LANCASTER COUNTY JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER SEXUAL ABUSE LAWSUITS

Fighting for Survivors Abused at Lancaster County Juvenile Detention Center

Lancaster County Juvenile Center is a state-run facility that offers custody, shelter care, and alternative treatment programs to males and females aged 10 to 18 adjudicated or awaiting trial. However, lawsuits and investigations have uncovered cases of sexual abuse of minor inmates by the detention center staff.

Now, a growing number of survivors are stepping forward to file civil lawsuits to hold the state authorities and Lancaster Juvenile Detention Center administrators accountable for the physical and sexual abuse they experienced and for the Center’s failure to fulfill their duty of care. 

If you or someone you love were sexually abused at Lancaster County Juvenile Detention Center, Pennsylvania, 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 Sexual Abuse in Lancaster County Youth Intervention Center

The problematic history of sexual abuse at the Lancaster County Youth Intervention Center has been documented by high-profile legal filings, criminal indictments, and sweeping investigations. The facts uncovered during these various investigations showed that the juvenile detention center failed to enact safety measures and other policies to protect the children. Their negligence and inadequate reporting of abuse exposed children at the Center to sexual abuse, often by Youth Intervention Center staff for many years. Examples of sexual abuse in the detention center include the following: 

• In March 2020, five women who suffered from sexual assault at the hands of a county employee at the Youth Intervention Center when they were minors received a total of $1.3 million as a settlement from Lancaster County. The amounts, combined with another victim’s $400,000 payout earlier in the year, make up one of the most significant settlements in the county’s history.
• In February 2020, Lancaster County consented to pay $400,000 to resolve allegations made by a victim who, at the age of 15, was detained at the Lancaster County Youth Intervention Center and had been sexually assaulted by  David Stevenson, a former employee of the juvenile detention center. Five female minors at the Center were the victims of several sexual assaults committed by Stevenson when he worked there from 2016 to 2017. The lawsuit claims that the Center received four complaints regarding his behavior with female residents before Stevenson’s arrest, but it took no action.
• In 2018, David T. Stevenson, 52, a former staff member at a Lancaster County adolescent detention center, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing five minors at the facility. He pleaded guilty to a variety of sex abuse charges, including aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact, institutional sexual assault, minor corruption, and criminal solicitation. Stevenson was a youth care worker in 2016 and 2017 when he abused females aged 15 to 17. 

He persuaded one of the victims to attempt suicide so that she could be transferred to another facility, where he hoped to pick her up. Stevenson also offered money to two girls in exchange for sex, and he made sexually explicit remarks to all of them.

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.