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Family settles lawsuit in Wake molestation case
Oren Dorell, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- The parents of a Wake County girl who was molested by her foster brother almost nine years ago settled a lawsuit Monday against state and county agencies who placed the boy with the family.
The girl, now 11, was awarded $60,000 to be placed in trust of the Wake County clerk of court to pay for psychological treatment until she is 18. The settlement is equivalent to a $310,000 award had the case gone to trial and the jury found the agencies liable, because county and state agencies are immune for the first $250,000 of an award, the parents' lawyer, Elizabeth Kuniholm, told Wake Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand on Monday.
After the proceedings were over, County Attorney Michael R. Ferrell said that, despite the settlement, the county never accepted liability for the abuse.
The case pitted a couple and their daughter against the NC Department of Health and Human Services (formerly Human Resources), the Wake County Department of Human Services (formerly Social Services), Wake County Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services and numerous department heads and social workers in those agencies.
The lawsuit alleged that social workers failed to notify the family that the boy came from a family with a history of sexual abuse and that he could be a threat to their toddler girl. The boy was the first foster child placed with the family, according to documents supplied by Kuniholm. The abuse happened on the girl's third birthday.
It is The News & Observer's policy not to identify victims of sexual abuse.
Kuniholm sought but never obtained confidential records about the boy from Wake County Juvenile Court, Wake Social Services and Wake County Mental Health.
She did obtain a summary of a Wake County Sheriff's investigation that was provided to the county's attorneys.
The investigator wrote that a DSS social worker said the boy saw sexual abuse occurring in his home involving his siblings, that there was sexual activity occurring between the children and that some time after he was removed from the family home in 1989 he was found in bed with a girl and another boy while staying in a group home in Garner.
The social worker, John Harvey, said counselors told the host family about possible physical abuse but not about any possible sexual abuse, according to the investigator's notes.
© 2002 by The News & Observer Pub. Co. Reprinted with permission of The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina. Reproduction does not imply endorsement.