Were red flags ignored in attack at Pierce County-based facility for sex offenders?
A female employee claims she was attacked at a state-run facility for high-risk sex offenders in Pierce County after officials failed to prevent the assailant’s longstanding sexual harassment against women workers.
Jennifer Braun, a milieu specialist at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, was cornered by a facility resident, identified in court records only as “P.M.,” and punched multiple times, including in the face and head, in October 2023, according to a lawsuit filed Dec. 10 in Pierce County Superior Court. The assault purportedly left Braun with a head injury, scalp contusion and other bodily harm.
“Immediately after the attack, P.M. stated that his intention for the attack was that he ‘wanted sex’ from Braun,” the lawsuit said.
The complaint, filed against the facility and its operator, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, alleges that Braun was targeted because of her gender and that the agency knew about the man’s lengthy criminal history of violent sexual assaults against women and his sexual harassment of female staff, who feared being in his presence.
The Special Commitment Center is a mental health treatment facility for Level 3 sex offenders who have finished their prison sentences and are legally ordered to undergo rehabilitation until deemed eligible to transition back into society. The center was the subject this fall of work walk-outs by employees seeking better pay and conditions amid contract negotiations, The News Tribune reported in September.
Despite the man’s sexualized, violent language and conduct toward women and “documented history of multiple assaults against female peers and staff of a sexual nature,” the Special Commitment Center didn’t step up, the suit said.
“SCC Management knew, through complaints or other circumstances, of (the resident’s) language and conduct, and failed to take reasonably prompt and adequate corrective action reasonably designed to end it,” the suit said.
A DSHS spokesperson declined to comment on the allegations, citing the agency’s practice of not publicly speaking about pending litigation.
In an interview Tuesday, attorney Janelle E. Chase Fazio, who represents Braun, said that DSHS has a legal responsibility like any other employer to take adequate remedial steps to address bad workplace behavior, whether it’s from an employee or a third party.
“Any employer just can’t look the other way and wait for someone to be hurt,” she said.
Prior to the attack on Oct. 31, 2023, the resident had escaped his unit, after a security door was erroneously unlocked, ran toward the staff desk area where Braun was standing and jumped over a counter to get to her, according to the suit. In the aftermath of the assault, Braun continues to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, vision loss, headaches, nightmares and insomnia, the suit said.
The complaint, which claims that the Special Commitment Center violated Braun’s right to be free from a hostile work environment and gender discrimination under the Washington Law Against Discrimination, is seeking unspecified damages to be proven at trial and legal fees.