More students testify in Hinton case
Boy claims he was slammed against wall

Vic Vela

The Daily Record

August 29, 2007

Day two of the Randall Hinton trial featured testimony from four former Royal Gorge Academy students who testified the boarding school’s co-director was physically abusive toward them, as well as other students.

The most compelling testimony provided Tuesday was by a 15-year-old Riverside, Calif., boy who detailed an alleged incident where he was put into a headlock and slammed against a staircase wall by Hinton.

“He thrust my head into the wall, my face hit the wall, and I fell to the ground,” said the boy.

According to the boy’s testimony, it was his refusal to wear a pair of sandals while with Hinton as the two were inside the school’s lobby that caught the ire of the defendant.

“He grabbed me by my left arm and pulled me into the staircase and said, ‘You don’t get it, do you?’” the boy testified.

Hinton then carried the boy up a flight of stairs by the boy’s head, his “tiptoes touching the ground sometimes,” the boy said.

The boy was then escorted to his room and given a pack of frozen peas to reduce the swelling on one of his eyes — which he said was “almost swollen shut,” according to his testimony. The boy said the defendant “made me put my face on the ground on top of the ice and stepped on the back of my head and pressed my face against the (frozen peas package).”

The boy said the incident occurred on the heels of a botched escape plan, one which the boy said he stole a kitchen knife and hid it in a drawer in his room as part of a plan to “unscrew a window at night and run away.”

The boy said the incident occurred sometime in April 2006, during his month-and-a-half long stay at the school.

Meanwhile, a 17-year-old Highlands Ranch girl on several occasions broke down in tears as she recalled her first encounter with Hinton.

The girl said she refused to go to bed during her first night at the school and would not leave a staff members’ table following requests by Hinton that she do so.

“He said, ‘If you don’t move, I’m going to help you move’,” the girl testified. “He meant what he said.”

The girl said “it was one of the most painful things I had to go through” when she said Hinton “grabbed (her) right arm and whipped it around her back.”

However, defense attorney Michael Gillick wasn’t buying the girl’s account of the alleged incident involving his client.

The girl was indignant when Gillick reminded her of her actions at the school. The girl said she was “screaming and cussing out staff” and “was throwing a big fit” the night her mother dropped her off at the boarding school.

The girl admitted she contemplated drinking shampoo just to “get out of there.” She also hit herself in the head with a stapler and attempted to staple one of her fingers in an effort to make the staff think she was “crazy.” The girl also admitted to attempting to run away from the school.

During cross-examination, the girl had a difficult time recalling specific details of the abuse, including not being able to recall kicking staff members as they tried to restrain her or which staff members were present during that time to begin with. She also did not recall “slapping her mother” for taking her to the school, something Gillick indicated had happened.

Two other boys testified regarding a separate incident in which they and one other boy ran away from the school, but were caught by Hinton and other staff members.

A 16-year-old Bloomington, Minn., boy testified that when he and his peers were caught near the hogback hills following the attempted escape, the defendant made the boys lie face down on the ground, near a red ant hill.

“They were crawling on our face and we were blowing them off,” said the boy.

The boy said one of his peers was demanded by Hinton to stop blowing ants off of his face.

“(Hinton) took the back of his head and forced it down into the ground just to make him stop blowing off the ants,” the boy testified.

After being taken back to the school, Hinton forced the boys to lay face down on the floor inside one of the dorm rooms. One boy, a 17-year-old from Long Beach, Calif., said Hinton denied his request to get up after complaining of stomach pains.

“I finally got up to my knees and threw up twice,” said the boy. “It hurt so bad, my whole body was numb.”

As has been the case during each of the former students’ testimony, Gillick attempted to highlight behavioral problems that led their parents to bring their children to the school in the first place — such as drug use, fighting and “histories of lying.”

Hinton faces seven counts of third-degree assault and two counts of false imprisonment. Each charge is a misdemeanor, though, if convicted, Hinton could face jail time.

Prosecution testimony will continue today, with the defense expected to begin presenting its case shortly after.

Vic Vela can be reached at vvela@ccdailyrecord.com.