S2|E7: KIDS

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Sunshine Place Episode: Season 2, Episode 7: "KIDS"
Release Date: December 4, 2024
Host/Author: Audacy Podcasts | Team Downey

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Introduction and Context

"The Sunshine Place" Season 2, Episode 7, titled "KIDS," delves deep into the dark legacy of Straight Incorporated, a controversial teen rehabilitation program from the 1980s. Hosted by Team Downey under the executive production of Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, and Emily Barclay Ford, this episode uncovers the sinister transformation of Straight Incorporated into "Kids," an experimental rehab program that evolved into a manipulative cult exploiting vulnerable teenagers and their families.

The Legacy of Straight Incorporated

Straight Incorporated emerged during the height of the war on drugs, promising a tough-love approach to steer troubled teens back to the right path. However, survivors recount a harrowing experience marked by abuse, torture, and brainwashing under the leadership of Dr. Miller Newton.

Notable Quote:
Wendy (03:02): "Miller Newton is not a kind person. He firmly believes in debasing, humiliating, degrading people to break them down to achieve his goal."

Dr. Miller Newton: The Master Manipulator

Dr. Miller Newton, the former national clinical director of Straight, was a central figure in the program's abusive practices. After resigning in 1983 amidst federal controversies, Newton established "Kids" in New Jersey, perpetuating the same traumatic methodologies.

Notable Quote:
Dr. Miller Newton (06:58): "I know what I'm doing here."

Survivor Narratives: Wendy's Story

Wendy, a former Straight staff member, shares her journey from a troubled teen to a staff member and finally a survivor. After leaving Straight, she faced severe postpartum depression, leading her back into addiction and ultimately back into a Newton-led program called Kids. Her experience within Kids mirrored and exacerbated her previous traumas.

Key Moments:

• Initial Enrollment: Wendy describes her desperate need for help and her decision to enroll in Kids, guided by her positive past experience with Straight.
• Abusive Practices: She recounts how her attempts to withdraw were met with physical restraint and psychological manipulation.

Notable Quote:
Wendy (05:35): "I just turned 30 years old while I was there in Kids of North Jersey. And to have someone tell me that I couldn't leave, it enraged me."

Katie's Ordeal: From Hope to Horror

Katie, another survivor, details her traumatic experiences within the Kids program. Initially seeking help for her severe eating disorder, Katie was subjected to inhumane treatment that aimed not at healing but at controlling and reprogramming her.

Key Moments:

• False Diagnoses and Mismanagement: Katie explains how her bipolar disorder was misdiagnosed as a compulsive behavior problem, leading to improper and harmful treatment.
• Cult-Like Control: The program enforced strict rules, constant surveillance during meals, and relentless rap sessions that stripped her of autonomy.

Notable Quote:
Katie (26:18): "I had to sleep in the bed with the old comer, face to face with my mouth open all night. If I closed my mouth, I would have somebody physically prying my mouth open."

Expansion and Exploitation: The Medicaid Scam

As private insurance began to wane, Dr. Newton ingeniously shifted to Medicaid funding, targeting lower-income families and expanding the demographic reach of Kids. This strategic pivot allowed Newton to exploit state funds continuously, ensuring the program's financial viability despite its unethical practices.

Notable Quote:
Marcus Chatfield (30:21): "Dr. Newton was telling them they have a behavior problem. Like, what the fuck? No, this kid has trauma. These kids needed a social worker. They did need to get out of where they were living, but they didn't need to be put into a cult."

Legal Battles: Seeking Justice

The episode chronicles the pivotal legal cases that exposed the atrocities of Kids. Attorney Phil Elberg played a crucial role in representing survivors like Rebecca Ehrlich and Lulu Corter, leading to significant settlements and public recognition of the program's malpractices.

Key Moments:

• Rebecca Ehrlich's Case: Settled for $4.5 million in 1999, marking the largest settlement in a tough-love rehab case.
• Lulu Corter's Trial: Awarded $6.5 million in damages in 2003, further dismantling Newton's operations.

Notable Quote:
Phil Elberg (39:37): "Miller Newton was a cult-like leader with an ability to con people. And he so totally dominated the lives of the people that came under his influence."

The Aftermath and Newton's Reinvention

Despite the legal defeats, Dr. Miller Newton evaded criminal repercussions by shifting his focus to religious endeavors in Florida, adopting the title "Father" and establishing a nonprofit organization. This reinvention raises ongoing concerns among survivors and advocates about his continued influence and the potential for further harm.

Notable Quote:
Tammy (50:25): "I'm terrified of being kidnapped to this day. I'm almost 60 years old. I'm a grandma. I walk around with a pistol in my pocket wherever I go, and I'm not even close to Florida, where Miller Newton is."

Survivors' Enduring Struggles

The episode emphasizes the long-lasting trauma endured by survivors of Kids. Many continue to grapple with PTSD, strained family relationships, and a pervasive fear instilled by their experiences within the program.

Notable Quote:
Tammy (49:31): "I mean, you're not even allowed to treat people in prison that way. And he absolutely ordered torture on children. And torture never leaves you."

Conclusion: Unveiling the Cult-Like Operations

"KIDS" serves as a chilling exposé of how rehabilitation programs can devolve into cults under manipulative leadership. Through personal testimonies, historical analysis, and legal insights, the episode underscores the critical need for oversight and protection for vulnerable populations in such institutions.

