Youth Camp Has Good Reputation, Officials Say

Camp O’Neal, where five victims of the Convict Lake tragedy either lived or worked, was founded nearly 20 years ago as way to bring extra money into Mono County, according to Probation Department officials.

It didn’t work out that way, and the camp is now in the hands of a private, nonprofit corporation that enjoys a good reputation among some probation officials for treatment of troubled youngsters.

The teen-age boys who spend about 18 months in the awesome beauty of Mammoth Lakes are youngsters from various parts of the state who have gotten into minor trouble with the law. They frequently come from troubled homes, have difficulties in school and sometimes have been termed “emotionally disturbed,” according to probation officials.

When the facility opened as a county camp in the early 1970s, it was named after Maury O’Neal, chief officer of the tiny Mono County Probation Department, who persuaded local officials that such a facility could provide treatment for the area’s troubled adolescents and, at the same time, turn a profit by taking in delinquents from other parts of the state.

But with the budget crunches that followed passage of Proposition 13, the camp began losing money and in 1987 county officials turned the facility over to the privateCamp O’Neal Inc.

Bobbi Trott, who supervised the camp as a Probation Department employee, continued to run the facility as secretary of the newly formed firm. Lloyd D. Sanders, a Mammoth Lakes realtor, served as chairman of the organization.

The camp now has a capacity of 34 youngsters and charges about $3,000 per month, according to Dennis Matthewson, therapist at the facility. The fees are ordinarily paid by the counties that send youngsters to the camp, but in some cases parents pay the bills, according to Matthewson. Main attractions of the facility, he said, are “recreational activities . . . and a very healthy life style.”

The three youngsters who are presumed drowned in nearby Convict Lake were hiking when they fell through the ice, Matthewson said. Two camp counselors and two volunteer rescuers also are presumed drowned.

The Tulare County Probation Department provides about half of the clients to the camp, where boys between 13 and 18 years of age sleep in a dormitory and receive special education classes and training in woodworking and outdoor sports and skills. Two of the three youths who died Monday were from Tulare County and the third was from San Bernardino County, where the Probation Department has half a dozen youngsters placed at the camp.

Probation officials in both counties said they do not plan to remove clients, pending completion of an investigation by the Mono County Sheriff’s Department and the state Department of Social Services, which licenses the facility as a group home.

“We think they’ve been very good,” said Larry Price, chief probation officer for Tulare County. “We usually have about 12 to 14 kids there at all times.”

As for the drownings, Price said: “We don’t know if these kids were unsupervised or supervised. . . . Our department will do a complete investigation based on information from the (sheriff’s office and state licensing officials) and we’ll make a determination . . . whether we’ll continue to use it.”

Gary Paytas, supervising probation officer for San Bernardino County, said, “We’ve been pleased with what they’ve been doing up there . . . stabilizing kids, basically,” he said.

Camp O’Neal’s fees are about twice the statewide average of $1,400 per month charged by county-run camps for delinquents, according to the Chief Probation Officers Assn. of California.

State financial records indicate that Camp O’Neal took in more than $900,000 in revenues in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1988, although records indicate that the camp spent more than it took in. In the meantime, the organization is facing a lawsuit by local residents who oppose its plans to expand by opening a halfway house for clients.

The facility, with its cluster of buildings on about three acres of land, is leased by Camp O’Neal Inc. for $250 a year from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which has extensive land holdings in the area.

HOW CONVICT LAKE GOT ITS NAME

According to geographical guidebooks, Convict Lake got its name in 1871 after 29 convicts escaped from prison at Carson City, Nev. Six of the escapees headed south and murdered a mail rider. Local posses caught up with the convicts near Monte Diablo Creek--now Convict Lake. Robert Morrison, a Benton, Calif., merchant and posse leader, was killed in the fight. The convicts escaped, but three of them were captured a few days later. Two of those were lynched en route to the jail at Carson City.