The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Danielle Flink says she was the one who confronted Steven Gage and caused the collapse of Royal Haven Equestrian Center for Girls last December.

Royal Haven was operated in Sisters, then Bend and back in Sisters by Steven Gage and Karen Lee for about five years. Gage is now in jail with bail set at $1 million and facing 67 charges, including allegations of rape, sex abuse and criminal mistreatment.

Lee was jailed but has been released and faces multiple charges of criminal mistreatment.

Flink, 17, says she was never approached sexually. She was at Royal Haven twice, from November 1997 to June 15, 1999 and from October 1999 to December 24, 1999.

The final blow-up started just before last Christmas, she said, because Flink was trying to help a friend, Peggy Sowell, who was pregnant when she came to Royal Haven and had a son at St. Charles while a charge of Gage and Lee. (See Nugget Newspaper, June 6, 2000).

When she left Royal Haven, Sowell left her son Michael behind. Sowell told The Nugget that Gage and Lee pressured her to allow them to adopt the boy. In December, Sowell wanted to come up from Texas with her boyfriend, the boy's father, and see their son.

Flink says Gage told Xxxx, one of the girls he was allegedly quite close to, that when Peggy Sowell came up for Christmas to see her son that Michael would not be there. He allegedly said that Karen Lee would take Michael and her own young children to California.

(Editor's note: We choose to not use the names of girls who allegedly had sexual relations with Steven Gage).

"Xxxx told me what (Steve said)," Flink reported. "Me and Peggy were really close. I couldn't call Peggy (from Royal Haven) but I knew Xxxx was going home for Christmas, and I gave Xxxx Peggy's phone number."

Xxxx called and allegedly told Sowell that Gage and Lee were going to try to keep her from seeing Michael.

"Peggy then called Steve and said something like 'What's all this? I want to know what's going on (with my son)' "

"Steve called me down to his room. It was the day before Christmas. I knew I was going home in three days, my mother had said 'This not working and I am not going to keep you there and spend another $50,000.'"

"Xxxx and I had agreed I would not tell him I knew about their (Gage and Xxxx's) relationship. So I told Steve 'Things have changed around here, and you have been having sex with Yyyyy, that is what Xxxx told me.'"

Karen Lee's own daughter, Cassandra was at that meeting, according to Flink, and she also admitted to Gage she had been talking with Xxxx about Gage having relations with Yyyyy.

"Karen was crying hysterically. Steve said 'Xxxx just burnt me, I am tired of this, I am done with this. I am going to close it down.' I was in the room when he said it," Flink said.

"Then he called everyone and said that he was going to close (Royal Haven), but he said the reason was that the adoption of Michael wouldn't be approved with the girls school. But that wasn't the reason.

"On Christmas he called every girl who was still there, there were 10 or so, most of them new and they didn't know much and they couldn't talk to each other, that wasn't allowed, he called Yyyyy and brought her in and said 'Everyone thinks I am having sex with you.' It was really weird. Yyyyy just sat there in a corner crying hysterically and not saying anything," said Flink.

Then, someone, supposedly an older woman, contacted Services for Children and Families with an anonymous tip that the girls might be in jeopardy.

SCF, with Oregon State Police, visited the facility on December 27.

Dani Flink doesn't know who called SCF, but she doesn't think the agency knew anything about the sex allegations at that time.

"They didn't ask us about that. They asked, 'Do you get fed well, are you hydrated (when working) outside, did anyone ever hit you?' " said Flink.

But the girls at Royal Haven couldn't talk openly at that meeting, according to Flink: "One of the girls in the room (during the SCF visit), Nora, had been there a long time and she had stayed after she turned 18, she was kind of like a staff member.

"They (SCF) thought Nora was one of the girls, but she wasn't. We couldn't say anything because we thought Nora would tell Karen, and it would have been bad," Flink said.

Gage sent the rest of the girls home, according to Flink. He called and told parents of girls who were already home for Christmas that the school was closed

An article in the January 5 issue of The Bulletin alleged that the program was under investigation concerning issues of sexual misbehavior. Law enforcement agencies have said they do not know who contacted that newspaper.

"I left the school, he closed it down. I was sent to a boarding school in Kansas, I was there with another girl from Royal Haven," said Flink.

"Steve's lawyer, some guy named Le Roy, called us at the boarding school, he wanted to know what I knew and what proof I had that Steve was having sex with one of the girls but I wouldn't talk," Flink said.

Actually, Flink was contacted by LeRoy Chastain of LCI & Associates, a private investigator working for Gage's attorney, Geoffrey Gokey of Redmond. Flink said contact ceased after police cautioned that they were part of an investigation.

The Nugget could not reach Gokey for an interview by press time.

After an investigation by the Oregon State Police that lasted six months and involved dozens of interviews, Gage and Lee were arrested on June 2, 2000.

Peggy Sowell plans to marry the father of Michael this summer. Danielle Flink will enter the military.