State pays $3 million to woman who gave birth at 12 years old
Mar 11, 2014, 1:14 PM | Updated: 4:29 pm
The state will pay $3 million to a woman who got pregnant at age eleven and suffered years of abuse by her mother’s boyfriend.
The pregnancy was in 1995, but the woman did not report the abuse until years later.
The woman’s Seattle attorney said the state failed the girl, known by the initials ‘R.R.’
“The failure to investigate a 12-year-old who showed up at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane and investigate that for abuse and investigate the reason she was there and pregnant,” said Michael Pfau.
The state denies any wrongdoing. It claims it did investigate the case.
“When you have the physical evidence, a girl impregnated at eleven, giving birth at 12, and an implausible story — that it was another 11-year-old at school — you need to investigate that,” said Pfau.
The woman was first allowed to use the Internet at age 27 and Pfau said she discussed the abuse in a chat room.
“It allowed her to talk about her experience to her family and allowed her to begin to deal with the issue,” said Phau. She eventually filed a lawsuit in Pierce County.
The woman, now 31 years old, has two children, including the child born in 1995.
