Spokane girl sues state for documented abuse at hands of foster family

A Spokane girl was hit, neglected and sexually assaulted by her foster family for seven years as state workers documented the abuse but failed to remove her from the home, a new lawsuit against the state alleges.

The girl was put into foster care at age 4 when the Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families learned of abuse in her biological family, the lawsuit filed Jan. 6 alleges. Soon after, she was placed with a more permanent foster family.

A month into her time with the family, the state investigated the family for a licensing infraction. A social worker at the time noticed that the girl had marks on her neck consistent with “compression,” the lawsuit alleges.

After another month, the family was readying to adopt the girl when a school nurse called the family department over scratches on the child’s neck.

The lawsuit alleges that the state workers spoke to the girl, who said that her foster mother would grab her neck and scratch her to “punish” her before sending her to bed without dinner. The family intended to adopt her, but the state did not delay the adoption in the face of the potential abuse, the suit says, and the girl was legally adopted.

In late 2018, the family wanted to put the girl back up for adoption, the lawsuit alleges. In early 2019, the state agency allegedly investigated claims that the foster mother dug her fingernails into the child’s arm, forced her to sleep on the stairs after wetting the bed, and hit her “so hard that she hit her head on a porcelain sink.” Soon after, the family department allegedly requested police reports on the foster family.

When a family department social worker visited the house unannounced in February 2019, they noted that the girl’s bedroom was “almost bare” and she had nothing but a yoga mat to sleep on, the lawsuit alleges. The foster parents took away the child’s bed as a punishment for urinating and defecating in it, according to the lawsuit, which notes those symptoms are common side effects of child abuse.

The state put the girl in custody of Dianna Gulick, who filed the suit, in 2020. Later that year, the suit alleges that she told Lutheran Community Services that her former adopted older brother from the foster family had repeatedly raped and assaulted her.

The girl is 16 now. The lawsuit says that the years of “torture and abuse” have resulted in “a deeply damaged child seeking justice for preventable harms.”

The Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families “cannot comment on active litigation,” spokeswoman Nancy Gutierrez said in an email. The child’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.