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Lawsuit claims Utah rehab ranch broke its admittance rules by allowing a drug-addicted teen — who killed a staffer — into its program

The wife of an employee who was beaten to death by a teen drug addict withdrawing at a Utah rehab ranch is suing the Garfield County facility for admitting the boy to the program, which she alleges wasn’t the proper setting for his treatment.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in 6th District Court on behalf of Brenda Woolsey, claims Clay Brewer, then 17, should have never been at Turn-About Ranch on Dec. 6, 2016, when he woke up “feeling heartless” and later beat to death 61-year-old ranch staffer Jimmy Woolsey with a metal bar.

Brewer was convicted of murder and aggravated assault in connection with Woolsey’s death and an attack on another staffer, and sentenced to five years to life in prison in October.