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Roxie Forbes suffered a barbaric, preventable death at Summerkids camp. A federal judge allowed her parents to pursue claims of gross negligence, including fraud, at trial. Admissions and exhibits were shocking.
CampAbuse.com is an evolving platform that helps parents make better informed decisions about summer camps by understanding the critical, fine details of how and why that harm happens in the first place. When settling lawsuits, camps demand non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements that demand parents remain silent about the facts and circumstances related to their child’s preventable harm. This must stop. Join others who have shared information about the preventable harm at Summerkids and other summer camps. Click here.
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ROXIE MIRABELLE FORBES
December 4, 2012-June 28, 2019
Definition of kill: cause the death of a person, animal or other living thing — Oxford Dictionaries
We do not use this term lightly. However, when camp operations across the nation commit acts that harm our most vulnerable population, it is imperative that we define the outcome in the most appropriate, detailed, factual manner. Otherwise, parents will never learn about this pervasive harm, the ways by which they can avoid it or the means to fight for justice if their precious cargo becomes irreparably harmed.
Summerkids camp operators consistently and publicly (via Court filings) demanded that the word “kill” be stricken from any and all Plaintiff documents and trial testimony. Yet, other lawsuits involving camp deaths or child harm deploy the word “kill” and “killing.”
Therefore, we have a responsibility to ask ourselves why this camp demanded to prohibit a word from being deployed, despite the fact that the camp operators admitted, at trial, that they were “ultimately responsible” for Roxie’s death, which is the very definition of the word “kill.”
There is no proof whatsoever that Roxie Forbes died of any other cause than drowning in a small Summerkids pool. The question is, how can a child drown when the number one priority of any child care operation, including camps, is to keep children safe.
There is no allegation that operators intended to cause Roxie’s death. But there is an abundance of publicly available documentation, testimony and exhibits that illustrate intentional acts that caused Roxie to die.
That is a very important distinction for parents to understand when attempting to avoid summer camp harm or those seeking justice for harm that occurred. If we continue to use vague language or bury the actual language used in lawsuits related to camp harm, we will not properly inform or protect children and families. Instead, we will protect the camp operators ultimately responsible for the harm.
The word “kill” is used in publicly available legal filings for this lawsuit. Plaintiff Doug Forbes has the right to reiterate claims he has made in transcripts, court documents and exhibits. Forbes also has the right to disclose the public court documents, transcripts and exhibits themselves. The defendants’ names are redacted herein but available in the court docket here. The case is Elena Matyas et al v. Summerkids, Inc. et al. Or you can request case documents themselves by inquiring here.
Summerkids owners refused to shut down for one minute after Roxie died a gruesome death for which they admitted they were ultimately responsible. In fact, the Camp Director demanded that parents not pick up their traumatized children early because she wanted to “keep the day as normal as possible.” A 6-year-old child was dead due to horrific circumstances. Yet, the owner-operator and her family thought it appropriate to prevent parents from retrieving traumatized children. She told these parents that the day could somehow be “normal.”
A critical point about this email from the camp-owning family to thousands of parents is that the family prohibited anyone from entering the camp itself. First responders had already left. Therefore, by preventing any parent or anyone from entering the camp, the owners-operators gave themselves hours to potentially build a narrative that supported their interests and not the interests of Roxie’s parents or investigators.
This was also problematic, because it afforded the owners a lot of time to manipulate the physical scene itself. After all, first responders immediately filed Suspected Child Abuse Reports, and any time a child dies under suspicious circumstances, homicide detectives are ordinarily called to investigate. This could have become a crime scene which should have been preserved. It was not.
In fact, it wasn’t until four days later that homicide detectives even made it to the scene of Roxie’s death. Summerkids owners never shut the camp down, even for one minute, so we will never know what evidence might have been tampered with. Any inspection by detectives would be all but futile, well after the fact. Based on our research, detectives and other stakeholders in these camp harm cases ordinarily, swiftly and mistakenly dismiss such harm as accidental, perhaps based on some notion that camp operators would never harm a child at a camp under circumstances that posed criminal negligence. This is a dangerous precedent that must change.
