The Sins of Refuge: Inside the Central Indiana Teen Challenge Lawsuit Part 2
- Johnette Cruz
- 11 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Behind The Filter Podcast
Welcome back to Behind The Filter Podcast. This is Part 2 of our deep dive into one of the most jarring legal battles currently unfolding in Indiana.
An expanded federal lawsuit filed by the Indianapolis-based law firm Cohen Malad, LLP has pulled back the curtain on Central Indiana Teen Challenge (CITC)—which now operates under the rebranded name Refuge Girls Academy in Lebanon, Indiana. What was once advertised as a safe, faith-based residential haven for struggling youth is now facing allegations of abuse, human trafficking, and forced labor.
While the initial complaint focused on nine primary plaintiffs, the litigation has expanded to detail the firsthand experiences of 35 women who were sent to the facility as minors.
Here is what our exclusive interview with Andi Simmons from Cohen Malad, LLP revealed about the dark framework of institutional control inside CITC.
How the Case Blew Open
The momentum behind this lawsuit started far outside Indiana’s borders. The Justice Law Collective, a Boston-based firm specializing in sex trafficking and forced labor cases, initially took on four young survivors from Indiana. Recognizing the need for a powerhouse local firm equipped to handle severe institutional abuse, they partnered with Cohen Malad, LLP.
As Simmons explained, investigating these cases requires immense patience. The legal team interviewed every single one of the 35 plaintiffs for hours. Because many of these women entered the facility at incredibly young ages (some as young as 13), many had suppressed their trauma or genuinely believed their treatment was "normal" until reaching adulthood.
Despite local police being called to the Lebanon facility hundreds of times—averaging close to once a week—and the Department of Child Services (DCS) being notified repeatedly, no criminal charges were ever filed. This left a civil lawsuit as the survivors' primary avenue for justice.
The Four Levels of Exploitation: Unmasking the Forced Labor
At the heart of the federal lawsuit is the allegation of forced labor. While CITC pitched itself as an educational and spiritual academy, survivors paint a picture of an unpaid workforce operating under extreme duress. The litigation breaks down the facility's labor framework into four distinct levels:
Labor Level | Type of Work Dictated | Legal & Ethical Reality |
Level 1: House Chores | Cooking, deep cleaning, and entire property maintenance. | The facility hired no cooks or maintenance staff; the minors did 100% of the operational work. |
Level 2: Punitive Labor | Scrubbing staircases with a toothbrush or cutting the facility's lawn with scissors on hands and knees. | Used strictly as psychological and physical punishment for perceived bad conduct. |
Level 3: "Volunteer" Work | Working for the directors' families, friends, and local churches. | Unpaid labor framed as community service or part of the facility’s "ministry." |
Level 4: Commercial Labor | Long, grueling days working for third-party florists and moving operations for major universities. | The Federal Violation: External entities paid CITC for the labor, but the girls never saw a dime. They worked 12-to-16-hour days hauling heavy furniture, forbidden from speaking to outsiders. |
Abuse Under the Guise of Faith
The "rehabilitation" tactics utilized at CITC went far beyond hard labor. The lawsuit alleges an environment specifically structured to break down teenage girls emotionally, mentally, and physically:
Medical Neglect & Cold-Turkey Withdrawal: In perhaps one of the most dangerous allegations, Simmons noted that multiple girls arriving at the facility on prescribed psychiatric medications—including anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety meds—were taken off their prescriptions "cold turkey" without consulting a physician or psychiatrist.
Extreme Isolation: Girls were subjected to solitary confinement. One survivor interviewed by the legal team was kept in an isolation box for an entire month with absolutely nothing to do.
Control Tactics: Staff heavily utilized "talking fasts" (prohibiting girls from speaking), food deprivation, and emotional manipulation.
Stolen Education: Despite promising a high school education, academics were an afterthought. The facility lacked certified teachers, and girls were routinely pulled from online modules to do hard labor. One plaintiff spent two years at the facility and left without advancing past the 10th grade.
The Marketing Manipulation: Staged Realities
How did an institution like this stay funded and trusted by parents? Through carefully orchestrated PR.
"The websites and promotional materials look incredibly slick, showing happy girls participating in fun activities," Simmons revealed. "But survivors told us those activities were entirely staged for photoshoots. The second the camera turned off, they went right back to misery."
Furthermore, the facility used the girls as fundraising props. Parents were forced to sign away their daughters' privacy rights, allowing CITC to parade the girls at local churches. The minors were required to give public "testimonials," often being forced by staff to embellish and dramatize their past mistakes to make the facility’s "rescue story" sound more miraculous to donors.
The Road Ahead
Central Indiana Teen Challenge is not an isolated anomaly; it operates under a broader national umbrella known as Teen Challenge Global, which oversees roughly 200 facilities across the United States. By scaling this lawsuit to 35 plaintiffs, Cohen Malad, LLP is looking to hold the systemic architecture of this entire operation accountable
Watch or listen to the full episode below!
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~J
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