QUESTIONS FOR KURT ALME
The Voters of Montana Deserve Answers
Dear Kurt,
You’re running for the United States Senate in Montana and asking voters to give you one of 100 seats in the most powerful legislative body in the country. That makes your record relevant, including the seven years you spent as General Counsel of the Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch Foundation and the more than four years you simultaneously served as its President.
This isn’t some obscure entry we excavated from the bottom of your résumé. When you sought confirmation as U.S. Attorney, you told the Senate Judiciary Committee yourself what you did there. From 2010 through 2017, you said your work included “tort risk liability and damage mitigation.” You said your client was the Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch Foundation. You disclosed that some of your work involved civil proceedings in Montana state courts and that you occasionally appeared in court.
And during your presidency, a 10-year-old boy was living at Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch.
His mother alleged that other residents subjected him to sexual assault and that the Ranch failed to protect him. The child testified about what happened. The Ranch maintained that it took the allegations seriously and investigated them. Years later, a Montana jury found the Ranch negligent in supervising the child and liable for negligent misrepresentation, awarding his mother $300,000.
But there is one part of this story we keep coming back to.
The child said he told adults.
Montana law specifically identified residential and institutional workers among those required to promptly report suspected child abuse or neglect to the state. So before we get lost in corporate structures, Foundation-versus-Ranch distinctions, insurance policies, litigation files, and the marvelous ability of institutions to bury human suffering beneath nouns, there is a very simple question at the center of all this:
What happened after this 10-year-old boy says he told the adults?
Kurt, we’d like some answers.
You told the Senate that your responsibilities at the Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch Foundation included “tort risk liability and damage mitigation.” What exactly did that mean?
Did those responsibilities extend in any way to risks or potential liabilities arising from operations at Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch? If not, what tort risks were you responsible for mitigating?
Did Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch have separate General Counsel during your tenure? If so, who?
During your seven years as General Counsel, how many claims, threatened claims, lawsuits, or insurance matters involving alleged harm to children at Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch came to your attention? How many involved allegations of sexual misconduct or assault?
When did you first learn about this child’s allegations?
When did you first learn that his mother had filed suit against the Ranch?
After learning about either, what involvement did you have, including meetings, correspondence, document review, conversations with attorneys, insurers, Ranch officials, or Foundation board members?
The child testified that he reported the sexual assault to Ranch staff. Who received that disclosure, when was it received, and what happened next?
Was the allegation promptly reported to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services pursuant to Montana’s mandatory-reporting law? If so, who made the report, when was it made, and how much time elapsed after the child’s disclosure?
If no report was made, who determined that Montana’s mandatory-reporting requirements did not apply, and on what basis?
Did the report result in an investigation by DPHHS, law enforcement, or the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office? What was the outcome?
Was the child interviewed by investigators? Were the residents he accused interviewed?
Did the allegations result in any criminal investigation, charge, juvenile proceeding, prosecution, or other action involving the residents he accused?
Did you ever review whether the Ranch complied with Montana’s mandatory-reporting requirements in this child’s case? If you didn’t, who did?
Was an internal incident report created when the child made his disclosure, and was that record preserved once litigation became reasonably foreseeable?
At trial, the child’s mother reportedly testified that after filing suit she discovered the Foundation was still using her son’s photograph for fundraising and contacted the Foundation to have it removed. Were you informed of that complaint?
Who received her complaint, who decided to remove the photograph, and were any Foundation attorneys, officers, insurers, or board members notified?
Did the Foundation maintain liability insurance covering claims arising from Ranch operations, contribute toward the Ranch’s insurance, indemnify the Ranch, or otherwise have financial exposure to claims against the Ranch?
Did this lawsuit trigger notice to any insurer associated with the Foundation?
You told the Senate that some of your work from 2010 through 2017 involved civil proceedings in Montana state courts and that you occasionally appeared in court. Please identify those proceedings by case name and docket number.
Did any of those proceedings involve Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch or claims arising from its operations?
Did any involve injury, abuse, sexual misconduct, inadequate supervision, or other alleged harm to a child?
As both President and General Counsel, how did you distinguish protecting the Foundation’s legal interests from determining whether the institution it supported had failed to protect a child?
Who independently reviewed your decisions concerning tort liability and damage mitigation?
Were allegations involving harm to children routinely reported to the Foundation’s board? Was this child’s case reported to it?
A jury ultimately found the Ranch negligent in supervising this child. Do you believe the Ranch failed him?
Knowing what you know today, do you believe every child who reported sexual misconduct or abuse at Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch while you led its Foundation was treated the way you would have wanted your own child treated?
You’re asking Montana voters to examine your record and trust your judgment for the next six years. This is part of that record.
These questions have answers.
We’d like yours.
As a Montana Voter, thank you for doing the digging and asking the hard questions.
OMGODDESSES! What a vile human being!