State To Pay In Sex Abuse Case

Sat., Dec. 23, 1995

From Staff And Wire Reports

The state has agreed to pay $4.2 million to 10 former residents of the now-closed OK Boys Ranch to settle their claims of sexual and physical abuse at the group home for troubled boys.

The agreement order was signed Friday by Pierce County Superior Court Judge Thomas Sauriol, sitting as a visiting judge in Thurston County.

It was the second such settlement in as many years between the state and former residents alleging abuse by other boys at the Olympia facility, which operated under contract to the state. A total of about $8.5 million in state funds has been awarded to 26 former residents.Friday’s settlement provides for immediate payment to the plaintiffs of $2.58 million. The remaining $1.64 million will be used to buy annuities that will pay the boys $500 a month for life beginning in May 1997.

Three top officials of the state-licensed facility, which was closed in September 1994, have pleaded innocent to felony charges that they failed to protect children from rape and other violence at the OK Boys Ranch. No trial date has been set.

The Washington State Patrol is investigating whether social workers and supervisors at the state Department of Social and Health Services were derelict in their duty to protect the boys from abuse. There is evidence that the department knew of widespread abuse at the home as early as 1989.

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