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WILKES-BARRE — A parent has sued Luzerne County Children and Youth Services, a caseworker and others, alleging her daughters were sexually abused while in foster care and the concerns she brought to county and foster care officials were ignored or handled improperly.
The 25-page lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court by attorneys Shelley Centini and Barry Dyller, also names the county, a Children and Youth supervisor, a foster care placement service and the foster parent as defendants.
County solicitor Romilda Crocamo said she could not comment because the county had not yet been served with the lawsuit.
The parent, identified in the complaint as “M.J.” to protect her privacy and the privacy of her children, states she and her family had visitation rights with her daughters, then 3 years old and 16 months, while they were living in Kathy Ryan’s foster home — a three-bedroom trailer in Ashley.
According to the complaint, M.J. and her family began noticing shorty after the girls’ placement with Ryan in May 2014 that the girls were wearing dirty clothes on their visits, smelled like they had not been bathed and appeared to be losing weight.
‘The cat did it’
On one occasion, both girls had bruises; on another, the younger girl had a burn on her leg and a black eye. Ryan reportedly blamed the black eye on “allergies.” Asked about cuts on both girls, Ryan said, “the cat did it,” the complaint alleges.
The suit also claims Ryan tasked her adopted son, who was 13 or 14 at the time, with buckling the girls into their car seats rather than doing it herself.
The complaint alleges M.J. and her family spoke with Children and Youth caseworker Jesse Goshert about the girl’s injuries and Ryan’s lack of explanation, and Goshert’s response was that Ryan was “a great foster mother and she is doing a great job.”
Goshert also allegedly refused to speak with Ryan about the injuries and began hanging up the phone on M.J. and her family. M.J. and the family contacted Goshert’s supervisor, Maryann Rambus, who also took no steps to investigate or remove the girls from Ryan’s home, the complaint states.
Sexual abuse allegations
In spring of 2015, the 3-year-old told her mother Ryan’s adopted son sexually abused her with his fingers, and the mother also observed the older girl inappropriately touching the younger one while both children were in the bathtub, the complaint says.
When M.J. conveyed this information to Goshert, he reportedly referred her to Concern Inc. — the foster placement agency. M.J. called Concern and the 3-year-old was interviewed at the Children’s Advocacy Center, where a Children and Youth caseworker and the police were present, the complaint states.
M.J. alleges that neither Concern nor Children and Youth shared the result of the investigation with her despite requests. She said she sent a text message to Ryan to inform her Ryan’s son was touching her daughter inappropriately, and Ryan responded, “Prove it.”
The suit alleges Ryan — not Children and Youth or Concern — initiated the girls’ removal from Ryan’s home due to “problems she was having with her son.”
When M.J.’s cousin — a nurse for over 20 years who has treated abused children — applied for kinship custody of the girls, Goshert suggested the cousin’s 17-year-old stepdaughter should work at a strip club, according to the complaint.
Escalated abuse reported
After M.J.’s cousin obtained kinship custody of the girls in August 2015, she began observing multiple signs the girls had been sexually abused based on their behavior and statements about the actions of Ryan’s adopted son, which had escalated beyond touching them, the suit alleges.
The cousin reported the abuse to Childline, Children and Youth and Ashley police. In fall of 2015, the oldest daughter was again taken to the Children’s Advocacy Center for an interview, after which the cousin was told by a counselor the girl’s allegations were “unfounded,” according to the complaint.
In December 2015, M.J.’s older daughter also told her cousin’s neighbor that Ryan’s son sexually abused her with his penis, and the neighbor also called Childline. Neither Children and Youth nor Concern investigated this report, the complaint alleges.
On July 4, 2016, the older girl told her mother about the escalated sexual abuse by Ryan’s son, the complaint states.
In August 2016, the girls were returned to M.J.’s custody, where they have remained since.
A history of abuse
The suit also alleges the defendants knew Ryan’s son had a history of abuse — including sexual abuse — and did nothing to ensure the girls’ safety in his presence, nor did they inform M.J. of his abuse history. In fact, the boy’s abuse history was so well-known that a non-party child behavioral health agency used his case for training its staff, the suit alleges.
Additionally, the suit says Ryan had a young adult male living with her while M.J.’s daughters were in her home and did not disclose that. It also alleges Ryan knew this adult male took pictures of a teen girl who Ryan was fostering as well as Ryan’s boyfriend’s stepdaughter while using the bathroom.
This adult male would slide a cellphone under Ryan’s bathroom door and photograph the women using the toilet, then downloaded the pictures onto Ryan’s laptop computer. When the teenage foster child found the photographs on the laptop, she reported it to Children and Youth. But neither Children and Youth nor Concern required the adult male to move out of the home where M.J.’s children also lived. Instead, the teenage foster child was moved out of Ryan’s home, and no further investigation was conducted by Children and Youth or Concern, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit also alleges Ryan permitted unfettered contact between M.J.’s daughters and Ryan’s stepdaughter’s boyfriend, who was subsequently arrested for sexually abusing a 6-year-old and 12- to 14-year-old girls.
Policies and customs
Further, the lawsuit alleges that Children and Youth has a history of placing children in homes with known abusers, keeping children with their abusers despite receiving complaints, and failing to evaluate the safety of children in their custody. The agency and Luzerne County have been defendants in several lawsuits with these same allegations.
And finally, the suit alleges that Luzerne County and Children and Youth have a policy and/or custom of placing foster children in homes where abusers reside.
The lawsuit alleges the following violations:
• A state-created danger/substantive due process violation by Goshert and Rambus
• Unconstitutional policies and customs by Children and Youth and the county
• Intentional infliction of emotional distress by Goshert, Rambus and Ryan
• Vicarious liability by Children and Youth, the county and Concern
• Negligence by Ryan and Concern
The lawsuit seeks an amount to be determined at trial, plus punitive damages, interest, attorney fees and “any such other relief as the court may deem just and proper.”