Lord’s Ranch Lawsuit: Sexual Abuse Claims and Limitations Fight

The Lord’s Ranch lawsuit is a group of federal civil cases filed in Arkansas in late 2023 and early 2024 by more than 50 former residents of a now-closed Christian residential treatment facility in Warm Springs, alleging decades of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse. The suits name the facility’s owners, its former director of social services, and more than a dozen affiliated companies. Whether most of the cases can go forward now depends on a pending Arkansas Supreme Court decision about a 2021 state law that revived expired child sexual abuse claims.

Who Filed the Lawsuits

The first complaint, Does v. Presley, was filed on November 6, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas (Case No. 3:23-cv-230-DPM), assigned to Judge D.P. Marshall Jr., on behalf of eight former residents.¹ A second suit with eight more plaintiffs followed on January 9, 2024, and three more on January 26, 2024. By early February 2024, five separate suits involving 52 plaintiffs were pending in Little Rock.²

The plaintiffs are represented by the Gillispie Law Firm in North Little Rock, Romanucci & Blandin in Chicago, and Gould, Grieco & Hensley. Attorney Martin Gould said in December 2023 that the firms represented more than 45 former residents and expected additional filings. Children had been sent to the facility from Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Alaska, and Texas, including through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the Chicago Board of Education, and Chicago’s Audy Home juvenile detention center.³

Who Is Being Sued

The individual defendants are:

Emmett A. Presley, the facility’s director of social services and a licensed counselor for more than 20 years, identified in the complaints as the primary alleged perpetrator of sexual abuse against boys.
Ted E. Suhl, owner and executive director, accused of knowing about the abuse and letting it continue to protect the facility’s revenue.
Shirley Suhl, co-founder and senior administrative director, accused of condoning the abuse and helping silence victims.
Bud Suhl, co-founder and former executive director, accused of knowing about systemic abuse.
Alonza Jiles, deputy administrator, accused of knowing about Presley’s conduct and participating in intimidation of residents who reported abuse.

The corporate defendants include more than a dozen entities sharing the same principal business address in Warm Springs, among them Maxus Inc., The Lord’s Ranch Christian Boy’s Home Inc., Good Samaritan Rehabilitation Center, and Trinity Behavioral Health Care System, along with several property and investment entities. Ten unidentified John Doe defendants, described as former staff or agents, are also named.⁴

Both Emmett Presley and Ted Suhl have denied the allegations. Presley has called them false, and Suhl has called them meritless. No criminal charges have been filed against Presley over the alleged abuse.³⁵

What the Plaintiffs Allege

The complaints describe abuse spanning nearly the facility’s entire history, from the 1980s through its closure in 2016. The central allegation is that Presley used his role as director of social services, including his access to residents’ medical files, to isolate and sexually abuse boys during counseling sessions, walks on the property, and car rides. The complaints describe repeated incidents of genital fondling and oral rape.⁶

Physical abuse allegations are also extensive. Multiple plaintiffs described regular beatings by staff, including individuals identified as Philander Kirk and Gary Jackson. One plaintiff alleged that excessive force tore ligaments in his arm. The complaints describe the use of isolation closets and straitjackets, and a face-down restraint method in which guards pulled residents’ arms behind their backs, restricting breathing.³⁶

The plaintiffs allege that leadership knew about the abuse and suppressed reports. Residents who tried to report were mocked, punished, or forced to recant, and calls to parents were monitored. One plaintiff said he lived “in a state of constant fear.” According to one filing, Presley’s habit of giving snacks to residents after abusing them was “common knowledge” among staff, who did not intervene.⁷⁶

Legal Claims and Damages Sought

The complaints include counts of negligent supervision and retention, sexual battery, negligence, vicarious liability, the tort of outrage, civil action by a crime victim, Title IX violations, and claims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. The trafficking counts rest on the allegation that staff knowingly transported children from other states to a facility where they would be abused.⁵ The plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages. Attorney Martin Gould said the goal was to “send a message” and “serve as a deterrent to any other owners or operators of facilities.”⁷ The plaintiffs later voluntarily dismissed the federal claims, leaving only state-law claims before the court.⁸

The Statute of Limitations Fight Deciding the Case

The cases became possible because of Arkansas’s Justice for Vulnerable Victims of Sexual Abuse Act, passed in 2021 as Act 1036. The law eliminated the civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims going forward, allowed survivors to sue until age 55, and opened a temporary revival window for claims that had already expired. A 2023 amendment removed the age cap and extended the revival deadline to February 2026.⁹

Whether the revival window is constitutional is now the case’s central question. In a separate matter, H.C. v. Nesmith, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox granted summary judgment for the defense, and on February 5, 2025, the Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the legislature was “powerless” to revive expired claims because an expired limitations period creates a “vested right” under Arkansas Supreme Court precedent.¹⁰

The ruling hit the Lord’s Ranch cases quickly. On March 17, 2025, Judge Marshall relied on the Nesmith appeals decision to find that the revival provision violated the Arkansas Constitution. He granted summary judgment against one plaintiff whose claims were untimely, denied it as to another whose claims were not time-barred even under the old rules, and gave the remaining plaintiffs leave to file a consolidated amended complaint arguing that their claims survive under Arkansas’s delayed-discovery tolling statute.⁸

