Camp’s Reputation Good, Probation 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.

The facility was named after Maury O’Neal, chief officer of the tiny Mono County Probation Office, who persuaded local officials that the facility could provide treatment for the area’s troubled adolescents and turn a profit by taking in delinquents from other parts of the state.

But with the budget crunches of Proposition 13, the camp began losing money. In 1987, county officials turned the facility over to a private, nonprofit organization.

Camp O’Neal 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 who elect to place their children in the facility pay the bill, according to Matthewson. The fee is about twice the statewide average 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. The camp is facing a lawsuit by local residents who oppose plans to expand the facility with a halfway house for clients.

The facility, a cluster of buildings on about three acres of land, is leased by Camp O’Neal Inc. for $250 a year from the city of Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power, which has extensive land holdings in the area. Bobbi Trott is the secretary of Camp O’Neal, and the chairman is listed on the lease as Lloyd D. Sanders, a Mammoth Lakes real estate businessman. Trott had served as supervisor of the camp for the Probation Department, according to Dick Hager, chief of the two-officer department.

Matthewson said clients at the camp come from all across the state. Clients are placed at the facility, Matthewson said, “because of recreational activities . . . and a very healthy life style.”

The three youngsters from the camp who are presumed drowned on nearby Convict Lake were hiking and not ice skating, as has been reported, when they fell through the ice, Matthewson said. Two camp counselors and two volunteer rescuers are also presumed drowned.

Tulare County Probation Department provides about half of the clients to the rustic facility, where boys between 13 and 18 sleep in a dormitory and receive special education classes and training in woodworking and outdoor skills. Two of the three youths who died Monday were sent from Tulare County, and the third was from San Bernardino County, which has half a dozen youngsters at Camp O’Neal.

The facility has a good reputation among probation officials in both counties, who said they do not plan to remove clients, pending completion of an investigation by the Mono County sheriff’s office 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.”

The type of youngsters sent to the camp by Tulare and San Bernardino counties are not hard-core delinquents, according to probation officials. They are youngsters who frequently come from troubled homes, have difficulties in school and sometimes been termed “emotionally disturbed.”