More than 200 different defendants, including 24 men and women, claim that Maryland Department of Juvenile Services workers sexually abused them while they were incarcerated as immature detainees as kids.
The office and the state failed to adequately acquiesce to people, train and guide staff, and implement and maintain policies preventing physical abuse, according to a new complaint filed on Thursday in Baltimore Circuit Court by the New York law firm Levy Konigsberg and Brown Kiely.
Since October, when the Child Victims Act ended the moment limitations for filing sexual abuse claims, individuals who claim they were abused as adolescents in Maryland services have filed at least 10 claims against the Department of Juvenile Services.
The other claimants include 20 people who were at the original Thomas J. S. Waxter Children’s Center in Laurel, 37 think at the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County, five people at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, 25 people at the Cheltenham Youth Detention Center in Prince George’s County, and 63 grownups at 15 different adolescent facilities.
Some of the plaintiffs in Thursday’s complaint, identified in the complaint by their initials, were as young as 12 years old when they were allegedly abused at juvenile facilities. The complaint lists various state-wide DJS facilities and details abuse that dates back to the 1980s to the 2010s.
One 12- year- old boy was abused by four officers, two men and two women, at the former Thomas J. S. Waxter Children’s Center in the late 1980s during multiple stints in detention. They physically assaulted him in the bathroom, and one officer specifically abused him at least 25 times.
Around the same time, a staff member who was detained at Waxter threatened to extend her sentence by adding that a judge would impose a maximum sentence of 20 years in addition. The woman called the girl a” throwaway” and “meaningless”, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, guards and other staff attempted to bribe victims by offering them privileges and extra food and making threats of physical abuse or longer sentences so they would n’t report the abuse. Some alleged abusers were given nicknames or physical descriptions, but according to the complaint, plaintiffs hope to find out who they are during legal action.
A Hickey School employee threatened to inform other detainees that a 17-year-old was a” snitch” to deter him from reporting abuse in 1982. The staff member informed other detainees that the teen was a witness in a murder trial and that he had consented to have him physically assault him after he resisted an attempted rape.
Two decades later, a different staff member who sexually abused a teenage boy at the Hickey School in 2001-2002 choked him until he lost consciousness and hit him to frighten him into refusing to report the abuse, according to the complaint.
One teen did report to three staff members about the abuse she experienced at Waxter when she was between the ages of 12 and 16 years old, according to the complaint.
” Survivors of systematic, institutional sexual abuse at Maryland juvenile detention centers are continuing to come forward and seek justice. These recent filings reveal a consistent pattern of widespread sexual abuse in Maryland’s dysfunctional juvenile justice system, according to Levy Konigbserg attorney Jerome Block in a statement. The courageous women and men who are bringing these cases to justice, accountability, and ending sexual abuse in Maryland juvenile detention facilities are their words.
A Department of Juvenile Services spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
In response to other lawsuits, spokesperson Eric Solomon stated in December that the department is taking allegations of sexual abuse of children in our care very seriously and that we are working hard to provide decent, humane, and rehabilitative environments for youth placed in the department’s custody.
The plaintiffs are individually requesting damages from the department and the state in excess of$ 75, 000, according to the complaint filed on Thursday. It does not list a dollar amount that plaintiffs are asking for.
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