RAFA Academy Withdraws Utah License Application

But Is Another New Name on the Horizon?

The former Diamond Ranch Academy (via Washington County, Utah recorder’s office)

RAFA Academy has withdrawn its application for a state license to run a youth residential treatment center on the site of the now-defunct Diamond Ranch Academy (D.R.A.), according to an email, below, that MartyG Reports obtained through an open-records request to the Utah Division of Licensing and Background Checks. (A redacted version of RAFA Academy’s licensing application is also available, below, for download.)

(fair reporting privilege; redacted version by MartyG Reports—attribution requested for reuse).

Utah ultimately closed D.R.A. after three children’s deaths. Most recently, 17-year-old Taylor Goodridge perished in 2022, five days before Christmas, when D.R.A. waited too long to take her to emergency medical care. The state’s professional conduct board found D.R.A.’s staffers had failed to meet minimum standards and that their neglect led to Goodridge’s death. MartyG Reports’ prior coverage of D.R.A. and Goodridge is available at this link here.

When D.R.A. went out of business, MartyG Reports noted that similar facilities have “closed due to criminal and licensing actions, only for the same staffers to reopen [them] under new names, including in Utah.”

RAFA Academy debuted months later at D.R.A.’s former location. A snazzy new website for RAFA Academy appeared online.

But RAFA Academy had several problems. First, there was already a Rafa Nadal Academy, a tennis school in Spain named for tennis-pro Rafa Nadal Parera.

MartyG Reports sent the link to the new RAFA Academy’s website to Greenblum and Bernstein, the registered U.S. trademark attorneys for the Rafa Nadal Academy, and emailed and called to inquire about possible infringement. Days later, RAFA Academy’s website disappeared. (The D.N.S. start-of-authority (“SOA”) record for rafaacademy.org was blanked, indicating likely action by the domain name’s registrar.)

“RAFA NADAL ACADEMY” was trademarked years before former D.R.A. staffers tried to open RAFA Academy on D.R.A.’s former grounds (U.S.P.T.O. website).

Nadal’s publicist, Benito Pérez-Barbadillo, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

MartyG Reports also inquired with Utah about RAFA Academy’s licensing status and whether any facility is licensed at Diamond Ranch Academy’s old address.

“I recognize the name Diamond Ranch as a provider who has had numerous sanctions on their[sic] license,” an unnamed state employee told MartyG Reports on March 5. “I am [carbon copy]ing our investigations manager to advise (or investigate) the new RAFA Academy and whether it is by the same providers of the previous Diamond Ranch Academy.”

State licensors sent MartyG Reports this email (original content)

The investigator never contacted MartyG Reports. Eight days passed before RAFA Academy withdrew its licensing application, citing discussions with the state.

Meanwhile former D.R.A. clients and journalists identified striking similarities between D.R.A. and RAFA.

“It’s in the same building, [with the] same business model, and at least some of the same people who were behind Diamond Ranch Academy,” noted K.S.L. news. RAFA’s website also contained “the same pictures and, word-for-word, the same mission statements from Diamond Ranch's old website.”

K.S.L. further noted that RAFA had “the same H.R. director” as D.R.A., and that “Goodridge's former caseworker [was] listed as RAFA's new director.”

Goodridge’s mother AmberLynn Wigtion declined to comment on the withdrawal of RAFA Academy’s license application.

MartyG Reports has obtained the organizational chart that RAFA Academy provided state licensors, naming RAFA Academy’s top personnel. (RAFA Academy listed Justin Mabey as its “Owner,” Adam Cheney as its “Executive Director,” “Clinical Director” and “Medical Director,” Steve Howard as its “Academic Director” and “Culinary Director,” Jason Simons as its “Human Resources Director” and Bruce Fink as its “Program Director.”)

RAFA Academy had provided Utah with this organizational chart as part of its state-license application (fair reporting privilege).

Perhaps RAFA Academy’s largest issue pertained to how it filled out its licensing application. It left a box for a “change in ownership” unchecked. Despite RAFA Academy’s striking similarities to D.R.A. and the former D.R.A. staffers it had hired, RAFA Academy told Utah it was “A new program (not previously licensed).”

This is part of RAFA Academy’s license application.

Utah’s administrative code allows the licensing office to deny an application if “the applicant or provider gives false or misleading information to the office.”

This is a developing story. Another new name may be on the horizon for the school once called Diamond Ranch Academy. MartyG Reports has filed an open-records request for the licensing applications of any new facilities in D.R.A.’s former location. Subscribe, below, for updates.

20240507 Gr 2046 Binder Redacted Redacted

7.74MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

20240507 Gr 2046 Grama Response

325KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

20240305 Gmail Re License For Rafa Academy 2

211KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download