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Teens' pastor faces court date
Jack Jones
Democrat and Chronicle

(June 29, 2002) — The Rev. Fletcher Brothers, founder and director of Freedom Village, U.S.A., a communal residence in Yates County for troubled teens, has been ordered to appear before an Erie County Court judge in Buffalo on Wednesday with a 17-year-old girl who is the subject of a custody dispute.

According to a lawsuit filed Friday, Brothers has "wrongfully and unlawfully held" the teen and prevented her from returning to her mother's home in Hamburg, Erie County.

The girl's mother, Patricia Brown, said she filed the lawsuit because her daughter, Sandra Brown, has been psychologically coerced by Brothers and camp officials into believing that she cannot return home.

Brothers said Sandra Brown -- who was placed at Freedom Village along with her older brother in 1998 -- is free to return home but has told him that she chooses to remain at the 150-acre campus, which is home to about 200 youths from around the world who have been referred by parents, police agencies, church groups and others.

"I'm sorry that Patricia Brown has chosen to take this legal action, but I will be more than happy to go to court with Sandra and let her tell the judge why she chooses to remain here rather than go back," Brothers said.

Patricia Brown, a former teacher who operates a day care center, said she adopted the children, who are biological siblings, after their mother died nine years ago. Both children were being abused by an alcoholic father, who died five years ago, she said.

Because of emotional problems that both developed in their early teen years, Brown said she enrolled them at Freedom Village.

"But I didn't intend for them to spend the rest of their lives there," Patricia Brown said. "But because of the way Pastor Brothers operates, the children are threatened and told they'll burn in hell if they leave before they're told they're ready to go."

Sandra's brother, Thomas, said he left Freedom Village in December, after being there for nearly four years and not being allowed to communicate with his sister.

"When I turned 18, I decided I was just going to leave," Thomas Brown said. "I wanted to leave long before that, but they told me I wasn't ready and I would get into drugs and go to hell and everything horrible would happen to me if I left... . They tell you the world outside is a bad place, but in my mind the world is what you make of it.

"Even if you say out loud, 'I want to go home,' you're put under house arrest. That's why I want my sister out of there before she gets more brainwashed or whatever."

Patricia Brown said that although her son attended classes for nearly four years at Freedom Village, he had only five credits that could be used toward a high school diploma from a public school.

Susan Gray, a Buffalo lawyer who filed the lawsuit against Brothers on behalf of Patricia and Thomas Brown, said a Freedom Village education emphasizes religious training at the expense of other subjects.

"Freedom Village falls between the cracks of the education system, because they don't have to be licensed by the state," said Gray.

"Tom is almost 19 and he was there nearly four years, but he still needs nearly three years of classes to finish high school... . We're alleging that Fletcher Brothers is running an organization that takes teens who are dependent on drugs, alcohol or sex and transfers that dependency to himself. Kids are taught to believe they cannot function in the outside world. We think that's what has happened with Sandra."

Patricia Brown said she wants her daughter returned home because since her son's return, she has realized that "While Freedom Village is good up to a point, the kids there don't learn the kinds of things really necessary to be a success in normal life -- like how to manage time, money and energy and get a job and provide for yourself."

Brothers said that "several thousand" teens have gone through Freedom Village in the past 21 years, and most spend about 16 months in the residential community.

Brothers also said that Thomas Brown was expelled from Freedom Village, where both he and his sister had been allowed to stay at their mother's request beyond the usual 16-month residence period.

"Their mother wanted them here is bottom line," said Brothers. "Sandy technically graduated from our program a long time ago, but she refuses to go home because it's a mess there and we're not going to put this girl out on the streets. Patricia Brown has an ax to grind."

Freedom Village was the subject of intense media criticism in the early 1980s, when Brothers was accused of siphoning funds for his personal use from the former Gates Community Chapel, which he and a group of followers founded in 1975.

Former members of the chapel congregation and others -- including graduates of Freedom Village -- have continued throughout the years to accuse Brothers of deceptive fund-raising activities and fraud in his business dealings.

As it faced foreclosure over more than $21 million in unpaid debts in 1993, a federal bankruptcy judge allowed Freedom Village to continue operating and dramatically reduced Brothers' bills to about 15 percent of the amount being sought by creditors. Many of those debtors were fellow Christians who said Brothers had persuaded them to invest in his youth salvation enterprise and promised to pay interest on their personal loans.

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