Lack of charges delays arraignments in Nye County boarding school case
Formal charges have not yet been filed against the operators of Northwest Academy and a former staff member, forcing postponement of their scheduled arraignments in the ongoing child abuse and contaminated water investigation at the private boarding school in Amargosa Valley.
The operators, Marcel and Patricia Chappuis, as well as former shift supervisor Caleb Hill, were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday morning in Beatty Justice Court, but the hearings were postponed to May 21, pending charges in the case.
It was not clear why the three have not yet been formally charged.
Nye County District Attorney Chris Arabia declined to comment Tuesday, while requests for comment from the suspects’ respective attorneys were not immediately returned.
Marcel Chappuis, 72, a psychologist who owns Northwest Academy, and his 66-year-old wife, Patricia, were arrested late Feb. 12 in Las Vegas and posted bail two days later after having been transferred to the Nye County Detention Center. They each face 43 counts of allowing child abuse or neglect.
Most of the counts stem from an investigation into the school’s tap water, which officials have said contains high levels of arsenic. But Patricia Chappuis also faces two felony counts of child abuse or neglect in connection with “previous physical altercations with students,” according to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.
The contaminated water was discovered while the Sheriff’s Office was investigating unrelated allegations of child abuse against Hill, 29, by a former employee and a former student. Hill was arrested Jan. 29, one day after the official investigation had been launched, on suspicion of child abuse. He later posted bail, according to a Beatty Justice Court administrator.
Investigators determined that the Northwest Academy’s water had been contaminated for more than two years and that school officials had been limiting students to three small water bottles daily.
Following the couple’s arrest, the state Division of Public and Behavioral Health took steps to shut down the school, and by Feb. 14, the school had surrendered its child care license, and all students had been relocated.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.
