Abuse claims at Remann Hall cost Pierce County again. 100 more are out there
The Pierce County Council approved roughly $1 million in settlements to people who claimed to be victims of abuse at Remann Hall, the county’s juvenile detention center.
The council approved one settlement of $550,000 and another for $500,000 in a unanimous vote on June 30. The settlements are in response to two tort claims – a precursor to a lawsuit – outlining allegations of abuse at Remann Hall in the 1990s against two plaintiffs who were teenagers at the time.
The plaintiffs, identified as C.F. and J.M., made two separate claims filed in 2024 that the county and its agencies failed to protect the plaintiffs from “a culture of sexual abuse and degradation” in its youth detention center.
“The county facilitated an abusive culture by failing to hire qualified staff, and instead hired staff people who knowingly engaged in rampant sexual abuse of these child prisoners,” J.M.’s tort claims reads.
The county has already paid millions of dollars in settlement claims to other people who alleged that they were sexually abused as children while detained at Remann Hall. The county most recently approved $1.8 million in early June, $750,000 in March and about $7 million in November 2025.
County spokesperson Kari Plog said the county reached the two settlements after “fact-finding and negotiations” with the plaintiffs’ counsel.
“Pierce County takes these claims very seriously,” Plog wrote to The News Tribune in a statement. “Every allegation we receive is evaluated individually and thoroughly. We want to be intentional whenever there is credible evidence of past harm.”
She said the influx in Remann Hall settlement payouts comes after the state Legislature and state Supreme Court expanded the statute of limitations on these types of cases in 2018. The state and school districts around the state have seen significant increases in payouts to settle such lawsuits in recent years, The Spokesman-Review reported. More than 100 similar cases have been filed with Pierce County, Plog said.
“Many counties around the state, and the state itself, are dealing with similar claims about juvenile detention facilities,” she wrote.
