This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system.
The chief executive of one of Ohio’s largest residential treatment centers for youth is accused of driving nearly three hours to meet someone for sex whom he believed was a 14-year-old girl. Instead, he met a police officer, according to police and court documents.
Randall J. Mackendrick, CEO of Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents, was arrested on Aug. 29 by North Ridgeville police in Lorain County after having driven about 175 miles from St. Clairsville, where the facility is located and where he lives, police said.
Mackendrick, 59, was released from custody on Monday after posting a $125,000 bond. He is charged with unlawful sexual contact with a minor, importuning, disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile and possessing criminal tools.
He does not currently have an attorney listed in court records, and did not respond to calls and requests for comment on his personal cellphone.
Mackendrick first made contact with the person he believed was a teenager on June 2, according to police. He is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 2, according to court records.
Universal Health Services, which owns Fox Run, said Mackendrick no longer works for the organization and does not have access to the residential treatment facility.
“To our present knowledge, this is a personal matter arising from conduct alleged to have occurred outside the facility, not connected to any current or former patients,” a spokesperson wrote in an email. UHS said it is reviewing the “circumstances surrounding this matter and, as appropriate, will evaluate relevant policies and practices at the facility.”
The Ohio Department of Behavioral Health, the state agency responsible for licensing the facility, is aware of Mackendrick’s arrest, a spokesman said, and declined to comment any further, citing an open criminal investigation.
Fox Run is a 100-bed residential treatment facility that accepts children as young as 5 — many of whom are victims of sexual assault and are placed at the facility for mental health treatment due to the trauma they endured.
In July, a Marshall Project investigation found that children at the facility were subjected to unsafe restraints and experienced physical and sexual assaults and medical neglect. Dozens of emergency responses, including youth hospitalizations and arrests, were documented in local police records but were absent from Ohio’s database of reportable incidents.
The investigation sparked a community conversation online, with former Fox Run patients and workers sharing their experiences, and residents of St. Clairsville and elsewhere noting their surprise at what was going on at the facility and expressing their sympathy. Over the weekend, the conversation continued, as news spread of Mackendrick's arrest.
“Randy Mackendrick may have a legal case to answer to, but Fox Run survivors have been carrying out their own stories for years. We want answers, too,” said Paitin Pahoundis, who spent three years at the facility in her teens during the pandemic.
Addison Torrence, who was housed at a now-shuttered troubled youth facility and serves on a state committee investigating the placement of children in residential facilities, said he was “alarmed and sickened” by the charges against Mackendrick.
Torrence said he intends to ask the state licensing agency about how it is responding to the arrest and what measures it is taking to ensure the safety of the children at the facility given the issues surfaced in the Marshall Project investigation.