Marines reject candidate schooled at Wyo youth ranch--March 14th, 2010--CODY -- A woman who spent thousands of dollars to put her son through a Park County program for troubled boys is seeking a refund after learning that the correspondence school diploma he earned there does not meet U.S. Marine Corps admission standards.

CLARK, Wyo. - Along the well-traveled highway between Cody and Billings, a wooden sign at a gravel turnoff pointing east into starkly beautiful high desert says "Mount Carmel Youth Ranch 3 miles."

Few take the turnoff, and indeed few people know much about the youth ranch and what it does.

What most people may know about Mount Carmel Youth Ranch comes from news stories about an assault in September 2005 in which three boys used shovels to brutally beat a sleeping counselor.

That incident - in which John O'Brien, just nine days on the job, suffered severe, permanent head injuries - was neither the first nor the last serious occurrence at the ranch.

A review of dozens of public documents shows a history of problems over the past several years, including multiple failures to report some incidents to the state Department of Family Services, as required by agency rules.

And an examination of tax documents filed for Mount Carmel raises questions about its interlocked profit-making and nonprofit operations.

O'Brien's mother, Christina Wendlandt, said the ranch should be comprehensively reviewed by the DFS or be shut down.  For complete story, click here.