CHALLENGER FOUNDATION DUCKS ONE LAWSUIT BUT IS SLAPPED WITH ANOTHER

Joe Costanzo

The Deseret News

Flanked by lawyers and the people whom she had accused of kidnapping and mistreating her, Elizabeth Zasso told a roomful of reporters Tuesday that she dropped her $242 million lawsuit against the Challenger Foundation on her own.

"No one has forced me to do this," the Mount Kisco, N.Y., teenager said in a brief statement. "I would like to stay home and get on with my life."

On the advice of her new lawyers, Zasso refused to say anything more on the subject, responding, "No comment" to questions about the accusations she is now recanting and assertions that she was coerced into filing the lawsuit.

Zasso, 17, alleged in August that she had been forcibly abducted in New York at the direction of her parents and taken to southern Utah, where she was enrolled in the 63-day Challenger wilderness behavior modification program. She said she was strip-searched, starved and forced to march through the desert with a broken toe.

On Tuesday, she said she was "a better person for my experience" but would not say whether she still had complaints about the program.

The press conference was arranged by Challenger Foundation officials, who used the opportunity to lash out at Zasso's former attorney, Michael K. Mohrman. Foundation director Steve Cartisano and Zasso's parents accused Mohrman of coercing the girl and of pursuing the litigation for selfish reasons.

Even as they were speaking, Mohrman was preparing to file a second lawsuit against the Delaware-based Challenger Foundation on behalf of a South Carolina teenager and her parents. The suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court Tuesday afternoon, accuses Challenger personnel of assault and battery, false imprisonment, fraud and other abuses.

During the press conference on the Zasso case, Challenger attorney Gene Thorne called Mohrman's conduct "unconscionable" and said the organization may take legal action against him. Cartisano said Zasso's suit had cost his company "millions" in lost business and $500,000 in legal expenses.

Mohrman responded, "I refuse to say anything negative about Elizabeth Zasso. I feel like I acted in all good faith . . . and it troubles me that I've become the focal point of all this."

He noted that 3rd District Judge Dennis Frederick had questioned the girl alone in chambers last year to determine whether she was acting in her own best interest.

"After two days of hearings, (Frederick) released her to herself and then asked this firm to represent her," Mohrman said. "I categorically deny that anything this firm did was improper."

In a two-minute court hearing before the two-hour press conference, U.S. District Chief Judge Bruce S. Jenkins dismissed Zasso's suit, saying, "I don't have any problem with that."

Everyone but the judge then adjourned to the Salt Lake Hilton at the invitation of Challenger's publicist. There, a battery of New York lawyers and Zasso's parents declared victory against what one of them characterized as a "bastardization" of the legal system.

Attorney Charles Brofman, representing Zasso's parents, said, "What goes on in that desert is not child abuse."

Ann Zasso, Elizabeth's mother, said she enrolled her daughter in the Challenger program as a last resort. The girl was promiscuous and was experimenting with drugs and alcohol from the time she was in junior high school, her mother said.

"I was trying to get this girl help," said Ann Zasso, who was reunited with her daughter in April.

The family lives in an affluent New York community and became acquainted with the Challenger program through a nationwide advertising campaign. Enrollment in the program currently costs $15,900.

All the major players in the case have appeared on network talk shows _ including a "Phil Donahue Show" segment that was screened for the benefit of reporters Tuesday _ and the story has been told in newspapers, magazines and personality tabloids across the country.

Cartisano said he held no grudges against the girl, adding, "Finally, a long ordeal has ended."

Attorney Joseph Tringali, who was hired by Elizabeth Zasso's aunt to represent her, defended his client's silence against persistent reporters who wanted to know which of her two stories is true.

"We did not call this press conference," Tringali said, explaining that Elizabeth Zasso had agreed to participate only because she felt obliged to make a statement.