We must prohibit camps from operating immediately after a child dies under suspicious circumstances. CampAbuse has also established that this is an unsettling nationwide pattern, which protects the camps and further harms the aggrieved families.
Parents of harmed children or their attorneys must do everything they can to ensure that the scenes of the camp harm are immediately and properly preserved for examination that might lead to criminal prosecution and for the preservation of evidence that can be presented in civil lawsuits.
Finally, prohibiting parents from picking up their traumatized children who witnessed Roxie’s ghastly death — and the chaos that ensued among the counselors and staff — can and often does pose long-term psychological effects for the children. Roxie’s parents spoke with multiple parents whose children were severely traumatized and required professional counseling, one of whom could not return to school for a while.
The fact that Summerkids owner-operators intentionally and irrefutably demanded that parents not retrieve their children implies a lot. It implies that Summerkids owners do not understand trauma. It implies that they did not want parents demanding answers to questions about how a child could possibly suffer such a barbaric death under their supervision. And, it implies that Summerkids owners wanted to construct and control their own narrative, not the one that was actually factually correct.
Sadly, this is a deeply disturbing pattern that CampAbuse has researched and confirmed in camp harm incidents nationwide. The primary reasons for acting in this inhumane manner are obvious: operators want to protect their reputations to protect their money.
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Almost everything that the camp director and her family said in their initial email and follow-up emails to parents were not true, according to court documents, trial testimony, exhibits, admissions and experts. There were no certified lifeguards. They were fake lifeguards. Children wandered from their designated spots in the pool because counselors weren’t paying attention. Not a single counselor at the pool noticed Roxie floating dead atop the water for at least five minutes. CPR efforts were entirely egregious, according to multiple experts and medical professionals. A defibrillator was incorrectly used, according to those same experts. And, the camp operators lied that Roxie’s parents wanted privacy and not answers, according to their own admissions.
Roxie had recently received special recognition for her achievements at her public school. She spoke Spanish. She marched for immigration rights. She personally donated her own toys and books to child victims of northern California fires. She proudly supported gun control to end school shootings (March for Our Lives). She loved firefighters, riding horses, frolicking in the ocean, playing with robots and race cars, dancing and traveling.
Most of all, Roxie cared deeply about the well-being of other children. Her community cherished her for such tireless compassion and unyielding grace.
NEGLIGENCE. GREED. DEATH.
Although the Summerkids camp owners continue to refuse to disclose facts about how Roxie died, Roxie suffered a brutal drowning death in the shallow end of this small Summerkids camp. A federal judge agreed that Roxie’s parents could pursue claims of gross negligence, including fraud.
Roxie’s father Doug Forbes investigated his daughter’s death while in Harvard graduate school for journalism studies. He discovered that the camp-owning family had lied to thousands of parents, including Forbes and his wife Elena, about their pool being supervised by trained, certified American Red Cross lifeguards, according to exhibits, experts, former staff and admissions from defendants themselves.
The camp owners consist of the father and mother who are former Pasadena City College professors, the 50-something year-old daughter who is a former Los Angeles Times reporter and the 50-something year-old brother who is an emergency room doctor in Long Beach, California.
Summer camps with pools — similar to the pool at Summerkids — and open water (lakes, rivers, ponds, oceans) are widely known to attract more parents. Aquatics are the most popular activity at summer camps, according to camp research. Camp owners leverage aquatics activities to increase enrollment and thereby increase revenue.
Documents and testimony from a former lifeguard “instructor” who worked for the Summerkids camp-owning family from 2006-2014 show that the camp owner-operators knew he was not a certified instructor. He told them he was not going to certify the counselors as Red Cross lifeguards. He said he was simply going to teach them some safety measures. The camp owners failed to inform parents of this critical fact. Furthermore, the camp owners fallaciously stated on their website and in personal conversations that the counselors were trained lifeguards. [Exhibits available upon request.]
