Teen who was sexually assaulted a decade ago sues Montco and perpetrator

A Montgomery County, Pa. man who was sexually assaulted when he was 13 years old at the hands of the man who took him in as an adoptive parent has filed a federal lawsuit against the perpetrator and Montgomery County officials.

In his lawsuit, a man identified only as K.S.S. claims that the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth and other county government officials failed to disclose Thomas D. Diamond’s “sexually assaultive nature and/or status as a pedophile” at the time the plaintiff and his biological grandparents were introduced to Diamond by the defendants.

Beginning in the summer of 2002, and continuing for many years after the plaintiff was placed in the custody of Diamond, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, and is currently incarcerated in state prison, Diamond “exercised forcible compulsion upon Plaintiff and sexually abused, molested, and indecently assaulted then minor Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states.

The complaint, which was filed Feb. 15 at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by Philadelphia attorney Jonathan M. Cohen, alleges that Diamond also invited adult males over to “gang rape” the plaintiff.

Diamond’s live-in companion, “Alonzo,” also participated in the rapes, the suit states.

In June 2005, “Alonzo” alerted local police about K.S.S.’s victimization, the suit states.

Police charged Diamond with a host of sexual offenses. After pleading guilty, Diamond was sentenced to five to 10 years in state prison.

The civil action claims that as a result of the “reckless, deliberate indifference, conscience-shocking and wrongful conduct of all Defendants,” K.S.S. suffered deprivations of his constitutional rights.

Additional injuries included post traumatic stress disorder, extreme anxiety and dysfunction, past and future anxiety of leaving his home, past and future mental anguish, past and future humiliation and embarrassment, past and future loss of life’s pleasures, past and future earnings capacity loss, need for psychological and/or psychiatric care and past and future emotional distress.

The lawsuit contains counts of assault and battery, negligence and recklessness, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, various counts of civil rights violations, and state created danger claims.

The latter refers to the claim that the Montgomery County Office of Children & Youth Services and the county itself failed to properly train employees so as to ensure pedophiles wouldn’t become foster or adoptive parents.

For each of the count listed in the lawsuit, the plaintiff demands judgment in excess of $150,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, exclusive of pre-and-post-judgment interest.

A jury trial has been demanded.

The federal case number is 2:12-cv-00816-RB.