Lawsuits claim dozens of children were sexually abused inside Pennsylvania juvenile facilities

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A set of lawsuits was filed Wednesday by people who claim they were sexually abused inside Pennsylvania juvenile detention and treatment facilities, making more than 200 people to have launched such cases since May.

The New York-based Levy Konigsberg firm said it filed on behalf of more than 60 people, alleging government-run and private facilities did not protect their clients when they were children.

The latest cases make allegations that date from more than two decades ago until last year.

“Despite the decades separating their experiences, these dozens of survivors experienced disturbingly similar patterns of abuse across the various facilities, evidencing systemic failures at these institutions in protecting children from harm,” the law firm said in a news release.

The filings on Wednesday included 10 people suing the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services in Dauphin County, where the state capital of Harrisburg is located, for claims of abuse inside state-operated facilities. Together with the allegations filed earlier this year, 45 clients of Levy Konigsberg have sued the state.

The new negligence and breaach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against Human Services says the plaintiffs were sexually abused by guards, counselors and other staff members “who were supposed to be watching out for them" inside the Loysville Youth Development Center, the North Central Secure Treatment Unit in Danville and the South Mountain Secure Treatment Unit near Chambersburg.

“This longstanding, widespread pattern of abuse could only have flourished at these facilities because the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania tolerated it, failing the children in its care through decades of negligence,” the lawsuit claims.

A spokesman for the Department of Human Services, Brandon Cwalina, said the agency does not comment about pending litigation but noted it does not countenance abuse or haraassment. He said anyone who suspects a child has been sexually abused or sexually harassed at any facility should call Pennsylvania's child safety hotline, ChildLine, at 1-800-932-0313.

The other lawsuits were filed in federal and county courthouses in other parts of Pennsylvania.

The law firm has also pursued similar litigation in Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Michigan.