Yesterday evening, KARK’s Samantha Boyd reported on allegations against Alonza Jiles, a member of the Arkansas Board of Corrections, contained in a series of recent lawsuits filed against a now-defunct youth behavioral health facility in northeast Arkansas called the Lord’s Ranch.
Dozens of anonymous plaintiffs sent to the Lord’s Ranch as teenagers in the ’80s, ’90s and ’00s have alleged they were sexually abused while administrators looked the other way — and beat, threatened or otherwise retaliated against kids for seeking help.
Jiles, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuits, was one of those administrators for many years. The plaintiffs do not claim Jiles himself sexually abused kids, but they say he covered up the crimes of others, including a senior staffer named Emmett Alden Presley who allegedly orally raped dozens of boys over the years.
“Alonza Jiles never once lifted a finger to help the children or prevent their sexual abuse,” the complaints say.
State Sen. Ben Gilmore (R-Crossett) spoke to KARK for the story, and said Jiles should step down. At least two other Republican lawmakers have said the same on Twitter, including Rep. Aaron Pilkington (R-Knoxville).
The heinous allegations against Mr. Jiles for his despicable cover-up of child sexual abuse allegations are utterly revolting. Enough is enough. He must step down immediately! #arpx #arleg https://t.co/vgwtjgAHcl
— Rep. Aaron Pilkington (@pilkingtonforar) February 22, 2024
The KARK report is right to call out Jiles, but it’s missing important context. It says Jiles was “the director” of the Lord’s Ranch, which isn’t quite right: The person in charge was Ted Suhl, who served as executive director until the facility shut down in 2016 amid allegations Suhl had bribed a state Medicaid official. Suhl was convicted by a federal jury that year, then set free in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump, due to the lobbying of former Gov. Mike Huckabee. When Huckabee was governor, Suhl’s business thrived; Huckabee even appointed him to sit on a state review board with oversight of youth facilities such as the Lord’s Ranch.
And it was Huckabee who appointed Alonza Jiles to a seat on the Board of Corrections. The KARK report says “Jiles was appointed by former governor Asa Hutchinson in 2022,” but this is actually his second time serving on the corrections board. Jiles was first appointed by Huckabee in March 2006 to fill the remainder of a member’s term and remained in that seat until the end of 2010, according to a Department of Corrections spokesperson.
The fact that Jiles is a defendant in the recent Lord’s Ranch lawsuits isn’t actually news. The Arkansas Times reported that back in November, when the first complaint was filed against Suhl, the Lord’s Ranch, Presley, Jiles and others. So why is it getting attention now, including from Republican legislators calling for Jiles to step down?
The likeliest possibility is that the Board of Correction is newly at the center of a political dispute with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Attorney General Tim Griffin. Since November, the corrections board has been locked in a standoff with the governor about her plans to add temporary beds to desperately understaffed state prisons. That’s developed into a larger fight over who has final control over the Department of Corrections — the board or the governor.
Jiles hasn’t said much publicly throughout the fracas, but he’s tended to vote in a way that aligns with board chair Benny Magness and the others opposed to Sanders’ attempted power grab.
Sanders can’t just fire board members, who typically serve seven-year terms. But she can appoint new ones when seats open up. She got to make one new appointment at the start of the year, replacing a board member critical of her with one who will presumably be more accommodating. She managed to fill another seat through appointing a new chair of the state parole board, who automatically gets a seat on the corrections board as well. (Sanders’ initial pick was forced to resign within a week after it emerged he’d had sex with a 17-year-old girl and lied about it; his replacement is a less controversial choice.) If Jiles were to resign, that could give the governor the chance to fill his seat with another friendly appointment on the seven-member board.
But the allegations against Jiles also have implications for Mike Huckabee, Sanders’ father. If what the lawsuits allege about Jiles is true, then what they allege about Ted Suhl are presumably true as well. If Jiles — who is described as an “underling” of the Suhl family in the lawsuits — knew about and covered up dozens of cases of sexual abuse and rape of minors, as the lawsuits claim, it would follow that Ted Suhl did as well.
That would be uncomfortable for Mike Huckabee, with his decades-long association with Suhl and his successful efforts to get Suhl released from federal prison after serving half his term. (Ironic, considering Sanders’ current efforts to lock up more Arkansas prisoners for longer and her complaints about the Board of Corrections’ “catch and release” policies allowing too many people out on parole.) It would also not look particularly good for Trump, who made the decision to commute Suhl’s sentence.
So, do the Republican lawmakers calling for Jiles to resign believe the allegations against Ted Suhl have merit? Neither Sen. Gilmore nor Rep. Pilkington responded to questions. A spokesperson for the governor did not respond to requests for comment about whether Sanders believes Jiles should resign.
Griffin, the attorney general, said he agreed with Gilmore. “Alonza Jiles should resign immediately,” he said through a spokesman. When asked whether it would be fair to assume that means the attorney general believes the claims raised in the Lord’s Ranch lawsuit have merit, Griffin did not respond.
For further details about the allegations against the Lord’s Ranch, read our coverage here. They include a number of allegations against Jiles specifically.
One mentions the alleged rape of a girl “approximately 14-15 years old” in the mid-to-late ’80s by a social worker on staff. The staffer then told the victim that he had fallen in love with her and planned to marry her as soon as she turned 16 — a plan supposedly endorsed by the Suhl family.
“Jane Doe 1 was eventually forced to marry Staff Member W at the Lord’s Ranch chapel, without her parents’ knowledge, consent, or presence,” the complaint says. “The wedding was officiated by one of the Lord’s Ranch’s Deputy Administrators, Alonza Jiles. Jane Doe 1 ultimately escaped Lord’s Ranch and obtained a divorce; however, she still suffers from the resulting serious psychological injuries and trauma.”
