Feds say California teen was handcuffed, driven to Agape Boarding School in Missouri

A former dean of Agape Boarding School has been indicted on charges his transport company took a minor against his will in handcuffs from California to the southwest Missouri school.

Authorities arrested Julio Sandoval on Wednesday, according to federal court documents.

The indictment was unsealed Tuesday and details charges against Sandoval and Shana Gaviola, the mother of the boy who was taken to Agape last summer. Sandoval, 41, and Gaviola, 35, are charged with violating a protective order that was “issued at the request of Gaviola’s son in July 2021,” a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California said.

“The order prohibited Gaviola from harassing, striking, threatening, assaulting, hitting, following, stalking, molesting, disturbing the peace, keeping under surveillance, and blocking the movements of her son,” the release said, “and contacting him in any way, including directly or indirectly, and from denying his use and possession of his phone.”

The court documents say that Gaviola’s son started living apart from her in 2020. He requested emancipation from Gaviola and obtained a domestic violence protection order against her from the Fresno County Superior Court.

“The restraining order advised defendant Gaviola that she could be charged with a federal crime if she made the protected person travel out of state with the intention of disobeying the order,” the indictment said.

Despite the restraining order, Gaviola learned where her son would be on Aug. 21, 2021, and relayed the information to the transport company, according to the indictment. She also “supplied the members of the Transport Agency with a falsified court document for the purpose of coercing (the boy) to travel to Missouri and to convince members of the Transport Agency that they were authorized to physically secure and transport (the boy) to the Boarding School in Missouri.”

That morning, two employees with Sandoval’s transport company — Safe, Sound, Secure Youth Ministries — located the teen, authorities said.

“On Aug. 21, 2021, individuals acting on behalf of Gaviola and Sandoval found the minor at a business in Fresno, handcuffed him, and forced him into a car,” the release said. “He remained in handcuffs for over 24 hours while they drove to Stockton, Missouri. He was then held at the boarding school until his father was able to free him.”

Court records show that law enforcement officers called Sandoval while his employees were driving the boy to Missouri. The officers notified Sandoval and the two transporting the teen that the boy had an “active restraining order” against Gaviola, his mother.

“Nevertheless, defendants Sandoval and Gaviola continued to cause and direct the members of the Transport Agency to drive (the boy) from California to Missouri,” the indictment said. “... After approximately eight days of detention, the Boarding School released (the boy) to the custody of (the boy’s) father.”

The felony charges against Sandoval and Gaviola carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The Star has written extensively about Sandoval, who began working at Agape in 2010 and then rose through the ranks to become dean of students. He also worked at times for the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office inside the jail. His son has also worked at the jail.

Sandoval left Agape last fall in the weeks after five staff members were charged with abusing students. He became an officer at Lighthouse Christian Academy in Piedmont, a town of about 1,900 in the remote Ozark foothills of southeast Missouri.

Operated by ABM Ministries, Lighthouse is one of more than a dozen unlicensed boarding schools in Missouri, where such facilities have come under intense scrutiny after abuse allegations at Cedar County’s Circle of Hope Girls Ranch were revealed in 2020 and an investigation by The Star found that problems at unlicensed religious schools existed across the state.

Records obtained by The Star show that Lighthouse is one of at least two that have yet to fully comply with a new state law requiring unlicensed boarding schools to register with the Missouri Department of Social Services. Schools were required to notify the state of their existence by Oct. 14, 2021, submit to health and safety inspections and conduct background checks on all employees.

The Star spoke to Sandoval earlier this month regarding a lawsuit filed by a former student from Arizona who said Sandoval was one of the school’s employees who abused him.

In that suit, filed July 5 in Cedar County Circuit Court, the plaintiff — referred to as T.D. of Arizona — accused Sandoval of repeated emotional and physical abuse. In some instances, the lawsuit alleged, Sandoval would use T.D. to “demonstrate” wrestling moves by putting him in a headlock position, choking him and throwing him against walls.

“During one of many incidents, Julio Sandoval pushed Plaintiff’s head against the wall and ordered him to do push-ups as punishment,” the lawsuit alleged.

The suit also said that “many times, in the workout room, Julio Sandoval would aggressively push students, including Plaintiff, and continually intimidate students to fight him until students agreed. In those instances, Plaintiff was repeatedly punched and hit until he was on the ground.”

When contacted by The Star, Sandoval declined to discuss the lawsuit.

“No, ma’am, I wasn’t aware of that one, and I don’t have a comment,” he said. “Thank you. I do appreciate your time, though.”

No one answered a call to Lighthouse on Wednesday. Instead, the call went to voicemail and a recording of Sandoval saying, “Thank you for reaching out, this is Julio. I can’t get to the phone right now. ... God bless you and enjoy the balance of your day.”

Agape has used Sandoval’s transport company and others to pick up kids — sometimes in the middle of the night — and deliver them to the Stockton school.

Sandoval incorporated his transport company in June 2020 as a nonprofit with a Stockton address, state corporation documents show. And on Jan. 12, he registered it with a slightly different name — Safe Sound Secure Transport Agency — using the address of Lighthouse Christian Academy on the paperwork.