The camp owners admitted they never even attended a session with this man and their counselors, some of whom were children themselves. Nonetheless, they promoted to parents, via their website, that the counselors were certified Red Cross lifeguards. These lies portended grave drowning risks or other harm for children, as young as three, supervised by fake lifeguards.
An abundance of evidence and admissions show how Summerkids owners started paying a different fake lifeguard and water safety instructor trainer named Andrew Cervantes in 2011. Cervantes admitted to fraudulently certifying himself as a Red Cross lifeguard instructor.
Over the years, including the year Roxie died, Cervantes fraudulently certified upwards of 100 counselors as Red Cross lifeguards and water safety instructors, according to court documents, trial testimony, exhibits, admissions and experts. Emails from Summerkids owners to Cervantes include instructions that clearly violate Red Cross policies, telling Cervantes to execute approximately one quarter of the required training. This enabled the camp owners to save money on training time and afforded quick, easy money for their fake lifeguard trainer, according to publicly available invoices and emails.
After Forbes publicly shared the evidence from his investigation, the American Red Cross banned Cervantes and the camp owners for life.
The camp owners had signed a contract to become a Red Cross Licensed Training Provider, which meant they could do the illegitimate/fake training at their camp, and by doing so, pay only a fraction of the normal training and processing fees. Invoices between Cervantes and the camp owners that Forbes acquired show how the camp-owning family pocketed approximately $7000 by avoiding paying fees and paying for extra counselor training time.
Therefore, Roxie drowned in exchange for an extra $7000 profit.
Summerkids owners continued to actively advertise that they had certified Red Cross lifeguards, which means that they lied to thousands of parents of young children for decades, according to court documents, trial testimony, exhibits, admissions and experts.
Nonetheless, Summerkids and their attorney Margaret Holm asserted that Roxie somehow drowned due to her own fault. Every medical professional, including the coroner, disputed this outrageous, inhumane claim.
The Red Cross also revoked all of the Summerkids counselors’ fake lifeguard and water safety certifications.
The camp owners carried a $1 million insurance policy each summer to cover 600-900 children that attended their camp with high-risk activities. This is a shockingly low value to place on so many young lives.
Doug Forbes and his now deceased wife Elena partially made their decision to enroll in this camp because the owners promised that the doctor-brother was supposed to rearrange his medical schedule to serve as health supervisor for the camp during the summer. That was a lie. According to court documents, trial testimony, exhibits and admissions, he was rarely at the camp and was on vacation when Roxie drowned.
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The Facts
This document explains the unprecedented federal lawsuit related to the death of Roxie Forbes. It is the 4th amended legal Complaint.
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Roxie’s parents Doug Forbes and Elena Matyas (now deceased) filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Summerkids owners and staff November 5, 2019. They subsequently filed three amended Complaints (which detail the claims in the lawsuit). The camp-owning family responded each time without discussing the joy of caring for children. They repeatedly discussed money and reputation and they implied Roxie was somehow at fault for her own death based on medical theories that had nothing to do with drowning. They never state that they are deeply devoted to legal, healthy, safe child care. In fact, the camp director said, twice under oath, that child safety is not her priority, despite operating a camp with high-risk activities for upwards of 900 children, some as young as three.
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CampAbuse research shows that defense attorneys play pivotal roles in camp-related abuse cases and their future impact on the way the camp industry may or may not be held accountable for preventable harm. CampAbuse will explore other cases and the ways by which defense attorneys handle them. In this case, Margaret Holm is the defense attorney of record who represents Summerkids defendants.
Holm has defended other recreational entities in abuse matters. These case examples and others are publicly available.
