Boys Ranch Subject Of Federal Suit Suit Alleges Abuse Of Boy At Problem-Plagued Ranch

A federal lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a boy identified as one of the abuse victims at the O.K. Boys Ranch in the state’s criminal prosecution of the group home’s top three officials.

The suit, which asks more than $1 million in damages, was filed in federal court because it asserts that the boy’s civil rights were violated when state officials placed him in a home they licensed despite knowing the home did not meet standards, said Mark Carlson, an attorney with the law firm Bogle & Gates.

The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, claims a 12-year-old boy and resident of the group home was sexually assaulted, deprived of medical attention and beaten during the fall of 1994. It alleges the incidents of sexual abuse occurred days before the state closed down the troubled facility.

It names the group home and its directors, the Olympia Kiwanis Club and its directors, three group-home employees and three state employees.

The new allegations come just as attorneys for the state were negotiating to pay $4 million to settle claims of abuse by 15 other boys at the group home. The state already has paid more than $8.5 million in damages to 26 boys who alleged they were abused when they lived at the ranch during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

Representatives of DSHS and of the state attorney general’s office declined comment Wednesday when asked by the Seattle PostIntelligencer, saying they had not seen the lawsuit.

The suit claims the state continued to renew its affiliation with the group home despite repeated evidence and warnings of severe neglect and abuse at the time.