Man who led sleepovers charged with abuse

Benjamin Schragger was known as Lord Ben the Steward at "The Farm," a peaceful retreat where children gathered for sleepovers and re-enacted medieval history under Schragger`s supervision. That serenity was shattered when Schragger, 42, was charged with abusing children, allegations that are fragmenting parents and alumni from the Society for Creative Anachronism into camps of support and outrage. Prosecutors say Schragger abused 10 children, ages 7 to 14, from June 1999 to August this year. He faces charges ranging from indecent assault to rape. Schragger was a leader at the SCA, a worldwide organization with more than 90,000 members, for more than 10 years. On weekends, up to 20 children would gather to sew period dresses, make chain mail armor and engage in mock battles. The activities put him in contact with dozens, if not hundreds, of children over the years. At a preliminary hearing last week, a 15-year-old boy testified that Schragger forced him and two of the teen`s younger female relatives to perform sex acts on one another. Two boys, ages 7 and 8, said Schragger fondled them. One Schragger supporter, Jessica Harton, 18, spent weekends at the farm from ages 12 to 15. She said she cannot imagine Schragger is guilty. Harton said she was sexually abused by her father as a child and had to testify in court as an 8-year-old. "Ben ... proved to me that not all men are bad. He made it clear that it was OK that a man can just hug you and that`s all it was," said Harton. Others are not so trusting. "The parents I`ve talked to are enraged," Bob Leone, of Broomall, told The Morning Call of Allentown last week. Leone and other parents declined to comment for this story. Schragger`s lawyer, John Waldron, said Schragger maintains his innocence and that "there`s no evidence that he`s committed these acts." At the court hearing, Schragger had two black eyes and a gash across his nose from a jailhouse beating, Waldron said. He remains jailed on $10 million bond. The farm is five miles outside the one-stop-sign town of New Tripoli, 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Schragger, who lives with his parents, runs a film and graphics company there. The Society for Creative Anachronism`s largest event, held annually 35 miles outside Pittsburgh, attracts 12,000 people. "We try to recreate things from the Middle Ages that we think are missing today, like courtesy, chivalry, honor ... and leave out things like the plague," said Meg Baron, the group`s national president. Baron said the weekend sleepovers were not a formal SCA function, and that the group may create new national policies as an outcome of the case. Capt. Scott Snyder, a state police commander, and Matthew Falk, a Lehigh County prosecutor, said they stand by the investigation. Neither would comment further.