PHILADELPHIA – Both the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services and Turning Points for Children deny liability for physical and emotional abuse a 19-year-old woman said she suffered during the time those entities placed her in a foster home as a child.
Brianna Donahue first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Aug. 2 versus the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services and Turning Points for Children. All parties are of Philadelphia.
“On or about Sept. 18, 2017, DHS placed plaintiff with family members after a determination of dependency by Judge Lyris Younge. DHS sought to remove plaintiff from her family and attempted to destroy the family bond between plaintiff and her siblings and mother. At the time of the placement, plaintiff was 15 years old and objected to being separated from her mother and sister. Regardless of her preference, Judge Younge removed her from her mother’s care and placed her in kinship care. Judge Younge’s order resulted in the separation of plaintiff from her mother and siblings,” the suit said.
“Plaintiff was removed from a kinship placement and placed with another family member. DHS removed her from the care of this family member, as it failed to investigate that individual’s background and abruptly discovered information related to a criminal conviction that rendered the family member unable to act as a kinship resource. Plaintiff was then moved to another kinship placement where she remained until 2018.”
At that point, Donahue was placed with a foster parent, who is unnamed as neither the City of Philadelphia nor Turning Points have definitively identified this parent sufficient to include the parent in this suit, and the plaintiff is unsure of the exact name of the parent.
The placement was in Philadelphia through Turning Points for Children, which acted as the Community Umbrella Agency (CUA) in the supervision of plaintiff’s dependency case, still active at that time with the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas and Judge Lyris Younge.
“At the foster care home, plaintiff was abused physically, verbally and emotionally by the foster parent and other children in the house. Plaintiff was starved by the foster parent and kept from eating on a daily basis,” according to the suit.
“Plaintiff was verbally and physically abused by the other children in the home of the foster parent, including being kicked, punched, thrown to the ground, spat on, beaten with objects, taunted, jeered, teased, and mocked. At times, tie taunting and mocking related to her race, which was different than the foster parent and the other children in the home. Plaintiff suffered bruising and scrapes to her body, along with emotional and psychological injuries related to the physical abuse she suffered.”
Donahue reported the abuse to Noellia Torres, the CUA Social Worker and employee of defendant Turning Points for Children and the foster care family that DHS and Turning Points approved. After Donahue made the reports, Torres informed the foster parent that she had done so, at which point the physical and emotional abuse increased.
“After being told of plaintiff’s reports, the foster parent withheld food from plaintiff, causing her to starve and sometimes go without eating food for a day. The foster parent placed locking devices on cabinets in her home to prevent plaintiff from having enough food to eat,” the suit stated.
“Plaintiff went to bed on a daily basis without enough to eat despite foster parent receiving funds through her participation in the foster care program monitored and administered by Turning Points. Funds allocated specifically to feed and care for plaintiff were not used for those purposes, and Turning Points and DHS failed to ensure that these basic needs were being met by the foster care parent. Defendants DHS and Turning Points kept plaintiff in the care of the abusive foster parent for over two months prior to plaintiff running away from the from the home.”
The plaintiff suffered “severe mental and psychological pain and anguish, post-traumatic stress disorder, severe and extreme hunger, loneliness, isolation, embarrassment, loss of life’s pleasures, anxiety, stress and other psychological impacts that have been and may be diagnosed in the future by medical and psychological professionals.”
“Plaintiff was moved front the foster parent home to Carson Valley Group Home, where she revealed the abuse to personnel of the home. Defendants Turning Points and DHS did no investigation into the abuse suffered by plaintiff at the foster home. Neither one interviewed the plaintiff regarding her reports, and upon information and belief, permitted the foster parent to continue as a resource after plaintiff’s abuse,” the suit said.
UPDATE
The City filed an answer to the complaint on Sept. 13, denying the allegations in their entirety and presenting four separate affirmative defenses.
“Plaintiff failed to state a claim against the answering defendant upon which relief can be granted. Answering defendant asserts all of the defenses, immunities and limitations of damages available to them under the ‘Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act’ and aver that plaintiff’s remedies are limited exclusively thereto,” the answer stated.
“The plaintiff's claims are barred, in whole or in part, insofar as answering defendant’s purported actions or omissions were not the proximate cause of any alleged injury, loss or damage incurred by the plaintiff. At all times material to this civil action, the answering defendant has acted in a reasonable, proper and lawful manner.”
Turning Points for Children followed up with its own answer on Sept. 17, denying the allegations in their totality and providing additional affirmative defenses.
“Any acts or omissions to act which plaintiff alleges to constitute negligence were not the substantial cause or substantial factors and did not result in the injuries or losses alleged by plaintiff. The negligent acts or omissions of other individuals may have constituted the superseding causes of the damages and injuries alleged to have been sustained by the plaintiff. The complaint and plaintiff’s alleged cause of action are barred by the statute of limitations,” their answer said.
“Plaintiff’s complaint fails to state a cause of action for damages. Plaintiff’s injuries, if any, were caused by the negligence of others over whom the defendant had no control and whose conduct the defendant had no reason to anticipate. If plaintiff sustained injuries as alleged in his complaint, which liability against defendant is specifically denied, then the injuries and/or damages were caused by a party or parties acting outside the course and scope of his/her employment.”
For counts of state-created danger and civil rights violations through 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 and negligence, the plaintiff is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, reasonable attorney’s fees, pre-judgment interest, an order directing such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper, including but not limited to, appropriate costs and disbursements and a trial by jury.
The plaintiff is represented by Jay L. Edelstein of the Law Offices of Jay L. Edelstein, in Philadelphia.
The defendants are represented by Tara Fung of the City of Philadelphia’s Law Department and Adam J. Fulginiti and William Lance Banton Jr. of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, also in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 2:21-cv-03433
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com