State to pay family in sexual assault case

LONGVIEW, Wash. – The state has agreed to pay a Longview foster family more than $470,000 to settle a sexual assault lawsuit.

The family sued in 2009, arguing that social workers and others withheld facts about a boy who was placed as a foster child in their home. The boy, who was 16 at the time, has since been convicted of repeatedly assaulting their 9-year-old daughter in 2006.

The family says if they’d known more about the boy’s background they never would have allowed him to live in their home.

A spokesman for the Department of Social and Health Services said it’s not the agency’s policy to withhold information from foster parents. But he said he could not speak about specific cases.