Fifty Survivors File Maryland Lawsuit for Sex Abuse in Juvenile Facilities

Fifty sexual abuse survivors have opened a lawsuit against the Maryland government, alleging rampant sexual abuse of young people in six of the states juvenile justice facilities over five decades, Erin Cox and Steve Thompson report for the Washington Post. Lawyers said they have several hundred additional clients, most of whom they expect to add as plaintiffs.

The 50 plaintiffs range from a man who says he was molested in 1962 at the age of 7, to a woman who says she was repeatedly raped at the age of 12 in an administrator’s office in 1984, to a man who said he was sexually assaulted at 16 by two separate perpetrators in 2011 or 2012. The lawsuits allege repeated rape or molestation of children in state custody, neglect by the state in failing to prevent the abuse, and a lack of effective procedures to monitor staffers with patterns or histories of illegal behavior. Similar lawsuits have been filed against a private school, Catholic parishes, and the Archdiocese of Washington since the Maryland Child Victims Act took effect Sunday, eliminating the civil statute of limitations.