FAIRMOUNT BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SEXUAL ABUSE LAWSUITS

Fighting for Survivors Abused at Fairmount Behavioral Health in Pennsylvania

Fairmount Behavioral Health is a private mental health facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The hospital is operated by Universal Health Services (UHS) and offers inpatient and outpatient services. 

There have been allegations of sexual abuse involving Fairmount Behavioral Health System in Pennsylvania. Reports and lawsuits allege that patients at the facility experienced abuse from staff members and fellow patients. 

Now, a growing number of survivors are stepping forward to seek justice and hold Fairmount Behavioral Health accountable for the abuse or assaults they suffered. 

If you or someone you love were sexually abused at Fairmount Behavioral Health, you may have grounds to pursue legal action and financial recovery of your damages. Attorneys at Levy Konigsberg want to help. Our team has extensive experience litigating sexual abuse lawsuits on behalf of survivors and knows how to help survivors fight back.

History of Abuse at Fairmount Behavioral Health

Civil lawsuits and criminal charges have been filed regarding Fairmount Behavioral Health and its staff in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, following a string of alleged assaults, rapes. These incidents have prompted investigations and raised concerns about the safety and oversight within the facility. Investigations have indicated that negligence at Fairmount Behavioral Health created an environment conducive to abuse and exposed patients at the hospital to sexual abuse. Examples of sexual abuse in Fairmount Behavioral Health include the following:

• In April 2021, Michael McIntosh, a former Fairmount Behavioral Health employee, pled guilty to sexually abusing a female patient at the institution in 2020. The victim was admitted to the Philadelphia facility following a failed suicide attempt and was assigned to a mixed-gender wing. McIntosh raped her in her bathroom as she was finishing up her shower. After leaving the hospital, the victim reported the event to the police. McIntosh admitted to Institutional Sexual Assault, a class 3 felony.
• In 2020, a news agency reported that it examined dispatch records to determine the frequency of police calls at Fairmount Behavioral Health throughout five years, beginning in 2015 and ending at the end of 2019. According to the records, there were around 100 police responses to the facility on suspicion of rape, assault, and other sexual offenses. 
• In 2017, a former patient of Fairmount Behavioral Health filed a lawsuit against the hospital, claiming that another patient, Montez Hewlett, had sexually assaulted her during her admission. Hewlett had a history of violent sexual assaults, including a rape conviction, and was a registered sexual offender at the time. The lawsuit claims that Fairmount Behavioral Health should have known about Hewlett’s history and current status as a sexual offender, but they chose to grant him unmonitored and unlimited access to the victim, allowing him to rape and sexually assault her.

Do I Have a Case?

You may have grounds to file a civil legal action if:

• You were sexually abused by a guard, counselor, nurse, or other youth residential treatment or juvenile detention center staff member.
• The abuse occurred at any youth residential treatment or juvenile detention facility.

Levy Konigsberg represents survivors in civil lawsuits that aim to hold youth residential treatment facilities,  juvenile detention centers, private healthcare companies, and other facility operators accountable for their failures to stop abusive staff members and protect young residents.

As civil claims, these cases are separate from any criminal proceedings that may arise from abuse and focus instead on holding institutions liable for damages. This means you may still have a claim even if:

• Your abuser is no longer alive.
• Your abuser was never charged with or convicted of a crime.

Recoverable Damages in Sexual Abuse Claims

In addition to providing accountability and a sense of justice, civil sex abuse lawsuits allow survivors to recover financial compensation for their damages, which may include:

• Past medical and mental health expenses
• Future mental health expenses, including therapy, medications, etc.
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional anguish and psychological harm
• Lost income
• Other economic and non-economic damages

Pennsylvania Sexual Abuse  Attorneys

In Pennsylvania, the current statute of limitations for civil sex abuse claims is the age of adulthood plus 37 years, which means that survivors sexually abused as minors typically have until the age of 55 to file legal action, as long as they were born after November 26, 1989.

As in other states across the country, Pennsylvania’s current statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims has been criticized for barring numerous survivors from seeking justice and compensation for their damages and for failing to recognize accepted research about the considerable difficulties survivors face when processing their abuse and taking steps to come forward. Thanks to new efforts by advocates and lawmakers, however, there are now several pending measures before the Pennsylvania Legislature that seek to expand the rights of child sex abuse survivors.

These groundbreaking measures, which are expected to pass, will create new opportunities for survivors to step forward and obtain long-overdue justice. If passed, these measures would create a temporary two-year window for child sexual abuse survivors to file claims over abuse that occurred at any time in the past.

Levy Konigsberg is actively investigating allegations of sexual abuse at any Pennsylvania juvenile detention and youth residential treatment centers.

We are committed to protecting the most vulnerable members of our society and seeking justice for survivors of sexual abuse in juvenile detention centers and youth residential treatment facilities. Our experienced team is dedicated to providing legal representation and support to survivors, and we are actively investigating allegations of abuse. We are working tirelessly to ensure that survivors have access to justice and that future generations of young people are safe from harm within these institutions.