Levy Konigsberg Attorneys Jerome Block and Clark Binkley have filed a lawsuit on behalf of 63 men and women who suffered sexual abuse when they were confined as children at Maryland’s juvenile detention facilities, bringing the total number of claims to 200.
NEW YORK, Feb. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Levy Konigsberg has filed a lawsuit against the State of Maryland, alleging that the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (“DJS”) failed to protect children from rampant sexual abuse at 15 of the state’s juvenile detention facilities. The lawsuit, brought on behalf of 63 men and women who were abused as children at various detention facilities, is the latest in a string of Maryland juvenile detention abuse lawsuits spearheaded by Levy Konigsberg.
As detailed in the lawsuit, Maryland’s juvenile detention system has for generations “allowed a culture of abuse to flourish” across its many prison-like detention facilities. Widespread reports and investigations into the traumatizing environment and violently abusive staff went ignored by DJS, allowing untold numbers of children to suffer sexual abuse at the hands of guards, counselors, and other staff members who were supposed to be looking out for them.
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. Many of the survivors seeking justice in this lawsuit were abused years, even decades, ago, suffering in silence until their claims were finally made possible last year by the CVA. Despite the years and decades separating their experiences, the 63 men and women whose claims were filed today experienced disturbingly similar patterns of abuse across 15 different facilities, evidencing a systemic failure by DJS to protect the children in its care.
In announcing today’s lawsuit filed on behalf of 63 men and women, Levy Konigsberg Partner Jerome Block stated:
“A child who is sent to any juvenile facility should be provided with a safe environment. Instead, our clients were sexually abused as children by State employees that were supposed to keep them safe. The sexual abuse inflicted on our clients was horrific and occurred at juvenile detention facilities throughout the State of Maryland going back many decades.”
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 dozens of men and women who had been sexually abused as children at Maryland’s Cheltenham Youth Detention Center, Thomas J.S. Waxter Children’s Center, and Charles H. Hickey, Jr. School. Interested parties can read the articles here, here, and here.
Levy Konigsberg represents over 400 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
