WA will pay $9M to woman abused ‘countless times’ in Pierce County foster home

Washington state has agreed to pay $9 million to settle a lawsuit over failures that led a girl to be placed in a Pierce County foster home where she was subjected to severe sexual abuse in the 1990s and early 2000s and allowed to be adopted.

Ashley Miller was abused “countless” times when she was 5 to 12 years old in homes in Tacoma and Fife, according to attorneys with the law firm Pfau Cochran Vertetis. Now 34, Miller is speaking publicly about her experience in foster care with the hope that the needs of children and families won’t be brushed aside by the state.

“They say it takes a village to raise kids, or even one, so that’s how it should really be done,” Miller said in an interview.

The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) referred The News Tribune to the Department of Children, Youth and Families when asked to comment on the settlement and how its foster-care system has changed in the decades since Miller was in their custody. A representative from that agency did not immediately have a comment to provide.

Miller’s lawsuit, filed in December 2023 in Pierce County Superior Court, was set to go to trial Sept. 8. Records show a notice of settlement of all claims was filed that day.

DSHS took custody of Miller in 1995, according to court records. Her biological mother was incarcerated and addicted to drugs. After being placed with her aunt led to concerns of neglect, she was put in a foster home where there were concerns about sexual abuse. Then Miller was sent to live in a caregiver’s home where harm went unchecked for years.

Miller had just completed kindergarten, her attorneys say, and she was far behind in her schooling. But Miller’s new caregiver kept her home from school to help around the house and with a newborn baby. Missing school became a pattern, and emails between social workers showed she had 50 unexplained absences in one school year.

Also living in the home was her caregiver’s boyfriend, whose presence was apparently unknown to the state. A trial brief filed in the lawsuit said that from 1997 to 2003 the man raped Miller while her caregiver verbally and physically abused her and lied to a social worker about the boyfriend living there.

Miller told The News Tribune she was robbed of her childhood. She recalled feeling “stuck” and like she wasn’t able to live.

“I was scared. I was confused,” Miller said. “Because I was unsure of myself and my surroundings and the adults and what was going on. I was told this is, you know, the sexual abuse, this is what we do here. It’s normal.”

The boyfriend, now age 51, has never been convicted of any crimes regarding Miller’s abuse. Court records show he pleaded guilty last year to two counts of third-degree rape for an assault on a disabled woman in Lakewood, and he was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

One of Miller’s attorneys, Vincent Nappo, said what his client went through was extraordinary and that, thankfully, he doesn’t see many cases like hers. He said social workers failed to check in on her every 90 days and at one point allowed more than 500 days to pass before a face-to-face visit.

When DSHS did complete visits, attorneys for Miller said, it was no surprise she simply said she was fine because she was frightened, had no relationship with the social workers and her caregiver was always present.

“Because of DSHS’s failures, [Miller] was never given the opportunity to feel safe and comfortable to disclose the ongoing horrors in the home,” a trial brief states.

Nappo also described times where the state turned a blind eye to what was happening. He said Miller’s caregiver had no income for big chunks of time, was uncooperative and unresponsive to concerns of DSHS and Miller’s schools. But DSHS never looked into other placement options, Nappo said, and in 2003 it endorsed an adoption petition sought by the caregiver.

Although the state was unaware of the presence of the caregiver’s boyfriend, Nappo said, the state did know he was evicted from one of the foster homes along with the caregiver. Nappo said no one looked into what was going on.

A home study done in anticipation of Miller’s adoption revealed that the boyfriend was “very involved” in her life, according to court records, but attorneys for Miller said DSHS never inquired about his name or conducted a background check. That would have revealed he had multiple disqualifying criminal convictions, including for drug-trafficking and domestic-violence offenses.

Nappo said Miller’s case is one of the most serious he has ever handled, and that was part of why the settlement is the size it is. He said the fact that Miller is alive today speaks to her resilience. He added that her former caregiver is no longer a licensed foster parent.

“The abuse was severe, and then similarly the failures and the shortcomings on the state’s requirement to supervise the home and make sure Ashley was safe, those were pretty serious, they were really serious,” Nappo said.

Miller now lives in Portland and works as a certified nursing assistant. She said she had to build up a lot of courage to come forward about her experience in foster care, and having a good support system, which she finds in her daughter’s grandfather, was vital. Now said she wants to help give other people that courage.

“You can be a survivor,” she said.