In May 2025, the Arkansas Supreme Court agreed to review Nesmith, which vacated the Court of Appeals ruling and put the constitutional question before the higher court fresh. Three justices dissented from the decision to grant review. Shirley Suhl, a defendant in the Lord’s Ranch cases, filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that reviving expired claims is unconstitutional. As of September 2025, no ruling had been issued, with the court expected to take the matter up after the start of its fall term.¹¹¹²

Where the Cases Stand

The outcome of the Lord’s Ranch lawsuits turns on the Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision in H.C. v. Nesmith. If the court reverses and upholds the legislature’s authority to revive expired claims, dozens of plaintiffs who filed under the 2021 revival window can proceed. If it affirms the appeals court, most of the Lord’s Ranch claims would likely be permanently barred unless an individual plaintiff can show that delayed-discovery tolling applies to their circumstances.¹¹⁸

Background on the Facility and Its Owner

Bud and Shirley Suhl founded the Lord’s Ranch in 1976 on more than 1,100 acres north of Pocahontas, Arkansas. Marketed as a nature-based, faith-oriented residential program, it accepted children ages six to seventeen and was licensed by the Arkansas Department of Human Services as a residential childcare facility starting in 1987.⁷ By 2008, the operation also went by Trinity Behavioral Health and included 18 outpatient clinics.¹³ Between 2002 and 2008, Lord’s Ranch entities received roughly $95 million in Arkansas Medicaid funds, and from 2009 through 2014, they collected more than $135 million more.⁴

Ted Suhl, the founders’ son, took over as owner and executive director. In 2016, a federal jury in Little Rock found him guilty on four of six counts, including federal funds bribery and honest services fraud, for a scheme involving payments to Steven B. Jones, then deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services. The scheme generated more than $1.5 million in profits for Suhl’s companies. Suhl was sentenced on October 27, 2016, to 84 months in federal prison and a $200,000 fine.¹⁴ The Lord’s Ranch closed the same year.⁷ Suhl served roughly two and a half years before President Donald Trump commuted his prison term on July 29, 2019. The clemency request was supported by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and former United States Attorney Bud Cummins.¹⁵

Suhl had also held a regulatory role over facilities like his own. In 2000, Governor Huckabee appointed him to the Arkansas Child Welfare Agency Review Board, which licensed childcare facilities in the state; Huckabee reappointed him in 2004. In 2007, the board defeated a legislative proposal by state Senator Sue Madison that would have made it independent of the facilities it oversaw.⁷⁴

Alonza Jiles and the Arkansas Board of Corrections

When the lawsuits were filed, defendant Alonza Jiles was serving on the Arkansas Board of Corrections. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Attorney General Tim Griffin, and several legislators publicly called on him to resign. The Joint Performance Review Committee subpoenaed him to testify about the board’s decision to hire outside counsel, and state Senator Jim Petty filed a motion alleging the board had violated transparency laws.¹⁶ As of February 2024, Jiles had refused to step down, called the abuse allegations false, and framed the pressure as part of a broader fight over control of the state prison system.¹⁷

1
GovInfo. Does v. Presley, Case No. 3:23-cv-230-DPM
2
Arkansas Times. Dozens More Allege Sexual Abuse at Youth Facility Owned by Arkansas Businessman Freed by Trump
3
CBS News Chicago. Two Men Claims Abuse Place Young Children Sent for Help
4
NPR / Lord’s Ranch Lawsuit Filing. Lord’s Ranch Lawsuit Complaint
5
Romanucci & Blandin. Press Release Complaint Lord’s Ranch Religious Camp Arkansas Sexual Abuse
6
Baptist News Global. Eight More Former Residents of The Lord’s Ranch Come Forward About Alleged Sexual Abuse
7
Arkansas Advocate. Lawsuit Alleges Years of Child Sexual Abuse at Politically Connected Arkansas Treatment Facility
8
GovInfo. Does v. Presley, Case No. 3:23-cv-230-DPM, Order
9
Arkansas Advocate. Court Decision Pending, Arkansas Lawmaker Brings Bill Related to Child Sexual Abuse
10
Arkansas Advocate. Arkansas Appeals Court Stymies Lawsuits Over Decades-Old Sexual Abuse
11
Arkansas Times. Ark Supreme Court Could Revive Law to Give Childhood Sexual Abuse Victims the Chance to Sue as Adults
12
Fox 16. Arkansas Supreme Court to Weigh In on Fate of Child Sexual Abuse Lawsuits
13
Imboden Live. Federal Lawsuit Filed Against Former Lord’s Ranch Owner Alleges Decades of Abuse
14
U.S. Department of Justice. Owner of Arkansas Juvenile Mental Health Facilities Sentenced to 84 Months in Prison for Bribery Scheme
15
Trump White House Archives. President Trump Commutes Sentence of Ted Suhl
16
KARK. Arkansas Board of Corrections Member Named in Lord’s Ranch Child Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Subpoenaed by Legislators
17
Arkansas Advocate. Arkansas Prison Board Member Declines to Resign Over Civil Lawsuit Allegations