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Credits and Production

"The Sunshine Place" is a meticulously crafted podcast, written, directed, and produced by Perry Crowell, with contributions from writer-producer Margot Gray and story editors Maddie Sprung Keyser and Lloyd Lockridge. The episode features narration by Cindy Ettler and includes sound design by Bill Schultz, ensuring an immersive and impactful listening experience.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks are extended to survivors and their families, legal experts like Phil Elberg, and dedicated team members who contributed to unveiling the harrowing truths behind Kids of North Jersey.

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Disclaimer: This summary contains references to physical and emotional abuse. Listener discretion is advised.

Transcript

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[Narrator]

This episode contains descriptions of physical and emotional abuse. Please take care while listening.

[Wendy]

He's a mastermind. He's a master manipulator. When I picture his face, ripples of fear go through me.

[Narrator]

This is Wendy. She's the Straight staff member we heard from last episode who talked about her radical transformation from troubled teen to straight poster child. Here she's talking about the former national clinical director of Straight, Dr. Miller Newton.

[Wendy]

Miller Newton is not a kind person. He firmly believes in debasing, humiliating, degrading people to break them down to achieve his goal.

[Narrator]

Miller Newton resigned From Straight in 1983 in the wake of a controversial federal trial that put the program's harmful practices in the national spotlight.

[Katie]

The jury awarded former patient Fred Collins $220,000 in damages. He claimed he was illegally held for five months in the Florida Straight clinic.

[Narrator]

By the time Wendy got to straight as a 16 year old Miller Newton was already gone.

[Wendy]

I didn't encounter Miller Newton until I was 29 years old.

[Narrator]

The first time Wendy crossed paths with Miller Newton was not at straight. But almost 10 years later, when she checked herself into his new rehab program called Kids in the 1980s, Wendy wasn't straight for a little more than three years, including her time on staff. She credits it with saving her life. She left the program to attend college, where she fell in love and eventually had a child in 1994. But her pregnancy was complicated, ending in an emergency C section. The experience left her physically and emotionally drained. She was diagnosed with postpartum depression and put on medication. The combination of trauma and depression caused Wendy to spiral back into old habits.

[Wendy]

I started using drugs again. I had never done crack before, but I knew from the first time using it that this was going to be an issue for me.

[Narrator]

Wendy's addiction problems resurfaced worse than ever before, and she knew she needed rehab again. Even though it had been 10 years since she left strait, the indoctrination hadn't worn off and she still considered it to have been the best experience of her life. So she was thrilled to learn that there was another program in New Jersey called kids that was just like straight, founded by a former straight executive, and it would accept somebody her age.

[Wendy]

So my mother and I took a plane up to New Jersey and it was a done deal. I just wanted to get my life back together and get back to my child.

[Narrator]

Wendy's first impression of the program was that it was exactly the same as straight, right down to the blue plastic chairs. Wendy excelled in straight, but at kids, she struggled to make any progress. After nearly a year there, she began to get worried about how much longer she'd be away from her son. She had no contact with him or her parents. Her grandmother had died while she was a kids, but she wasn't told about it for six months. It was then she decided she was going to go back home to her family. So she submitted a formal request for withdrawal. But to her astonishment, the request came back denied.

[Wendy]

I just turned 30 years old while I was there in kids of North Jersey. And to have someone tell me that I couldn't leave, it enraged me. So I started acting out and I was promptly slammed on the floor and restrained. And then Miller Newton came over and stood over me and bent down very close to me. And I can still see it plain as day right now. It puts the fear of God in me. He put his finger in my face and he said, wendy you aren't going a motherfucking place.

[Narrator]

For the second time in her life, Wendy found herself physically restrained on the floor of a warehouse in an unconventional tough love rehabilitation held against her will. But she wasn't a teenager anymore. She was a decade removed from her time in Strait, and she was in a different part of the country in a program with a different name. But the same horrifying things were happening there. And even worse, because this program had been built in the image of its founder, Dr. Miller Newton, the man responsible for the worst pain and suffering at Straight, Inc. You know, I know what I'm doing here.

[Dr. Miller Newton]

I know I have a great deal of care for kids. I know we've developed a successful program. I know I would not run a program that I would not put my own child through.

[Narrator]

Up until now, we've tracked the origins of Straight, Incorporated. In this episode, we'll explore how a new program used Straight's template to thrive in a changing environment and evolve into something even more hideous. My name is Cindy Ettler, and this is the Sunshine Place.

[Wendy]

I have never been afraid of men in my life, but I was afraid of that man simply because of how much power he wielded over me.

[Narrator]

In that moment when Miller Newton stood over Wendy as she was held down on the floor and told her that she couldn't leave the program, she came to the chilling realization that he was right. Because whatever Newton said was absolute. As the founder and clinical director of Kids, he answered to no one.

[Wendy]

As soon as I heard those words out of his mouth, I knew what I had to do.

[Narrator]

Wendy started plotting her escape. A few nights later, on the car ride back to her host home, she waited until they parked in the driveway and for her oldcomers to open her door and belt loop her to take her inside the house.

[Wendy]

And then I turned around and punched one as hard as I could, and the other one grabbed me. And somehow I got away from her and I just ran blindly. I was desperate and I was afraid, and I just wanted to get back to my family.

