Ohio Youth Treatment Center CEO Charged in Teen Sex Sting After Abuse Investigation

The CEO of Fox Run, an Ohio residential center that houses foster youth, was charged in a police sting a month after reporting found 52 assaults and dozens of unreported incidents.

By Adam Neuerburg

October 23, 2026

St. Clairsville, Ohio — The chief executive of Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents, one of Ohio’s largest residential treatment centers for children, was arrested Aug. 29 after police say he drove about 175 miles to meet someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl. The arrest came one month after an investigation documented assaults, sexual assaults and dangerous restraints of children inside the facility he ran.

North Ridgeville police arrested Randall J. Mackendrick, 59, in Lorain County, according to The Marshall Project. He is charged with unlawful sexual contact with a minor, importuning, disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile and possessing criminal tools. The person he went to meet was a police officer. The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.

What police say happened

Police said Mackendrick first made contact with the person he believed was a teenage girl on June 2. He was released after posting a $125,000 bond. A preliminary hearing originally set for Sept. 2 was moved to Sept. 9, according to court records cited by The Marshall Project. No attorney was listed for him, and he did not respond to requests for comment.

Universal Health Services, the Pennsylvania-based Fortune 500 company that owns Fox Run, said Mackendrick no longer works for the organization and no longer has access to the facility. The company said the matter appears to be personal, involves conduct outside the facility and is not connected to any current or former patients. It said it is reviewing the circumstances and will evaluate policies and practices at Fox Run as appropriate.

The Ohio Department of Behavioral Health, which licenses Fox Run, said it was aware of the arrest. A spokesman declined further comment, citing an open criminal investigation.

A facility already under scrutiny

Fox Run is a 100-bed facility that takes children as young as 5. Children are sent there by parents, juvenile courts and foster care agencies, some after suicide attempts or fights in foster homes and some because no foster family would take them. Ohio counties have paid Fox Run millions of dollars to house children with complex needs, The Marshall Project reported.

Its July 30 investigation found that over five years, police were called to Fox Run on average once every 21 days, responding to 52 assaults and 17 sexual assaults, some involving allegations against staff. Fox Run reported 126 suicide attempts to state inspectors from January 2022 to June 2025. At least 40 police-involved incidents in that period, including 21 arrests or juvenile detention placements, 15 assaults and nine hospitalizations, did not appear in the state’s incident database, even though Ohio law requires such incidents to be reported within 24 hours.

The investigation also described a child under 9 held in a restraint for an hour, double the state maximum, and a 9-year-old boy who was sexually assaulted by an older resident in 2022 and was returned to the facility without a forensic exam. A staff member who kicked an 11-year-old later pleaded guilty to assault.

At the time, Mackendrick defended the facility. He said self-harm and attempts to leave are “unfortunately not uncommon among this high-acuity population” and that Fox Run had not been cited for violating reporting law for the incidents in question.

Who is watching the watchers

The arrest has renewed questions about who oversees facilities that hold children the state has removed from their homes. Former residents told The Marshall Project they want the same thing families want.

We want answers, too.

Paitin Pahoundis, former Fox Run resident, to The Marshall Project

Addison Torrence, who sits on a state committee examining the placement of children in residential facilities, said he was “alarmed and sickened” by the charges and planned to ask the licensing agency how it is responding. Rep. Crystal Lett, D-Columbus, has sponsored House Bill 811, which would take away the Department of Behavioral Health’s discretion and require it to suspend admissions, deny license renewals or close facilities after serious violations.

Children placed in places like Fox Run did not choose to be there. Many were removed from their parents, then moved from foster homes into a locked, for-profit facility where the reporting system was supposed to flag harm and, according to police records, often did not. When incidents go unreported and regulators decline to comment, families have no way to know what is happening to their children. Parents who want to understand their rights when the state controls their child’s placement can start with FAN’s guide to problems in the foster care system.

Key facts

Randall J. Mackendrick, 59, CEO of Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents in St. Clairsville, was arrested Aug. 29, 2026, in North Ridgeville.
Charges: unlawful sexual contact with a minor, importuning, disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile, possessing criminal tools.
Released on $125,000 bond; preliminary hearing reset to Sept. 9, 2026.
Owner Universal Health Services says the alleged conduct was personal and unrelated to patients; Mackendrick no longer works there.
Police responded to Fox Run about once every 21 days over five years, including 52 assaults and 17 sexual assaults.
At least 40 police-involved incidents from 2022 to mid-2025 were missing from Ohio’s state incident database.
House Bill 811 would require Ohio to suspend admissions or close facilities after serious violations.

Sources

What you can do

Don't just read it. Act on it.

Lawmakers fund and oversee this system. Tell Ohio lawmakers what happened here.

Find your Ohio legislators See every Ohio legislator

Open in my email

Get an email when this case has a new development: charges, court dates, verdicts, settlements. Only about this case; unsubscribe anytime.

Lived through something like this? Your case could be the next one we document.

Share your story Send a confidential tip Get free help

This story exists because families spoke up.

Father’s Advocacy Network is a nonprofit newsroom. We don’t take money from the agencies we cover. Help us keep exposing what happens behind closed doors.

About Father’s Advocacy Network. We investigate failures inside CPS, foster care, adoption and family court — and stand with parents fighting to bring their children home. Have a correction or a tip? Contact our newsroom.

Is this happening to your family?

Tell us your story — confidentially. Every case we cover starts with a parent speaking up.

Join the conversation Cancel reply

Have something to add? Create a free account or log in to comment. Accounts keep the discussion real and free of bots.

Create free account Log in