Pierce County guards sexually abused five youth detainees, lawsuit claims
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- A lawsuit alleges five youth were sexually abused at Remann Hall between 1993 and 2015.
- The complaint accuses guards of abuse, and Pierce County of inaction and cover-ups.
- Pierce County declined comment. Remann Hall is the juvenile detention center in Tacoma.
Pierce County allegedly failed to protect five youth detainees from being sexually abused by staff at Remann Hall, the county’s juvenile justice center, in cases collectively spanning three decades, according to a lawsuit.
The complaint filed May 19 in Pierce County Superior Court claims that supervision of staff was “laissez faire at best” and the highest levels of management knew “a culture of sexually inappropriate behavior pervaded Remann Hall.”
The lawsuit was filed by five men who were 12 to 16 years old when they were allegedly repeatedly abused by Remann Hall guards in the county-operated detention center in Tacoma. The oldest plaintiff was placed at the facility in about 1993 and the youngest plaintiff entered the center around 2015, according to the filing. The other alleged cases stemmed from the 2000s.
Each plaintiff is identified in the lawsuit only by their initials.
Darrell Cochran, a partner with Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC, is one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. The firm has represented many others alleging abuse at Remann Hall or state-run juvenile facilities in Centralia and Chehalis.
“All of the local juvenile facilities seemed to have a pervasive problem with staff sexually abusing residents that were placed there,” Cochran said in an interview Friday. “It is baffling how (officials) allowed this to happen.”
The Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office defends the county in civil cases. Office spokesperson Adam Faber declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday, citing the county’s general practice of not commenting on pending litigation.
Evidence of sexual abuse at Remann Hall was ignored, and investigations were inadequate and quickly closed, according to the suit.
“The manner in which the Remann Hall authorities responded to reports of sexual victimization of Remann Hall residents resulted in a culture of permissiveness and indifference to claims of abuse,” the suit said, adding later: “Defendants continuously engaged in a pattern of conduct designed to cover-up the ongoing sexual abuse and sexual exploitation at Remann Hall to which its residents, including Plaintiffs, were repeatedly subjected to.”
Cochran claimed that the county hasn’t implemented any changes to hiring practices or other policies to help prevent abuse.
The lawsuit, which accuses the county of negligence among other wrongdoing, is seeking unspecified damages to be proven at trial, legal fees and other relief.
Pierce County has been inundated with legal claims over alleged abuse at Remann Hall, The News Tribune previously reported. County spokesperson Connor Davis said in November that high numbers of new claims in the county and other jurisdictions in the state, including the state itself, were a result of the state Legislature and Supreme Court lifting or expanding the statute of limitations on those types of cases.
In January, county Executive Ryan Mello said that the county had received more than 100 claims totaling $280 million that would bankrupt the county if fully paid. Mello, who said the county acknowledged the alleged harm to youth, noted that most of the claims alleged abuse prior to 2000.
“The volume of the claims being filed and the unknown number of future claims for past incidents presents an incredibly serious financial challenge to the county’s financial viability,” Mello said on Jan. 5 during a Pierce County Council special study session on legislative priorities.
In November and March, the county paid roughly $8 million in total to individually settle claims with 10 people who alleged they were abused at Remann Hall between the 1980s and early 2000s, The News Tribune previously reported.