[Narrator]

Wendy ran until she found a hotel. The clerk let her use the phone, she called her parents, and the next morning she was on a train back to Virginia.

[Wendy]

I realized that outside of my parents, no one on this entire planet knew where I was. If I'd had no ability to break free, they could have held me indefinitely. It scared me that a place and a person could have so much power and control.

[Narrator]

Miller Newton was an authoritarian when he was at Straight, but at Kids, he had become downright tyrannical. To better understand that metamorphosis, let's take a step back to see how he took the ideas he developed at Strait and innovated them. Newton founded Kids in 1984, less than a year after his unceremonious resignation from Straight. He followed a familiar blueprint. He found a very wealthy former Straight parent to be his benefactor. He targeted an underserved market, the New York City metropolitan area, and he opened up shop in affluent Bergen County, New Jersey. Next, he revved up the PR machine. He penned an op ed in the New York Times warning readers of the hidden world of teenage drug use that had led to an epidemic of untimely death. He put the onus on parents to take control and to run, not walk, to a qualified treatment program near them. Newton was identified as the president of one such program called kids. The article made no mention of Straight Incorporated. Neither did the brochures. The Times article did mention Newton's book, Not My A Parent's Guide to Kids and Drugs, which was a national bestseller endorsed by Barbara Walters and, of course, Nancy Reagan. When you were born I knew that someday I'd have to give you up. In 1985, not my kid was even turned into a made for TV movie on CBS starring Stockard Channing as the desperate parent of a troubled teen. I'm not ready to give you up. I want you home. In the second half of the decade, Justice Strait was going through its most rapid expansion. Miller Newton opened KIDS locations in Texas, Utah and California. It seemed like the two nearly identical programs were on parallel paths. But there was a key difference. Miller Newton widened the aperture of his supposed treatment capabilities. He didn't just treat drug addiction. He claimed to have the answer for what he called compulsive behavior problems. Things like eating disorders, sex addiction, and everything else a teenager might struggle with that he could leverage against concerned parents. Not only was he broadening his market, he was adapting to the evolving attitudes about teenage drug problems in America.

[Marcus Chatfield]

In the 1980s, basically every teenage problem was blamed on drug abuse.

[Narrator]

This is Marcus Chatfield, the historian and straight survivor that you've heard throughout this series.

[Marcus Chatfield]

So if your kid had a bad attitude when they came home from school, it probably meant that they were smoking pot. Or it could mean that they had the disease of chemical dependency. But they hadn't started using drugs yet. So teenage rehabs, for a while, they were able to grow and maintain their business just on the fear over marijuana use. But by the early 1990s, they were having to augment and expand their claims of what they were curing.

[Narrator]

In other words, the national panic over teenage marijuana use that had peaked in the 1980s was starting to fade in the 90s.

[Marcus Chatfield]

There were these new diagnoses. There was hyperactivity, There was oppositional defiant disorder, Attention deficit disorders, There was learning disabilities. All these emotional problems that if the kid had been brought to a teen treatment program, like straight 10 years prior, they would have been diagnosed as a pothead 10 years later. Take them to the same program, and they would be diagnosed with something completely different. And it just so happens they needed almost the exact same treatment, and it just happened to be the exact same treatment that facility still offered.

[Tammy]

Kids offers a rigidly structured program for.

[Narrator]

Clients as young as 12 and as old as their 20s. All suffer from what Dr. Newton calls compulsions. Drug, alcohol, behavior, and even eating compulsions are all treated the same way. By the early 1990s, Miller Newton still had concerned parents, convinced that he had all the answers to all their kids problems, including his latest specialty, eating disorders.

[Phil Elberg]

I was anorexic and bulimic when I was a teenager. My parents weren't concerned about me smoking pot a couple times or drinking a couple times, but they were really scared about the condition I was in. I was really underweight.

[Narrator]

This is Katie. She and her family fit perfectly into the template of Miller newton's evolving target demographic.

[Phil Elberg]

I grew up in chatham, New jersey, suburb of New york city. It was like super white bred, preppy, rich, snotty families. So there was a lot of pressure on me to be a certain way from both my parents.

[Narrator]

But Katie stood out from the other kids in her neighborhood.

[Phil Elberg]

I love punk rock. I love going to shows in Trenton, and we would go see like, bad brains or bad religion or fugazi or something. And I was so into being a punk rocker. My whole head was shaved except like orange right in the front. Earrings all the way up my ears, a nose ring on the side. I had a septum ring.

[Narrator]

Katie was a high achieving student and athlete, but her appearance had always been a source of scrutiny from her parents. More concerning than her punk aesthetic was her weight. Katie started exhibiting signs of body issues as a child, which developed into anorexia and bulimia as a teenager. Her parents tried to find professional help, Counselors, doctors, specialists. But none of those options addressed the root cause of her eating disorder. Because nobody believed Katie when she tried to tell them that behind the idyllic suburban exterior of her parents home, life was far from perfect. It was tense and toxic. Her father was an addict and abusive. And as Katie got older, the conflict with both of her parents became more frequent and intense. And so did the symptoms of her eating disorder.

[Phil Elberg]

I threw up like all the time, but I didn't exactly know why I was doing it. I just felt like there's something that is making me actually feel better, like I was getting rid of stuff and that's what I was doing in order to manage my internal state because my external state was so chaotic.