LARRY NASSAR AND USA GYMNASTICS SEXUAL ASSAULT LAWSUIT
Holm defended USA Gymnastics in a lawsuit in which USAG team physician Larry Nassar sexually assaulted, molested and raped hundreds of girls and women. A judge sentenced Nassar to 175 years in prison. Multiple documents proved how USAG covered up the abuse. This article further explains how Holm’s role in that USAG case infuriated the gymnasts.
According to court documents, Margaret Holm told a couple hundred girls and women gymnasts who were raped and molested by Larry Nassar “…there are absolutely no facts that USA Gymnastics had knowledge of Nassar’s potential sexual misconduct.” According to tehe accounts of multiple journalists in public articles, Margaret made this claim in an attempt to dismiss the credibility of hundreds of victim impact statements.
The actual facts are that USA Gymnastics did admit that it ignored complaints and did admit that it failed to protect those raped, molested victims. This is why it settled for $380 million dollars.
Olympic gold medalist Jordyn Wieber, whom Larry Nassar molested since she was 14, said in response to Margaret Holm’s claim, “It just feels like NOTHING has changed. It feels like they STILL don’t believe us. They STILL don’t feel bad. They’re STILL not accepting accountability for what happened, even though they are responsible.”
USA TAEKWONDO SEXUAL ASSAULT LAWSUIT
Holm defended USA Taekwondo in a case where coach Marc Gitelman sexually assaulted teen girls. The judge sentenced Gitelman to four years in prison and decided that USAT had a legal duty to guard against sex abuse.
UNITED STATES YOUTH SOCCER ASSOCIATION SEXUAL ASSAULT LAWSUIT
Holm defended United States Youth Soccer Association in a case where the coach Emanuele Fabrizio repeatedly sexually abused a child. The judge sentenced Fabrizio to 15 years in prison and decided that USYSA was complicit.
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Holm said in a newspaper interview, that a lawsuit against her summer camp client Summerkids was “unfortunate,” and she was “looking forward to a full airing of the facts.” Summerkids repeated this assertion in this national report from Inside Edition in which it asserted how it would vigorously defend “dedicated staff.” A federal judge ruled against Margaret Holm, allowing Plaintiff’s claims against Summerkids owners, including gross negligence and fraud.
On one hand, CampAbuse agrees with Holm’s public statement. A full airing of the facts, and not withholding evidence or deflecting away from those facts, is the proper way toward justice.
On the other hand, CampAbuse also disagrees with Holm’s public statement. A lawsuit is not “unfortunate.” When a child dies due to willful disregard, a lawsuit is necessary. Nothing is “unfortunate” when it comes to the wholly preventable death of any child.
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to the coroner’s publicly available report and conclusion, that Roxie died from drowning and nothing else?
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to publicly available police reports and EMT reports, Summerkids counselors admitted to neglecting Roxie to death?
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to volumes of court documents, transcripts and exhibits, Summerkids owner-operators and the fake lifeguard trainer they hired had fraudulently certified upwards of 100 counselors as lifeguards, including those at the pool when Roxie drowned?
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to the same volume of court documents, transcripts and exhibits, the camp-owning family facilitated fraudulent lifeguard training and certifications only days before camp commenced for Roxie?
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to the same volume of court documents, transcripts and admissions, the camp-owning family had facilitated fraudulent lifeguard training and certifications for at least 20 years, putting thousands of very young lives at risk without the parent’s knowledge?
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to the same volume of court documents, transcripts and exhibits, the fake lifeguard and water safety instructor in the pool with Roxie when she drowned was also her buddy counselor?
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to a public document, his mother Alison said he was the “victim” who was “unfortunately” there in the pool with “that girl?”
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to admissions and the same documents, he and the other counselors intentionally ignored the fact that they never received the training or any testing required to assume a lifesaving role when they were all attending reputable colleges and fully capable of understanding the requirements of legitimate lifesaving training for a high-risk child care environment?
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to the same volume of court documents, transcripts and exhibits, none of the fraudulently certified fake lifeguards at the small pool noticed Roxie had drowned until, allegedly, although illogically, someone 45 feet outside of the pool noticed and screamed?
