CA - Child sex abuse lawsuit filed

It targets Sacramento children’s home

For immediate release: Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014

For more information: Dr. Joseph C. George (916-641-7300,[email protected])

A civil child sex abuse lawsuit has been filed against the Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento alleging that it negligently supervised one of its counselors and failed to meaningfully investigate a complaint that was made to the home about the employee.

The suit against the facility (3555 Auburn Blvd., 916-482-2370) was filed in Sacramento County Superior Court on January 10. The victim, who was sexually abused by a counselor at the home, was initially placed there around September 2012.

The victim’s sister, who was employed at the home, reported to administrators that the victim had confided that the counselor wanted a more intimate relationship with the minor. The victim also disclosed to her sister that she and another resident at Children’s Receiving Home had gone to the defendant employee’s home and drank alcohol to the point of inebriation. The victim also disclosed that she was exposed to marijuana through the Children’s Receiving Home employee.

“Despite all this information and these warnings, the Children’s Receiving Home did not fire the employee, and never interviewed the victim as part of their ‘investigation,’” said attorney/psychologist Dr. Joseph C. George (916-641-7300, [email protected]) who, along with Stewart Katz, is representing the minor. “As a result of the failure to take action by defendant Children’s Receiving Home, the victim’s sister called police, the counselor was arrested, pled guilty and was sentenced to a year in county jail. While the mother of this victim is very sad that her daughter was sexually abused by a counselor at the Children’s Receiving Home, she is also saddened that the Children’s Receiving Home did not turn the complaint about their counselor over to police in a timely manner or otherwise competently conduct an inhouse investigation. The victim and her mother are extremely grateful to law enforcement officials who believed this young victim and took action accordingly.”

“Sometimes, those who commit child sex crimes are punished. Too rarely, however, are those who conceal child sex crimes punished,” said David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “If kids are to be better protected, that must change. We applaud this brave family for using the justice system to expose and deter such reckless and callous misconduct by Home officials.”

“If takes a lot of courage to take action against child predators and officials who employ them,” said Joelle Casteix of Orange County CA, SNAP’s western regional director. “We hope the courage of this family will inspire others who were molested as kids to come forward, call police, expose wrongdoing and protect children.”

The victim’s mother also stated that it seemed to her that the administrators of the Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento made a choice to protect their own reputation and its employees who represented a danger to the children charged to their care.