[Narrator]

One night in 1992 when Katie was 14, she got into a violent argument with her father who had been drinking.

[Phil Elberg]

He had his hands around my throat and was like just choking me out. And I was like, do it, do it. Fucking kill me. Because now maybe somebody will believe me.

[Narrator]

That incident was a tipping point. Her father checked himself into a rehab and Katie spent the next year in and out of institutions which provided a short term fix for her eating disorder while her family searched for a long term solution to all of their problems. Then when Katie was 15, right as she was about to start her freshman year of high school, her mother informed her that she would not be attending Chatham High.

[Phil Elberg]

They said I was going to an art school that was a charter school for kids with like emotional problems. So I'm thinking this is going to be great. It's like the beginning of something better.

[Narrator]

That's what Katie's mom thought too. The kids program seemed like nothing short of a miracle. And Dr. Miller Newton, a miracle worker who climbed, claimed he would not only cure Katie's eating disorder, he would reshape her in the image that her mom wanted to see. But if she had been able to look beneath the surface, she might have seen that Miller Newton had no intention of ever letting Katie leave.

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[Marcus Chatfield]

Of Gone south, we've covered one story per season. We tried to figure out who killed Margaret Kuhn.

[Narrator]

She told me, I'm gonna kill you. I said, well, do it, bitch. Go ahead and do it.

[Marcus Chatfield]

We delved into the violent world of the Dixie Mafia.

[Dr. Miller Newton]

I'm an outlaw and I was a thief, but I'm far from being the.

[Narrator]

Psychotic nutcase that I've been made out to be.

[Marcus Chatfield]

And we tracked a serial killer in Laredo, Texas.

[Narrator]

Just turn around.

[Wendy]

Please turn around. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

[Phil Elberg]

Now, Gone south is back for a.

[Marcus Chatfield]

Fourth season, but this time we're doing.

[Narrator]

Things a little differently.

[Phil Elberg]

So in gone South Season 4, we'll.

[Marcus Chatfield]

Be bringing you new stories every week with no end in sight. I'm Jed Lipinski.

[Narrator]

Welcome back to Gone south, an Odyssey Original Podcast.

[Phil Elberg]

Listen and follow now on the free.

[Narrator]

Odyssey app or wherever you get your.

[Marcus Chatfield]

Podcasts for new episodes every week.

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[Phil Elberg]

I fell asleep in the car, so I didn't even see where we were going. I just woke up and I was at this building. It was a warehouse.

[Narrator]

On the morning of September 3, 1992, Katie got in the car with her mom, thinking she was on her way to start her freshman year at an alternative high school. But she started having doubts when they pulled into the fenced in parking lot of an industrial looking building somewhere in the meadowlands of Secaucus, New Jersey. She could see the tops of the New York City skyscrapers in the distance out past the New Jersey Turnpike. But aside from the warehouse, there was nothing else around, just the swamps of the Hackensack River.

[Phil Elberg]

It's like the area where they say, like, that's where Jimmy Hoffa's buried, right? So nothing is really back there. And it smells like really bad.

[Narrator]

Katie and her mom were parked in front of kids headquarters. It was Miller Newton's second location in New Jersey. The original was in nearby Bergen county. But Newton was forced to relocate following an investigation into a slew of familiar kidnapping, abuse, false imprisonment. The Bergen county prosecutor's office raided the facility and a dozen kids were escorted off the premises. Has law enforcement ever had to escort anybody out of your program?

[Dr. Miller Newton]

Nobody's had to escort anybody out of the program.

[Narrator]

Okay. Have they been escorted out of your.

[Dr. Miller Newton]

On a couple of occasions they have been.

[Narrator]

Newton's ability to keep conning parents was unbelievable because by the time Katie got to kids, he'd not only been forced to shut down the kids of Bergen county, but also the other three locations in Texas, Utah and California. They had folded in the wake of similar investigations. But he wasn't about to give up. In a last ditch effort, he reopened in a new location under a new name, the kids of North Jersey. Katie had a sinking feeling when she got out of the car and followed her mom across the parking lot and up the cement steps to the front door of the building.

[Phil Elberg]

I walk in, the door's like shut behind me, and I'm like, fuck, I'm in another institution.

[Narrator]

As soon as she saw the sterile office environment, she knew she had been taken to a rehab facility.

[Phil Elberg]

But it wasn't like other facilities because the other places I went to, nurses did the intake, but there was no medical staff there. It was a kid.

[Narrator]

An unusually pale teenage girl wearing outdated, odd fitting clothes ushered Katie into an intake room with other strange looking girls.

[Phil Elberg]

When I was talking to the girls during my intake, the door opened and a man walked into the room. He walks in the room and they stand up and they put their arms under my arms and they pull me to stand up. And they're scared of him and he starts yelling at me and accusing me of things that I didn't do. He was lying and he was so far off from any other professional that I had worked with. And right away I'm like, this guy is not here to help me.

[Narrator]

Katie didn't know that the man in the room was Dr. Miller Newton or that he was the person responsible for coming up with a treatment plan for her eating disorder. She was still operating on assumptions from her experience in conventional institutions.

