Tag Archives: Missouri Attorney General

Cedar County's Circle of Hope Girls Ranch abuse allegations

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VERNON COUNTY, Mo. (KOLR) — Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is announcing an update on abuse allegations at the Circle of Hope Girls Ranch in Humansville, Missouri.

Boyd and Stephanie Householder, the owners of Circle of Hope, have been arrested and are being held in Vernon County.

The Attorney General’s office confirmed to OzarksFirst, that both Householders have been charged with 102 felonies between them.

Attorney General Schmitt will give more details into the abuse allegations and charges on Wednesday, March 10, at a press conference that will live streamed on Facebook at 12:00 p.m.

The Circle of Hope facility, just a few miles off of Highway 13 on N Highway, came into the light back in August of 2020 when 24 girls were removed from the reformatory boarding school after several allegations of abuse came forward.

In November 2020, Schmitt took on the case after the Cedar County Republican newspaper showed several allegations it had collected over the course of a few months.

Attorney for Circle of Hope victims happy to see AG on the case 

Four girls filed petitions against Circle of Hope and gave details of their abuse brought on by the Householders and their son.

Top 10 consumer complains of 2020

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SOUTHWEST MISSOURI — It’s everything from retail scams to phony charities. And it adds up to 116,000 consumer complaints in Missouri last year.

Gary Stubblefield, Carl Junction, said, “I think the age old rule is if it sounds too good to be true – it probably isn’t true.”

Gary Stubblefield of Carl Junction knows when money is on the line to check up on the details ahead of time.

“I personally received an email wanting bitcoin.”

The Missouri Attorney General’s office gets tens of thousands of complaints a year – problems ranging from timeshare resale issues to pandemic price gouging. Worries over the coronavirus could put some residents at risk, according to Charlotte Foust with the Area Agency on Aging.

Charlotte Foust, Area Agency on Aging, said, “When the pandemic started last spring there were a lot of pandemic related scams – people trying to get into someone’s home, to, under the guise of offering in home services due to the pandemic.”

Health related claims come in number 10 on the top complaints of 2020. Issues with travel and timeshares are next, followed by real estate & construction complaints – like worthless home warranties, communications, technology, and online services, and price gouging.

https://ago.mo.gov/civil-division/consumer/top-10-user-complaints

The top five includes automotive complaints, retail and wholesale, like defective products, financial issues, and problems with solicitations, publications and subscriptions, including false promises of covid cures. But the biggest numbers by far to the Missouri Attorney General’s Office at illegal telemarketing and violations of the No Call List – more than 34,000.