Assault allegation shocks academy

The superintendent of Anchor Academy said the organization's staffers have been devastated by an allegation that an employee there sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy.

"We've washed our hands of it and are trying to put it behind us. I'm just trying to stay focused on what we're doing here. It was upsetting to me, and upsetting to all of our staff," academy superintendent Dennis McElwrath said Thursday.

Justin Davis "J.D." Peterson, 22, of Miles City was charged Wednesday in state District Court with sexual assault. He is accused of fondling a 15-year-old boy who attended Anchor Academy.

The academy is a school for trouble boys operated by the Hi-Line Baptist Church and Ministries at the old U.S. Air Force base north of Havre.

McElwrath said the safety of Anchor Academy students is the organization's No. 1 priority.

"We have policies in place to protect our students here, and I work very hard to ensure that those policies are followed. Our recourse was an immediate termination and then to turn (Peterson) in," he said.

The Anchor Academy performs criminal background checks on all its employees, McElwrath said.

"We run background checks, we run reference checks. You can run all the background checks you want, but people can still make mistakes . In any business things like this can happen, and our only recourse was to terminate him and file a report," he said.

According to the charging document, on May 17 Peterson fondled the boy while the two were talking on Peterson's bed, which was behind a partition in the dormitory building on the Anchor Academy campus.

The alleged victim told McElwrath about the incident the next day, the document said.

"(Peterson) was discharged immediately. We actually turned J.D. in to the sheriff ourselves," McElwrath said.

McElwrath reported the alleged assault to Hill County sheriff's deputies on May 20, said deputy Ric Munfrada, who investigated the incident. Munfrada is now the administrator of the Hill County Detention Center.

Munfrada said Thursday he does not believe any other boys were assaulted.

The Anchor Academy conducted an internal investigation, McElwrath said, adding that he believes "this was a one-time incident."

Peterson had been employed at the Anchor Academy for a little over two years, McElwrath said.

"He had various capacities. He worked in the kitchen and music. He did food preparation and also worked some as a dorm supervisor," he said.

On June 16, Peterson was arrested, booked on a charge of sexual assault, and released following an interview with Munfrada.

No bond was set in the case because Peterson had voluntarily enrolled in a treatment center shortly after the alleged May 17 assault, Munfrada said.