Former Rep. Mike Thompson, an Orem Republican, makes the claim in documents filed in a lawsuit brought by Cascade Center for Family Growth in Orem against www.kidscomefirst.info. Cascade, the only facility in Utah to use the therapy, claimed the Web site defamed it by wrongly linking it to the deaths of several children.

But the center folded after director Larry VanBloem died in a car crash in December. Since then, Utah’s Division of Occupational Licensing put Van- Bloem’s business partner Jennie Gwilliam on probation, demanding she stop practicing holding therapy.

Now, the center’s attorney has offered to drop the 2004 lawsuit if the site’s creator, Alan Misbach, abandons a counterclaim that seeks monetary damages.

Misbach said Wednesday he won’t settle unless Cascade pays his attorneys’ fees and agrees not to sue him again. Defending Misbach, Thompson and other witnesses have filed affidavits accusing Cascade, its supporters and Orem attorney Ron Wilkinson of conspiring to silence them.

Thompson first proposed banning holding therapy in the 2003 Legislative session. His bill cleared the House by a wide margin but died in committee. He says he planned to try again the next session, but in the fall of 2003, Wilkinson and VanBloem warned his "reputation and career would be ruined" if he did not withdraw his proposed ban.

The former lawmaker blames his failed 2004 re-election bid on a "door-to-door" campaign that he says VanBloem organized against him. He also cites a breach-of-ethics charge filed against him by Cascade supporter Laura Thalin as proof of "pressure coordinated by and on behalf of Cascade."

Thompson complained to the Utah Attorney General’s Office, asserting Cascade was harassing him and interfering with his duties as a legislator in violation of Utah law.

But Assistant Attorney General Kirk Torgensen says threatening a lawsuit doesn’t necessarily qualify as a crime.

Thalin joined Cascade in suing Misbach, arguing false information on his site sullied her reputation. She "emphatically" denies trying to intimidate Thompson. Thalin works for Hope for the Children, a foundation that raised money for Cascade.

"He would love to blame the election on us. But he lost that race on his own," Thalin said, encouraging Misbach to accept the settlement offer. "Holding therapy is gone. It’s time to put this behind us and move on."

Wilkinson did not respond Wednesday to attempts to reach him for comment.

Cascade had been at the center of debate over whether holding therapy is a last resort for parents of troubled children - or quackery - since the 2002 death of Cassandra Killpack, 4. Her adoptive parents were accused of force-feeding her fatal amounts of water as a form of punishment. The Springville couple said they learned the tactic at Cascade.

But prosecutors cleared Cascade, which denied the couple’s claim, of any wrongdoing.

In another affidavit, Christopher Barden, a psychologist, attorney and vocal critic of coercive restraint therapy, argues Wilkinson should be disciplined by Provo’s 4th District Judge James R. Taylor. Barden claims Wilkinson filed a lawsuit against him - related to Barden’s testimony in a family law case - to dissuade him from participating in the state’s licensing investigation into Cascade’s therapeutic practices.

Thalin blames Misbach and others for continuing to fan controversy over Cascade.

"He started this battle and now he has an opportunity to finish it in an honorable and respectful way," Thalin said of the settlement offer. "The only horrible thing that happened at Cascade is Larry died and now these families are left without help for their kids."

But Misbach says information on his Web site is accurate and his counter offer "is a fair deal considering the strength of our defense."

A hearing on the matter is scheduled this afternoon.

kstewart@sltrib.com

Holding therapy defined

Holding therapy is commonly associated with other coercive restraint or treatments designed for autistic adults, but also used for teenagers and younger children with "attachment disorders" and infants with "residual birth trauma."

Critics have implicated unorthodox rebirthing or immersion therapies in the strangling or drowning of young children.

But practitioners of holding therapy in Utah distinguish it from these treatments and say in involves gently holding or covering a patient in blankets and gently prodding his or her abdomen to release pent-up rage.