[Phil Elberg]

I know how places that are regulated work. You go in and you meet with a psychiatrist and a psychologist and you have like a treatment team and you figure out what you're doing and you have your goals and you're getting a kid from step A to step baby. So I Thought if I just do exactly what they tell me to do, I will gain weight and I will just go home, because that's what my previous experiences had been like.

[Narrator]

But with every passing moment, Katie was confronted with the reality that kids was nothing like anything she had ever experienced before. And if she was ever going to get out of there, she would have to do it Miller Newton's way.

[Phil Elberg]

Having an eating disorder is a way to have these rules around food to help you feel safe. But he just gave me new rules.

[Narrator]

Newton prescribed a meal plan with no dietary or nutritional considerations. The only requirement was that she eat a certain amount of food every day. And to make sure she did, somebody had to watch her eat every meal.

[Phil Elberg]

They were always, like, checking that I wasn't trying to make myself throw up.

[Narrator]

Once during a wrap, Katie confessed to regurgitating her food undetected. After that, she was forced to keep her mouth open at all times, day and night.

[Phil Elberg]

I had to sleep in the bed with the old comer, face to face with my mouth open all night. If I closed my mouth, I would have somebody physically prying my mouth open. There was no actual eating disorder therapy. They weren't teaching me how to have a healthy relationship with food. There was nothing to help me with my body image. I didn't have anybody watching me. Medically, I didn't have any kind of doctor checking my growth. There was no treatment for healing from an eating disorder. It was just like, hold this person down, make sure that they don't vomit. It was completely unprofessional and medically unsound and dangerous.

[Narrator]

But newton's custom treatment plan was only a small part of her overall rehabilitation. She spent all day, every day in grueling rap sessions that rivaled the emotional and physical brutality of the worst days of straight. In St. Petersburg, where Miller Newton had honed his craft, Raps were the main component of Katie's therapy, Just like everyone else in the program, Whether they were there for drugs, delinquency, sex, or anything else that fell under Miller Newton's definition of compulsive behavior.

[Phil Elberg]

He's treating all these things like behavior problems, but it didn't do anything for my eating disorder, because if it was a behavior problem, I'm sure most people would have just stopped because you don't want to keep feeling bad. And we were feeling bad.

[Narrator]

After about a year on Miller Newton's treatment plan, Katie was actually losing weight.

[Phil Elberg]

And they accused me of doing it on purpose. I'm like, do you think I'm stupid? I want to Leave here.

[Narrator]

But Katie was starting to suspect that maybe the ineffectiveness of Miller Newton's treatment plan was the point. Because to Newton, Katie wasn't just a patient, she was a financial asset. Her parents had expensive private insurance that helped them pay for the various eating disorder facilities she had been in. But that money was a finite resource.

[Phil Elberg]

Once you gain weight, they're like, oh, yeah, this person's better. We're not gonna pay anymore.

[Narrator]

Miller Newton's operation was precarious. He was relying on regular payouts from patients like Katie. But he had to walk a fine line. On the one hand, if she gained weight, her insurance provider would say that her treatment was successful and she didn't need to be there anymore. On the other, if she didn't gain weight, they could say that the treatment was ineffective and terminate the coverage. So Newton needed to find a way to keep the money coming in, even if private health insurance cut him off. So in 1993, Miller Newton got his program approved for publicly funded Medicaid. Medicaid coverage is typically for low income families, which Katie's was not. But there are other ways to be eligible. One of them is disability. So Newton got patients like Katie qualified for disability. He did this by hiring a roster of medical professionals who were willing to be as unscrupulous as he was. They signed off on whatever claims that he needed to have validated. A lot of the time, Newton rubber stamped their signatures on the documents himself. So that's how Newton was able to get Katie qualified for Medicaid and keep her on Medicaid to keep the payments coming in. Miller Newton's scheme worked, and in the process, his clientele changed. There started to be fewer kids from wealthy families like Katie's because Medicaid had opened Newton's eyes to a whole new demographic.

[Phil Elberg]

That's when they were getting in these lower income families, like kids from Queens or Newark that were growing up in these rough neighborhoods with parents with real serious problems. These were kids with abandonment issues, transgenerational trauma. They were dealing with systemic oppression. And Dr. Newton was telling them they have a behavior problem. Like, what the fuck? No, this kid has trauma. These kids needed a social worker. They did need to get out of where they were living, but they didn't need to be put into a cult. So the whole demographic changed. And so his model shifted to this Medicaid scam where he's preying on these families from the projects. He's like, I'm not going to go after the individuals. I'm going to take the Money from the state. And the state will pay for years and years and years and years and years.

[Narrator]

Dr. Miller Newton was using Medicaid to turn the kids of North Jersey from a private rehab for rich families into a state sponsored prison for for vulnerable teenagers. By doing so, he could keep them there as long as he could pay for signatures on his fraudulent paperwork. But something even more disturbing was starting to happen at Kids. Miller Newton was turning his clients into followers and Katie was becoming one of them.

[Katie]

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[Narrator]

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[Katie]

Without any hidden fees like the device activation fees you get with those other prepaid providers.

[Narrator]

So you can use your free phone.

[Katie]

With US Cellular's nationwide 5G coverage to stay connected to the ones you love without having to make sacrifices.

[Narrator]

Terms apply.

[Katie]

Visit uscellular.com for details.

