PITTSBURGH – A Maryland man alleges that while a juvenile resident at a local rehabilitation center for delinquent youth, he was assaulted on numerous occasions, both physically and sexually, by staff members at the facility.
Jaheim Battle of Baltimore, Md. filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on March 23 versus Abraxas Youth & Family Services, in Pittsburgh.
Abraxas began its operations as a treatment and rehabilitation center in 1973 in Marienville, where it operated its first facility. The group, headquartered in Pittsburgh, receives delinquent youths as “clients” through a legal referral program.
“Plaintiff was placed at Abraxas facility in Pennsylvania as a juvenile via a court order. At all times relevant hereto, plaintiff was a victim of abuse during his time at defendant Abraxas’s facility by its staff members, agents, employees, supervisors, administrators and/or servants,” the suit says.
For notice purposes, the plaintiff alleges he was targeted with the following incidents of physical and sexual assault during his stay at the Abraxas facility:
• Plaintiff avers he was physically assaulted and subjected to excessive force while not resisting staff commands in both the presence and/or at the direction of defendant’s supervisors and/or administrators on numerous instances, with staff threatening physical harm to plaintiff and others present if they disobeyed orders or reported any abuse and these were accepted staff practices customs, and protocols;
• Plaintiff avers the verbalized threats of physical harm and restraint by staff members in both the presence and/or at the direction of defendant’s supervisors and/or administrators on numerous instances amounted to menacing, and while not a physical and/or sexual assault, was done, to threaten plaintiff and the others against disobeying staff orders and/or raising any grievance related to employee conduct;
• Plaintiff avers employees’ uses of excessive and dangerous physical force and accompanying verbalized threats, were known, common, and accepted staff practices customs, and protocols by supervisors and administrators at Defendant's facility.
Battle went on to describe the alleged incidents he endured while he resided at the facility for seven months, from April to November of 2019.
“Plaintiff was physically hit and struck multiple times by different staff members. Plaintiff does not recall each and every exact date on which the physical abuse occurred. Plaintiff also describes multiple incidents where different staff members would spit in his face while using racially offensive language. On Nov. 18, 2019, while in the bathroom inside his residential unit, plaintiff saw three staff members approach from behind. These three staff members began punching and kicking the plaintiff. These same three staff members subsequently drug him out of the bathroom and started physically restraining plaintiff. Plaintiff avers all the staff’s actions were caught on the camera within the residential area. Plaintiff recalls these unit staff members as being assigned to his unit,” the suit states.
“The supervisors, employees, administrators, and/or staff members implicated who directly caused the harm to plaintiff and/or threatened plaintiff were acting within the scope of their duties as counselors and caretakers to plaintiff. It is averred defendant’s staff, supervisors, administrators, and employees actively discouraged and prevented disclosure to third-parties about any claims of child abuse against any staff member at any facility operated by the defendant. It is believed and therefore averred that defendant allowed a cultivation of a culture at its facilities, which chilled the juvenile patient’s ability to speak openly and report about alleged child abuse incidents.”
For counts of negligence, negligent supervision, hiring and retention and respondeat superior liability, the plaintiff is seeking compensatory, exemplary, punitive and other damages in excess of the local arbitration limits, plus costs, interest and a trial by jury
The plaintiff is represented by D. Wesley Cornish of Cornerstone Legal Group, in Philadelphia.
The defendant has not yet secured legal counsel.
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD-22-003235
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com