Randall J. Mackendrick, the 59-year-old chief executive of Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents in St. Clairsville, was booked into the Lorain County Jail early Saturday morning on four separate criminal counts, including importuning and unlawful sexual contact with a minor. The arrest came less than a month after a major investigation exposed years of unreported violence and safety failures at the psychiatric facility he has run since 2016.
According to WTOV, the sheriff's website lists the charges against Mackendrick as importuning, unlawful sexual contact with a minor, disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile, and possessing criminal tools. Booking records reviewed for this report show he was taken into custody at 1:16 a.m. on August 29 under Booking ID 2026-00211149, placing his arrest in Lorain County — far from Fox Run's home base in Belmont County, where he has spent his career overseeing pediatric residential psychiatric care. WTOV reported that additional details about the arrest were not immediately available.
Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2907.07, importuning covers soliciting a minor, or someone believed to be a minor, for sexual activity — a charge often applied in cases involving electronic or internet communications. The possessing criminal tools count, a fifth-degree felony under Ohio Revised Code Section 2923.24, typically applies when prosecutors allege an everyday item such as a cell phone or computer was used with intent to commit a felony sex offense, according to Patituce & Associates. It remains an open question whether the charges against Mackendrick are connected in any way to his role at Fox Run or stem from conduct entirely separate from his job. Mackendrick is presumed innocent of all pending charges unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
A Facility Already Under Scrutiny
Fox Run is a 100-bed psychiatric residential treatment facility housing children and teenagers ages 5 to 17, with placements arranged through parents, foster agencies, and juvenile courts across Ohio. The center is owned and operated by subsidiaries of Universal Health Services, the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based Fortune 500 hospital management giant that runs hundreds of acute care and behavioral health facilities nationwide.
Mackendrick has led Fox Run as CEO since roughly 2016, bringing more than 30 years of experience as a licensed counselor specializing in pediatric residential psychiatric care, according to The Intelligencer. He holds a master's degree from The Citadel and maintains a South Carolina counselor license. Just five weeks before his arrest, Hoodline reported on teens who risked everything to escape the facility amid a damning investigation into its safety record.
Investigation Found Dozens Of Missing Incident Reports
That investigation, published July 30 by The Marshall Project, found that local law enforcement responded to Fox Run on average once every 21 days between 2020 and 2025, handling 52 reported assaults and 17 sexual assaults over that span. The report also found that at least 40 law-enforcement-documented incidents at the facility — including assaults, hospitalizations, and juvenile arrests — were missing from Ohio's official state incident reporting database. When interviewed for that report, Mackendrick maintained that a state review found some incidents were non-reportable while others were appropriately reported.
Separate state inspection reports documented 126 suicide attempts at Fox Run between January 2022 and June 2025, along with state citations for understaffing and unsafe physical restraints, per Healthcare Dive. Residential youth facilities in Ohio fall under licensing and oversight from state mental health authorities, though the gaps identified in the reporting database raised questions about how effectively that oversight has functioned at Fox Run specifically.
Part Of A Broader National Pattern
The concerns at Fox Run echo findings from a 2024 U.S. Senate Finance Committee investigation into Universal Health Services and three other major behavioral health providers, which documented systemic safety failures, neglect, and oversight problems across youth residential facilities nationwide. Congressional investigators launched that probe after widespread reports of safety issues at corporate-run behavioral health centers, situating Fox Run's troubles within a much larger reckoning for the industry.
No information has been released indicating whether Mackendrick's arrest in Lorain County is connected to his executive duties at Fox Run or the facility's ongoing scrutiny. As the criminal case proceeds, the questions raised by the July investigation into unreported incidents, understaffing, and resident safety at the facility remain unresolved.