[Phil Elberg]

Stop.

[Narrator]

Stop. Stop. Had enough? Kick out Mucus and quiet the cough with Mucinex 12 hour DM for long lasting cough and chest congestion relief by Mucinex 12 hour DM at your local retailer. Uses directed.

[Phil Elberg]

I remember sitting in my chair and I realized that I had been there for like two years already.

[Narrator]

Katie had been sent to the kids of North Jersey for help with her eating disorder, which Miller Newton had diagnosed as a behavior problem. But he wasn't treating Katie. He was reprogramming her.

[Phil Elberg]

By that point, I was totally convinced that I had to be here, otherwise I was gonna die. This was my life. This is where I was gonna be forever. And then I would just become a staff member.

[Narrator]

The staff members at KIDS were graduates of the program, just like they were at straight. Some of them had even followed Miller Newton to kids from straight.

[Phil Elberg]

So these people had been there for like 15, 16 years. And then Newton married them. He would say, like you and you need to date and then get married. And then he'd perform the wedding so you never left.

[Narrator]

The more time Katie spent in Kids, the further the program drifted away from rehab and closer to Cult. And it didn't seem likely she would be getting out anytime soon.

[Wendy]

Happy birthday, dear Celeste.

[Narrator]

Recently, Celeste turned 20. Her parents, John and Judy, consider that a testimony to Miller Newton.

[Phil Elberg]

It's really special to me because I really never thought I'd get to celebrate this birthday with her.

[Narrator]

This is a satisfied program. Parent expressing her gratitude for Miller Newton during an interview from a CBS investigative profile. The only way to Understand how teenagers like Katie could end up in the program for so long is to remember that Newton had the parents just as indoctrinated as their children.

[Katie]

Me and my wife talked about it a few times.

[Marcus Chatfield]

If we ever hadn't completed this program.

[Katie]

It would have been a big void in our life.

[Narrator]

Desperate parents and the promise of salvation was a powerful combination in the hands of someone like Dr. Miller Newton. It had been a recipe for success ever since the early 1970s, when Art Barker was conning parents in south Florida into putting their kids in the seed. Miller Newton learned that formula firsthand and straight. He refined it and brought it with him to New Jersey when he founded kids. But in all of those cases, success was followed by controversy. Once people started to see the miracle of transformation for what it really was. You feel Dr. Newton betrayed you? Absolutely. The concern that I had was that her own identity, Identity had been removed.

[Katie]

That she was so dependent on this.

[Rosetta Stone Representative]

Program that there was no life outside.

[Narrator]

This support group, not even life with a family. In essence, you trade one compulsion for another.

[Katie]

The compulsion now is the program.

[Narrator]

By the mid-90s, the kids of North Jersey was tied up in investigations, fines, lawsuits, and so much bad press that it even penetrated the carefully guarded bubble that Katie's parents were living in. One day in 1995, when she came home from the program, her parents were waiting for her in the kitchen, along with a man she didn't recognize.

[Phil Elberg]

He was like a cult intervention specialist. They told me that they were taking me out. I was scared shitless. I thought I was gonna die. I said, why, are you trying to kill me?

[Narrator]

Katie's parents pulled her out of Kids in 1995. She was 18. She had spent more than three years in the program. She never went to high school. To this day, she struggles to process how much of her life she lost there and the notion that, in some twisted way, she was lucky it wasn't more. Because in the same year that Katie got out, a lawsuit was filed in a Newark, New Jersey, law office on behalf of a girl who had been in the program for nearly seven years.

[Katie]

The plaintiff in the case was a young woman named Rebecca Ehrlich.

[Narrator]

This is an attorney named Phil Elberg. In 1998, one of his colleagues asked him for advice about a case he was working on involving a teen rehab.

[Katie]

He was thinking about giving up the case. So I read about the file, and I was curious.

[Narrator]

Phil Elberg's curiosity turned to disbelief as he read about Rebecca Ehrlich and how she went to kids in 1987. At 14 years old, after her parents were manipulated by a charismatic con man with a bogus PhD who held her captive until she was 21 years old. What he read was heartbreaking, but it also struck a personal chord because his own sister had fallen under the control of an influential cult figure in New York city.

[Katie]

He was a guy named Fred Newman, and my sister was one of his first followers and stayed loyal to him until she died.

[Narrator]

So Elbert took over the case from his colleague, but he understood why he had wanted to drop it.

[Katie]

These cases are hard. People just assume that if you're in one of these programs, you, were sent for a reason. And by and large, there is a reason. And sometimes it's a good reason. If you didn't belong in a program like this, why did your parents put you there?

[Narrator]

Rebecca Ehrlich came to kids with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, which Newton decided was a compulsive behavior problem. When she got out, she was properly diagnosed. Only now she also suffered from severe ptsd. The challenge for Elberg was to prove that Rebecca's time in kids made her preexisting condition more difficult to treat. But to do that, Phil Elberg was the right guy for the job because he was a malpractice attorney. And that's exactly what he saw when he looked at Rebecca's file.

[Katie]

They had represented themselves to be experts in this field of treatment. And if you're an expert in the field of treatment, it begins with a diagnosis, and then you provide treatment that's consistent with the standard of care for that diagnosis. They didn't do either one.

