'Dr. Phil' Guest Was Sexually Assaulted by Staff at Treatment Center He Recommended, Lawsuit Claims

Dr. Phil McGraw has come under fire after Hannah Archuleta, who appeared on Dr. Phil in 2019 when she was 17, alleged that she was sexually assaulted at Turn-About Ranch in Escalante, Utah, a location that the host told her to attend, per The Sun. The Turn-About Ranch considers itself to be a Christian residential treatment program for troubled teenagers. Archuleta, now 19, filed a lawsuit against the ranch in regards to these claims, but she did not accuse McGraw of any wrongdoing.

Archuleta, who is being represented by attorney Gloria Allred, claims that she was taken to the location in 2019 after appearing on Dr. Phil, during which the host recommended that she go to the ranch for treatment. She alleges that she was sexually assaulted multiple times by a male staff member at the facility. In a Feb. 24 statement, Archuleta said that she wants "justice and I do not want what happened to me to happen to anyone else." The 19-year-old claims in her lawsuit that within two weeks of her arrival to the facility, a man groped her in one of the Turn-About Ranch's barnyard areas. She claims that after the abuse took place, she let the staff at the facility know.

Archuleta claims that the Turn-About Ranch "took no remedial action" after she reported the alleged abuse and that they "retaliated against Ms Archuleta by subjecting her to both physical and emotional abuse to silence her." Archuleta originally appeared on an episode of Dr. Phil that aired in October 2019. Following her time on the show, she was transported to the ranch. She said in a statement, "At that time, I was seventeen years old and suffering from many life traumas. I had recently learned that my mother was terminally ill with liver failure, and I was very vulnerable and heartbroken." She claims that after telling staff about the alleged abuse, she dealt with alleged physical abuse, including the barring of her use of the facilities.

"I was required to spend extra time picking up horse manure, walking in circles around a horse corral, and sitting at a desk facing a wall for hours," Archuleta claims. "I also had to do forced labor outside in below-freezing temperatures, and sleep on a wooden plank with no pillow." The Sun asked both Dr. Phil and the Turn-About Ranch for comment, but they did not respond by the time of their report's publication. Although, the ranch did issue a statement to KSTU in which they "strongly" denied "the allegations put forward in Ms. Allred's press conference."