Hundreds of former juvenile inmates sue Illinois, Cook County claiming sexual abuse

CHICAGO (CN) — Dozens of claimants added their names to ongoing litigation against Illinois and Cook County on Monday, part of a legal fight against what they say is a culture of sexual misconduct at the state’s juvenile detention centers.

Fifty anonymous former inmates of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago sued the county in a 124-page complaint, each saying they suffered sexual abuse while incarcerated there. Individual accounts of abuse range from 1996 to 2019. The complaint follows a 410-page sister suit filed by another group of 192 anonymous claimants — represented by many of the the same attorneys — this past July. That filing extends the range of sexual abuse claims at Cook County from 1992 to 2022.

“As a result of chronic mismanagement, patronage, overcrowding, and inadequate supervision, [the] Juvenile Temporary Detention Center has been an environment of violence, fear, and sexual abuse for decades,” the claimants say in Monday’s suit.

The Associated Press also reported Monday that over 220 plaintiffs had filed a related suit in the Illinois Court of Claims, claiming sexual abuse at nine juvenile detention centers across the state. Teachers, guards and other adults with whom the claimants regularly interacted are accused of carrying out the abuse, sometimes suddenly and in other instances after a period of grooming.

A claimant going by D.H. 2 in Monday’s Cook County filing, for example, says a guard he knows as Ms. Alexander enticed him by writing him notes and allowing him to stay up late. This took place while he was housed at the Cook County juvenile facility in 2013, when he was 15 years old. He says Alexander would engage in oral and vaginal sex with him and buy his silence with extra snacks and commissary privileges.

Another plaintiff in the July complaint, suing under the alias T.W. 2, claims a Cook County staff member called Mr. House raped him in a bathroom after forcing two other youths to undress and restrain him. Mr. House appears in several other plaintiffs’ accounts across the complaints.

The former juvenile inmates have grievances with the Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge’s Office, the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice besides the individual staff who they say abused them. The two Cook County suits bring eight claims apiece against the county for assault and battery, sexual abuse, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

“Cook County gave plaintiffs’ abusers regular, direct, unsupervised, ongoing access to plaintiffs and other residents during the course and scope of their duties, when the state knew or should have known that they presented an unreasonable risk of harm to children,” the claimants say in Monday’s Cook County filing.

In both Cook County filings the claimants say they are owed at least $100,000 in damages each for the abuse they experienced. The Associated Press further reported that plaintiffs in the Court of Claims complaint are seeking about $2 million apiece.

Other John Doe former juvenile inmates have filed similar complaints in Cook County over the last several months. Levy Konigsberg, the law firm representing the plaintiffs in Monday’s suit and the sister complaint filed in July, has also advertised on its website that it is currently investigating claims of sexual abuse at all juvenile detention and treatment centers across Illinois, including facilities that are now closed.

“The complaints we have filed on behalf of hundreds of survivors of childhood sexual abuse in Illinois juvenile facilities identify dozens of correctional officers and staff, some of whom sexually abused multiple victims," Jerome Block, a Levy Konigsberg partner, said in a statement Monday. “These juvenile detention center staff members systematically preyed upon children, forcing them to perform sexual acts and causing lifelong trauma and suffering.”

The law firm says over 660 individuals across the state have filed claims since May, though Courthouse News was unable to independently verify this figure. Levy Konigsberg did not respond for a request to clarify the number of complaints it is currently representing on the issue.

In 2018, the Department of Justice found about 10% of all Illinois youth detention center residents reported experiencing sexual abuse of some form. This is still lower than the 15% abuse rate the department reported in the state in 2012, when the Joliet Youth Center was among the juvenile facilities with the nation’s highest rates of abuse — over 21%.

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