[Narrator]

Elberg dug into the case and searched for weaknesses that he could exploit. Then he found what he was looking for. The medical professionals that Miller Newton kept on his payroll to sign off on his fraudulent diagnoses.

[Katie]

Newton had found psychiatrists who could be fairly described as the bottom of the barrel, who, in effect, they had rented him their license. And the good news for me was that those psychiatrists had insurance and they had totally indefensible positions. And so I knew they were going to have to pay significant money to settle the case.

[Narrator]

Rebecca Ehrlich's case never made it to trial. In December of 1999, a settlement was reached worth $4.5 million, the largest ever in a tough love case. After that, Phil Elberg's phone started ringing off the with calls from survivors.

[Katie]

They were happy the case was done, but they thought that Rebecca's case wasn't the worst case. And I remember asking them all, what's the Worst story, you know. And they all said the same thing. Lulu.

[Narrator]

Lulu Corter was enrolled in Kids in 1984. As a 13 year old, she had been a victim of sexual abuse throughout her childhood. One of her abusers was her older brother who was in Kids. Miller Newton told Lulu's mom to keep an eye on her for signs of druggy behavior. When Lulu came home from the mall with a Madonna inspired outfit, black pleather pants and a matching vest with plans to bleach her hair blonde, Newton told Lulu's mom that she had another druggie on her hands. So she put Lulu and Kids alongside her abuser brother. She was forced to face him in wraps, then forced to accept responsibility for what he had done to her. She was diagnosed with a sexual compulsion, and for that she spent the next 13 years of her life under the control of Miller Newton. She finally got out in 1997 when she was 26. Over the next few years, she was in and out of the hospital for her severe PTSD. Then in the spring of 2000, Lulu Corner walked into Phil Elberg's office and told him her story.

[Katie]

And I said, I don't know what will make this right for you, but if you want a lawyer, I'll be your lawyer. Sir, my name is Philip Elberg. I represent Lulu Quarter in a case that's pending in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Hudson County.

[Narrator]

This is a recording of Phil elberg's deposition of Dr. Miller Newton in the Lulu Quarter trial.

[Katie]

You've had your deposition taken before, have you not?

[Dr. Miller Newton]

Yes, I have.

[Katie]

Just let me review the instructions I know you received before and frankly that I've provided to you before. If I ask you any question that you don't understand, please let me know. I had deposed Milanewton during the Rebecca Ehrlich case. So I had gotten to know him. And what I realized was this is a guy who took himself incredibly seriously and tries to come across like an expert, but he has no understanding of the medicine. He just speaks with enormous confidence and doesn't know what he's talking about. Your degree was in urban anthropology, wasn't it, sir?

[Dr. Miller Newton]

That's correct.

[Katie]

It was not in medical anthropology, was it?

[Dr. Miller Newton]

It actually was in medical anthropology, but it was not listed as a separate field at that time. It was a sub.

[Katie]

He was just a consummate liar and a fraud. Everything that he said was nonsense, absolute bullshit, said with sincerity. But when he said it, if you didn't know him, it was very effective. What I want to find out is what the basis was upon which you felt comfortable using the word medical to describe your background?

[Dr. Miller Newton]

My training was in anthrax work in the medical field, including epidemiology, including interest in behavioral and cultural implicates.

[Narrator]

When Phil Elberg first became aware of what was happening to people like Lulu Quarter inside of programs like the Kids of North Jersey, he found it just as unbelievable and inexplicable as anyone else who hears about these things. For the first time, he wondered how Lulu's mom could have in the program to begin with and then left her there for half of her life. But the longer he sat in front of Miller Newton in those depositions, the more he started to realize that the answer to how was staring him in the face.

[Dr. Miller Newton]

Mr. Elberg, it's somewhat more complicated than that. The guidelines in writing in the clinical manual which I believe you've been provided a copy of.

[Katie]

Milan Newton was a cult like leader with an ability to con people. And he so totally dominated the lives of the people that came under his influence. But the revelation, for me, it was like a light bulb, was when I realized that in the case of straight and kids, the people that were in the cult were the parents. The kids were in prison, or whatever you want to call it. It was the parents that were in the cult. It was the parents who were offered a simple answer and bought it with terrible consequences.

[Narrator]

When Lulu Quarter vs Kids went to trial in June of 2003, Phil Elberg set out to show the jury who Dr. Miller Newton really was. But he decided he wasn't going to use the word cult because the facts of the case were all that he needed to make any jury understand that what Miller Newton had done to Lulu was the most egregious case of medical malpractice that he had ever seen.

[Katie]

I was just going to tell the story. What was Lulu's condition? What was her life like? What was going on for her? Who was she actually at the point she was admitted to kids? What kind of treatment, if any, did she need? And it turned out Lulu was just a little girl who had never used drugs, who had been the victim of abuse, whose mother was smitten by a man named Millanuton.

[Dr. Miller Newton]

You don't get to a place like the Kids program unless you've caused a whole lot of problems very visibly with your family and other people before you arrive.

[Katie]

But of course, in the case of Lulu Korda, you have no idea what those problems are.

[Dr. Miller Newton]

Doesn't mean they weren't there.