Was it “unfortunate” that, only weeks after Roxie’s barbaric, preventable death, the camp owners rushed another child to the hospital with a serious injury?
Was it “unfortunate” that the camp owners have rushed numerous other children to the hospital?
Was it “unfortunate” that a Summerkids junior counselor suffered life-threatening injuries that involved a broken spine, broken pelvis and broken shoulder which required a year of rehabilitation?
Was it “unfortunate” that the camp director had just screamed at that same counselor to provide more adventurous activities for children, so he rigged a makeshift zipline to appease her and wound up falling and almost dying?
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to the same volume of court documents, transcripts and exhibits, the camp owners fraudulently certified counselors as Water Safety Instructors who were in charge of teaching 3-and-4-year-olds how to be water-safe, which made that instruction wholly illegitimate and gave children and parents a dangerous false sense of security?
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to the same volumes of court documents, transcripts and exhibits, the camp owners and Trevor Boreham from Life Saving Certified apparently abbreviated lifesaving CPR, First Aid and AED training, but still provided certifications?
Was it “unfortunate” that the Summerkids Director-Owner holed up in her office for upwards of 15-20 minutes or so while Roxie Forbes lay dead on her pool deck?
Was it “unfortunate” that, while holing up in her office, the Director called her mother and father instead and refused to call Roxie’s parents?
Was it “unfortunate” that, while holing up in her office, the Director intentionally chose not to help the counselors with the traumatized children?
Was it “unfortunate” that, while holing up in her office, the Director chose not to help or comfort her fake lifeguards at the pool?
Was it “unfortunate” that, while holing up in her office, the Director avoided questions from police and EMT responders?
Was it “unfortunate” that the Director chose not to ride with Roxie to the hospital but showed up at the hospital with her mother and father soon after Roxie arrived? And was it “unfortunate” that she barged into the emergency room without permission? And was it “unfortunate” that she lied to hospital personnel about what happened and attempted to imply that Roxie died from some health condition, according to volumes of court documents, transcripts and exhibits? And was it “unfortunate” that she did the exact same thing at the hospital when her counselor nearly died after she screamed at him to invent a high-risk activity without any training?
Was it “unfortunate” that, according to the same volume of court documents, transcripts and exhibits, Summerkids’ counselor training was only a few hours, despite operating a complex high-risk child care operation with upwards of 900 children of all ages over eight weeks?
Was it “unfortunate” that the Camp Director avidly promoted on her public website and to Roxie’s parents that her doctor-brother rearranges his schedule to be at camp on a regular basis as the medical supervisor when, in fact, he was rarely at camp and was thousands of miles away on vacation when Roxie drowned only 10 days into camp season?
Thousands of caregivers have trusted Summerkids to live up to their promises. Would these caregivers have left their children in a pool if they knew the pool was crowded, chaotic and supervised by fake lifeguards due to the grossly negligent acts of the owner-operators who were ultimately responsible?
According to an abundance of publicly available court documents, transcripts and exhibits, that’s apparently what thousands of parents have done for decades at Summerkids. The only difference is that parents didn’t yet know the part about a crowded, chaotic pool with fake lifeguards… not to mention, the incorrect occupancy sign which violated a county ordinance and state requirement.
The camp owners have admitted they are ultimately responsible for Roxie’s death, while the counselors at the pool, the assistant director, and the fake lifeguard instructor contributed to this preventable tragedy, according to the detailed public Complaint and abundance of evidence.
Perhaps even worse is the camp-owning family’s subsequent actions.
They said that Roxie drowned due to a medical condition or disability. Attorney Margaret Holm made the same claim in her Motion to dismiss the lawsuit but did so without an ounce of proof.
According to all medical documents and experts to date, including the coroner, drowning was the cause of death, nothing more.
