do. He also goes into detail about his counselor apologizing profusely when Mike wouldn't allow him to touch him inappropriately.

He also tells of how he immediately reported the incident to two staff members named Gary Jackson and Steve Marlow. Despite the alleged attempted solicitation of a minor, the staff member remained employed by The Lord's Ranch for years to come. Mike was simply given a different counselor to solve the problem.

I've heard numerous stories about this counselor--nearly identical-- from multiple people, but nobody wanted to go on record about it.....until now. Mike hopes that sharing his experience will encourage others to come forward about his former counselor, Emmett Alden Presley--AKA Mr. P.

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/