(2021 Update: The receipts for everyone has since fallen away. I tried to update links, but the Wayback Machine archived only so many websites.)
After the recent ESOAL expose on KLTV, Teen Mania announced that they would assemble “an independent committee of experts that will evaluate every aspect of this retreat.”
As announced last week, the link has since broke, this “independent” committee is comprised of the following people:
Kelly Cox, Nurse Practitioner
Kevin Karrenbrock, Physical Therapist
Russ Bailiff, Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Todd Cox, Youth Minister
Jamie Holder, Deputy Superintendent of Lindale Schools
Molly Adkins, Registered Nurse
C. David Rowlett, Medical Doctor
Cune Pena, Fitness Owner
Is this truly an “independent” committee?
Let’s look at each member to see if they are connected to Teen Mania.
1) Kelly Cox
Kelly Cox works at the East Texas Medical Center, a clinic frequented by TM interns. Kelly was interviewed by KLTV in Part 2 of the ESOAL expose. Other than that, I have not found any substantial link to Teen Mania that would compromise his credibility.
Kevin is an elder at CCF, the home church of Ron Luce, David Hasz, Heath Stoner and several other Teen Mania staff members and interns. In fact, the CCF website has a picture of everyone in leadership at their church. Kevin is pictured near the top, as is fellow committee member, Russ Bailiff. Near the bottom you will see both Heath Stoner and Randy Olsson listed as youth pastors. On this CCF page, you can see that Dave Hasz facilitates a Sunday school class. (2021 update: the website has since updated and DH has left almost a decade ago.)
In addition, word on the street is that Kevin Karrenbrock has been personal friends with the Luce family for nearly a decade.
And of course, Kevin is Facebook friends with Heath and Alisa Stoner and Randy Olsson.
3) Russ Baliff
As established above, Russ is also an elder at the home church of Ron Luce, David Hasz and Heath Stoner.
He is Facebook friends with Teen Mania staffers Heath Stoner and Kevin Cool, as well as fellow committee member, Molly Adkins. (2021 Update: Russ’ Facebook seems to have been deleted.)
4) Todd Cox
Todd Cox is a student pastor at New Harmony Baptist Church. He served with the Coast Guard for over 7 years.
Todd has been Facebook friends with Heath for over 1 year (Oct. 2009). According to Heath’s Facebook wall, they have scheduled times to meet together. Just last week, Todd tagged Heath in a photo of a local youth event. Todd is also Facebook friends with Randy Olsson.
5) Jamie Holder
The internet has not revealed any link between Jamie Holder and Teen Mania.
6) Molly Adkins
Molly also attends CCF. She has been Facebook friends with Heath Stoner since November 2008 (2 years!). She is also FB friends with Alisa Stoner, Kevin Cool, and Beth Hasz (Dave’s wife).
7) Dr. C. David Rowlett
As far as I can tell, Dr. Rowlett has no substantial ties with Teen Mania. He works at University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler.
His office does handle the certification for Teen Mania drivers, but that is the extent of their relationship. By itself, I do not believe that relationship is substantial enough to affect Dr. Rowlett’s credibility as a committee member.
8) Cune Pena
Cune owns a gym in Tyler called Premier Fitness. Along with his wife, he also started “12 Spot Ministries.”
Just last week, 12 Spot Ministries promoted and attended Signs and Wonders conference held at CCF. The main speaker was former Honor Academy intern/staff member Blaise Foret. A quick look at the ministry’s facebook page shows a large number of TM staff and interns (current and former).
Cune Pena is also Facebook friends with Teen Mania staffers Ron Luce, Heath Stoner, and Melissa King.
CONCLUSION:
Out of 8 people, 5 of them are confirmed to have substantial personal ties to Teen Mania and/or its senior leadership. Is that really an “independent committee?”
You may also notice what is missing in this list – there is no psychologist! I guess Ron, Dave and Heath do not have any friends in that profession.
This entire “evaluation” is nothing more than a sham designed to satisfy prospective interns and their parents who don’t realize that this is nothing more than Teen Mania calling on their friends to bail them out of a tough situation.
There is no repentance here. There is no remorse. This is a PR move – PLAIN AND SIMPLE. I expect them to come up with a few token changes, but they will not allow anything that substantially altars the abuse at ESOAL nor impinges on the sovereign power they hold over their little kingdom in East Texas.
Many thanks to the forum members for help with this research.
Pingback: ESOAL Oversight Committee: Update & News Story – Recovering Alumni