Levy Konigsberg Files Lawsuit on Behalf of 13 People Who Allege They Were Sexually Abused as Children at Maryland's Good Shepherd Services Treatment Center
Levy Konigsberg Attorneys Jerome Block and Clark Binkley have filed a lawsuit on behalf of 13 individuals who allege they suffered sexual abuse when they were confined as children at the Good Shepherd Services treatment center, a private facility to which the State sent vulnerable children.
NEW YORK, March 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Levy Konigsberg has filed a lawsuit against the State of Maryland, alleging that the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, Department of Human Services, and Department of Health failed to protect children from rampant sexual abuse at the Good Shepherd Services treatment center ("Good Shepherd"), a residential treatment center for children. The lawsuit, brought on behalf of 13 adults who were abused as children at Good Shepherd, is the latest in a string of Maryland sexual abuse lawsuits spearheaded by Levy Konigsberg.
As detailed in the lawsuit, Good Shepherd (which was finally closed in 2017) was for decades "a site of unimaginable trauma for Maryland's most vulnerable children." The State of Maryland took children who were under the State's care as part of its juvenile justice or foster care systems and confined them to the privately-run Good Shepherd, where these children suffered sexual abuse at the hands of teachers, counselors, and other staff members who were supposed to be looking out for them. The State of Maryland neglected its responsibility to these children, allowing a culture of abuse to flourish unchecked for years, as it had in many of the State's own detention facilities.
The suit filed by Levy Konigsberg, and co-counsel Brown Kiely LLP, was brought under the recently enacted Maryland Child Victims Act ("CVA"), a law that eliminated the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits in cases of child sexual abuse. Most of the individuals seeking justice in this lawsuit were abused many years ago, suffering in silence until their claims were finally made possible last year by the CVA. Despite the years separating their experiences, the 13 survivors' whose claims were filed today experienced disturbingly similar patterns of abuse, evidencing a systemic failure by the State to oversee Good Shepherd and protect the children it sent there.
In announcing the Good Shepherd lawsuit filed on behalf of 13 individuals, Levy Konigsberg Partner Jerome Block stated:
"Our courageous clients were all children in need of help when they were sent to Good Shepherd. Instead, they suffered horrific sexual abuse at the hands of staff members. The state of Maryland sent the most vulnerable children in its care to this facility and then failed to protect them."
Levy Konigsberg has filed hundreds of lawsuits on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse nationwide, and is at the forefront of CVA litigation in Maryland, having filed some of the first lawsuits about the widespread sexual abuse in Maryland's juvenile detention facilities. The Baltimore Sun and The Associated Press have covered Levy Konigsberg's recent lawsuits on behalf of 150 men and women who had been sexually abused as children at Maryland's Cheltenham Youth Detention Center, Thomas J.S. Waxter Children's Center, Charles H. Hickey, Jr. School, and a dozen other juvenile detention facilities. Interested parties can read the articles here, here, here, and here.
Levy Konigsberg represents over 500 survivors of sexual abuse at Maryland's juvenile detention facilities and plans to continue fighting tirelessly on their behalf.
For additional information about childhood sexual abuse lawsuits spearheaded by Levy Konigsberg, media members and journalists are encouraged to reach out to Attorney Jerome Block by using the law firm's contact form: https://www.levylaw.com/contact-us/.
Media Contact: Attorney Jerome Block; [email protected]
SOURCE Levy Konigsberg
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