The camp family, their former assistant director and their fake lifeguards are correct. Roxie did die from a medical condition. That condition is known as full cardiac arrest and brain death due to a preventable drowning, according to all medical experts.
Fluid replaced oxygen. Blood turned to acid. Tissue collapsed. Organs failed one by one. Vomitus ravaged airways. The heart stopped. And the brain imploded.
Nobody guarded her life. Everyone ignored her. And Roxie Forbes suffered a terrifying, brutal and wholly preventable death.
The legal understanding for “malice” means conduct which is intended by a defendant to cause injury to the plaintiff or despicable conduct which is carried on by defendant with a willful and conscious disregard of the rights or safety of others.
Executing a fraudulent lifeguard and water safety instructor certification scheme to save a few thousand dollars is clearly malicious enough. But doing so in a manner that drowns a child is not only malicious and oppressive but also potentially criminal. Owner-operators from other recreational child care facilities have been charged with felonies for less.
Truth can indeed hurt, especially for those who have a considerable history with the Summerkids camp-owning family and with the camp itself.
The question is, what price are parents willing to pay for such an allegiance?
In fact, for years parents have paid thousands upon thousands of dollars without knowing the facts.
Doubts about these claims are to be expected. Children continue to be killed, injured or sexually abused at camps coast-to-coast. It is extremely challenging to fathom the disturbing circumstances of each case.
This is why CampAbuse will continue to provide information about this case, cases of the past and others to come.
Camp abuse is a dark American secret. Truth matters, especially when the futures of our most vulnerable citizens are on the line.
SUMMERKIDS
COUNSELORS
The counselor pictured above in his underwear is Isaak Momsen, drinking while underage. He was one of the lead Summerkids counselors. The other photo shows the counselors at the pool when Roxie drowned. Camps around the nation employ young people who evidence similar, illegal or illicit behavior. Parents should be ever-vigilant about checking social media pages of counselors before making camp decisions.
Roxie’s father Doug Forbes discovered the publicly available photo of Roxie’s buddy counselor urinating on a black-owned restaurant in Silver Lake, CA. He had proudly posted the photo on Instagram along with other photos including one with fake driver’s licenses and him running around taking photos only one day after he admitted neglecting Roxie in the Summerkids pool. His parents are Jim and Alison are well-known public persons. Jim is a veteran journalist at the Los Angeles Times, which pulled the plug at the last minute on its long-form article about Roxie’s death and her father’s investigation thereof. Alison is a University of Southern California public relations professional who called her son Hank the victim in the pool when Roxie drowned, not Roxie herself. That recording is publicly available.
According to an admission, the Summerkids camp-owning family hosted 600-900 children ages 3-15 each summer. Yet, the Director, her former assistant director and a groundskeeper were the only full time on-site staff when Roxie died on their watch. A couple dozen young counselors primarily managed the children while being paid a nominal wage.
The assistant director quit not long after Roxie drowned at Summerkids and another child suffered a sever injury. Her replacement had no camp or teaching experience. Many of the counselors did not return after Roxie died. Summerkids enrollment apparently plummeted once Doug Forbes began to uncover the facts about the camp and its operators from his years-long investigation and his media appearances.
The senior counselor at the pool was a 28-year-old couch-surfing teacher in Mississippi seen top left giving the cunnilingus sign. He admitted to abandoning the scene when Roxie was found floating dead atop the pool The counselor in the deep end believes she was a capable lifeguard despite her fraudulent certification and her playing with 4, 5 and 6 year-old children by throwing dive sticks into 8-feet of water while Roxie drowned. Former Summerkids counselors have publicly disclosed a pattern of additional issues including public underage drug and alcohol use during camp season and abandoning children in order to hang out or hook up with fellow counselors, according to multiple emails and phone calls.
These violations are supposed to be grounds for firing, according to the Summerkids handbook. However, the camp-owning family did not honor their own policies. In fact, the camp director-owner followed these and other counselors on social media and was privy to these photos and exploits that broke her rules.