[Katie]

And then having established that she was misdiagnosed, they Said, well, what was the treatment they did for her? Not letting kids go to school, not letting them walk free on the streets, not letting them read, not letting them write, not letting them eat what they wanted to eat, not letting them participate in the culture, not letting them live with their family. And I could go on and on. It was not consistent with the standard of care for any condition Lulu could have conceivably had. And I had enough witnesses so that I could tell the story of 13 years of abuse by Miller Newton. By the time he got on the witness stand, I really believed the jury hated him. Is there anything that you can tell us about the treatment of Lulu Quarter that's not in the records that we have received?

[Dr. Miller Newton]

I don't know. I have a few direct memories associated with Lulu Corder's treatment. I know that. Well, that's the answer to the question.

[Narrator]

Corder versus Kids was a civil trial. The statute of limitations for any kind of criminal consequence for Miller Newton had long passed. The only way that Phil Elberg could make Newton pay was in the literal sense. Just like he had done with Rebecca ehrlich's record breaking $4.5 million settlement. It had bankrupted Newton. He had already shut down the last kids facility and retreated back to Florida. Any money awarded to Lulu would come from the insurance companies who Newton had co opted into sponsoring her torture. But Elberg had already managed to get retribution against Miller Newton in a way that mattered to him more than money. He'd gone after his ego. The trial had been a public indictment against his credibility. He had been exposed as not only a cult leader, but a fraud that was made abundantly clear to anyone in the courtroom. And soon it would be well known to the general public because the jury came to a historic decision. They awarded Lulu Quarter a a new record setting $6.5 million in damages. Kids was already out of business, but Phil Elberg had helped to make sure that Miller Newton would never again be able to destroy the lives of teenagers in the name of therapy.

[Katie]

If I have a regret, it's that he wasn't punished more. It's that he didn't go to prison.

[Tammy]

How he's not in jail, I don't know. How nobody's killed him is surprising to me.

[Narrator]

This is Tammy. She was at straight in Sarasota and St. Petersburg under Miller Newton. Here she's speaking on behalf of the thousands of people who never received any compensation or any apology or even an acknowledgement for the lifelong trauma they experienced at the hands of Miller Newton.

[Tammy]

I mean, you're not even allowed to treat people in prison that way. And he absolutely ordered torture on children. And torture never leaves you. And this is what you walk around with for 30 or 40 years. So I'm terrified of being kidnapped to this day. I'm almost 60 years old. I'm a grandma. I walk around with a pistol in my pocket wherever I go, and I'm not even close to Florida, where Miller Newton is.

[Narrator]

After the Lulu trial, Miller Newton reinvented himself again. He no longer goes by doctor. These days, he calls himself Father. He's an ordained priest with a 501c3 nonprofit organization called Christian at the Sea, where he offers religious services and retreats at his church, which is in Pinellas county, just off the coast of Saint Petersburg in Madeira Beach, Florida.

[Tammy]

I don't know if you've seen the compound in Madeira Beach. I have. It's walled off. It certainly would be easy to conceal somebody being held captive there.

[Dr. Miller Newton]

This is the Newton residence. We're unable to answer our phone right now. Please leave your message and we'll return the call as soon as possible.

[Tammy]

Every now and then, I call him and remind him we're not kids anymore and we know where he lives and what we can do to him if we want to.

[Narrator]

Next time on the final episode of the Sunshine Place.

[Tammy]

I don't want to get myself in trouble, but I ended up back in Florida, and I knew about this compound that he's got. I had a friend drive me by this compound just to see.

[Narrator]

Decades after, Straight survivors still have unresolved questions, and some of us go looking for answers on Miller Newton's doorstep. He finally asked me, what are you doing here? What'd you come here for? The Internet revolution brings us all together. I said, the people that you're trying.

[Phil Elberg]

To reach, they're all on aol.

[Narrator]

But all that connection leads to frightening revelations.

[Phil Elberg]

It's not your imagination. You're not paranoid. These really are the people behind the drug war.

[Narrator]

For most survivors on a quest for answers, all roads lead home. My mom and I have never talked.

[Phil Elberg]

About the abuses of straight.

[Narrator]

The way that I was going to punish my mom is she would never.

[Phil Elberg]

Know it happened to me. In Straight.

[Narrator]

The Sunshine Place is an Odyssey original podcast. It's written, directed and produced by Perry Crowell. Our writer producer is Margot Gray. Our story editors are Maddie Sprung Keyser and Lloyd Lockridge. Executive produced by Robert Downey Jr. Susan Downey and Emily Barclay Ford from Team Downey, Jenna Weiss Berman and Maddie Sprung Kaiser from Odyssey and Josh McLaughlin. Edited by Perry Crowell, Mixing and mastering by Bill Schultz, production support from Sean Cherry and Paul Andrejack and narrated by me, Cindy Ettler. Special thanks to J.D. crowley, Leah Rees, Dennis, Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney and Hilary Schuff. If you want to hear more of the Sunshine Place, please take a moment to rate and review the show. It really helps.

[Rosetta Stone Representative]

You might think financial crime is all about money, but sometimes it ends in murder. I'm Nicole Lapin, host of Money Crimes.

[Narrator]

A Crime House original PON podcast.

[Greenlight Representative]

Each episode features a thrilling story about.

[Rosetta Stone Representative]

The dark side of finance and how to protect yourself from it. Follow and listen to Money Crimes and Odyssey Podcast in partnership with Crime House Studios. Available on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts.