Arizona Pinal County sheriff Paul Babeu, a former co-chair for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, faces allegations Monday of running an abusive private school where the fallen congressional candidate also had an alleged gay relationship with one of the school’s students.
The charges come in wake of Babeu’s retirement from his post at the Romney campaign where the disgraced sheriff co-chaired the presidential hopeful’s 2012 election.
As ABC 15 is reporting, the sheriff reportedly served as headmaster and executive director for DeSisto School, a now-defunct private institution in Massachusetts which fell under the investigation of the Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services for a series of abusive incidents while Babeu ran the school.
The news source says Babeu had a relationship with a male student, explaining:
Several students we spoke with say they also knew a secret about Babeu. It was a secret that Babeau’s older sister said she discovered one day after visiting his home. Lucy Babeu told the ABC15 Investigators she confronted her brother after finding a student from DeSisto school living with Babeu.
“I said what is this student from Desisto doing here? He says, ‘Lucy, he’s my boyfriend. I love him’.” Lucy Babeu told us her brother was having a relationship with the male student. “I said Paul get a hold of yourself here,” said Lucy. “You were his teacher! You were his Executive Director! You can’t do this.”
ABC15 is not identifying the former student. He has not responded to our interview requests. At the time, he was 17 which is the legal age of consent in Massachusetts.
The school also allegedly abused children by “sheeting” and “cornering” the students – two practices described by students as “cult-like.” According to the same student, being “sheeted” involved stripping down into a sheet and undergoing a strip search eventually “leading to sexual abuse.” The act of cornering meant sitting and facing the wall for hours, and sometimes days, or even weeks on end.
“You have to sit like this with your feed flat on the ground. You can’t cross your legs,” said the student. “From 7 in the morning to 9:30.” She added: “It was just miserable.”
The same student confirmed that then-director Babeu was aware of the punishments the children were subjected to.
Babeu, 43, denied allegations last week that he threatened to deport former lover Jose Orozco to Mexico after the former lover went public with the threat. At the same press conference, the former Romney co-chair did acknowledged that he is gay.
