Washington settles sex abuse lawsuit for $3M

March 15, 2013 @ 7:42 pm

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington's Department of Social and Health Services says it has reached a $3 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by a young woman who was sexually abused by a staffer at a Lakewood mental health facility when she was a patient.

In a statement Friday, DSHS also said the agreement resolves the woman's claims against the superintendent of the Child Study and Treatment Center at the time of the abuse more than a decade ago.

The state says the lawsuit alleged that supervisors failed to properly monitor a staff member who had sex with the young woman when she was a patient from 2001-2003. Center administrators fired the male staffer when the abuse was disclosed. DSHS says he later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal charges.

Agency spokesman Thomas Shapley says DSHS "deeply regrets what happened to this young woman."

The agency's statement says supervision policies at the center have been strengthened in the past 10 years.


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (2)


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  • maplefish wrote...
    Way to Bury this story MYNW
    December 12, 2012 9:50 pm
    Another colossal failure by the disgraceful DSHS government money pit... How much tax payer money do they pay in lawsuits every yer? It's got to be close to $100 MILLION every eF ing YEAR! Shame on you and your cover-up chickenshit liberal journalism.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Hayduke wrote...
    I know what you mean, MF. Their just like the catholic Church, aren't they.
    March 15, 2013 7:05 pm
    Except DSHS didn't engage in a decades long conspiracy to cover it up and shuffle pedophile employees off to a new office.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }