Systemic operational negligence within state welfare departments exposes vulnerable foster youth to horrific physical abuse, sexual abuse, and severe emotional abuse, leaving them with lifelong psychological damage and profound personal injury. This 2024 article written by Mike Deak from My Central Jersey discusses the landmark March 2024 civil trial in Middlesex County Superior Court resulted in a unanimous $25 million jury verdict against New Jersey’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCCP), finding the state agency 99% liable for failing to protect a child across multiple foster placements. Brought as the first case to reach a jury trial under the state’s Child Victims Act, which opened a temporary legal window suspending the statute of limitations for historical child abuse claims, the lawsuit details how the victim was subjected to continuous sexual trauma across three separate foster homes between the ages of five and nine, beginning around 1987. The child was abused by a babysitter’s husband in her first placement, assaulted by a foster mother’s adult son in her second home, and subsequently subjected to near-constant rapes by her foster father and a teenage stepbrother in a third home where she remained trapped for years. Despite the victim explicitly alerting her assigned state case workers to the “extremely disturbing and alarming” assaults, the agency failed to execute an adequate investigation or remove her from the hazard, ignoring clear indicators that the foster parents were unfit and possessed documented histories of child abuse. While Superior Court Judge Patrick Bradshaw ultimately adjusted the final enforceable award to $12 million to honor a pre-trial high-low agreement executed by the parties, the jury’s historic multi-million-dollar liability ruling establishes a definitive precedent of institutional accountability, delivering a powerful warning to public entities that fail to investigate child safety outcries.
Deak, M. (2024, March 15). NJ jury awards $25M in “horrific” foster child sexual abuse case.com; USA Today Network. https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/courts/2024/03/15/child-victims-act-nj-lawsuits-settlements/72973500007/ https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/courts/2024/03/15/child-victims-act-nj-lawsuits-settlements/72973500007/