Associated Press - November 25, 2009 11:55 PM ET
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Lawyers for 15 former residents of Morning Star Boys' Ranch have filed suit over the transfer of ranch assets to a nonprofit foundation. The former residents contend in other litigation that they were sexually abused at the Spokane facility.
The suit filed Wednesday in Spokane County Superior Court accuses officers, directors and advisers of "a massive conspiracy to defraud the plaintiffs" by transferring more than $12 million in securities and $4 million in real estate from the ranch to the Morning Star Foundation. The new lawsuit also seeks to prevent future transfers.
Morning Star and its supporters deny the abuse allegations.
The plaintiffs' lawyers moved recently to delay the trial of the first sex abuse case, scheduled for January, until they have time to depose ranch and foundation officials and directors about the transfers.
The Spokesman-Review reports the chief executive officers of both the ranch and the foundation had not seen the lawsuit on Wednesday and declined comment.
Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesman.com
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