Sauder Schelkopf and Co-Counsel Announce Broad Denial of Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss in Physical, Sexual, and Emotional Abuse Lawsuits Against Devereux Behavioral Health
On March 28, 2022, Judge Anita B. Brody of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued two Orders denying virtually all of the defendants’ motions to dismiss individual claims in lawsuit filed against The Devereux Foundation/Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health and Quality Health Staffing over allegations that the plaintiffs suffered physical, sexual, and emotional abuse while in Devereux’s care at behavioral health facilities across the United States. In addition to the negligence-based claims, Title IX, and state statutory claims, the Court’s Orders upheld the validity of plaintiffs’ individual claims for assault and battery on a vicarious liability theory, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“This is a huge win for our clients,” stated Lieff Cabraser partner Annika K. Martin, who filed the case with co-counsel from Sauder Schelkopf. “The only thing more horrifying than the nature of the offenses against patients uncovered here is their breadth. This callous and destructive treatment of the most-vulnerable among us needs to be stopped, and our plaintiff-clients are grateful that the Court saw the current lawsuit as the most powerful and efficient means to bring about justice and change.”
With dismissal roundly rejected by Judge Brody, the case will move forward through discovery and on to trial. (Class claims seeking injunctive relief in the form of powerful institutional reforms are the subject of a separate motion to dismiss, fully briefed but not yet argued before the Court.)
“We are very pleased with today’s order from the Court and are eager to move the case forward,” states attorney Joe Sauder of Sauder Schelkopf. “Our clients have been empowered to speak about their mistreatment as vulnerable children entrusted to Devereux’s care, and we look forward to making sure their voices will finally be heard.”
History of the Devereux Abuse Case
Lieff Cabraser, Sauder Schelkopf and Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg & Lin filed this lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of children exposed to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse while in the care of The Devereux Foundation (d/b/a Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health) along with its staffing company Quality Health Staffing, LLC. Through 21 facilities across 13 states, each year Devereux takes on responsibility for protecting more than 25,000 of our country’s most vulnerable members: children with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and specialty mental health needs, including youth in the child welfare system. As the complaint alleges, instead of fulfilling its promise and solemn responsibility to protect these vulnerable individuals, Devereux instead exposed them to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by failing to enact or enforce safety measures and other policies to protect them.
The complaint details numerous incidents of abuse against children in the care of Devereux, including batteries, sexual offenses, emotional abuse, and rape. In August 2020, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists at the Philadelphia Inquirer released a devastating report detailing decades of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse inflicted upon these especially vulnerable children by Devereux staff members. The report reveals that “[a]t least 41 children as young as 12, and with IQs as low as 50, have been raped or sexually assaulted by Devereux staff members in the last 25 years.”
The plaintiffs brought the lawsuit to hold Devereux accountable for the harm it has caused and to prevent this devastating abuse from happening to anyone else in Devereux’s care.
Related News
Chester County finds no abuse of CYF placements at Devereux
Two Devereux employees arrested; two others fired in child abuse case
9 employees facing assault related charges at Devereux health center
2 employees at behavioral facility accused in Brevard County child abuse case
Devereux employee in Viera accused of sexual relationship with student bonds out of jail
Experience Matters
Sauder Schelkopf has a nationally recognized litigation practice. Our former prosecutors have extensive experience representing victims of all ages. The Legal Intelligencer named Sauder Schelkopf partners to its 2020 Pennsylvania Trailblazers. The honor recognizes 31 lawyers who “have taken extra measures to contribute to positive outcomes . . . and who are truly agents of change.” The Legal highlights our partner’s innovative work on advocacy as class counsel in large institutional sex abuse cover-ups, women’s, and children’s rights.
Juvenile Justice:
- We currently represent hundreds of individuals whose rights were violated while they were detained in a juvenile detention facility. Sauder Schelkopf and co-counsel filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of current and former students of The Glen Mills Schools who allege that they were physically and mentally abused while attending the School.
Civil Rights
- In Allison, et al. v. The GEO Group, Mr. Sauder served as co-lead counsel and achieved a $2.9 million settlement on behalf of pretrial detainees whose civil rights were violated at the Delaware County prison.
- In Kurian v. County of Lancaster, Mr. Sauder served as co-lead counsel and achieved a $2.5 million settlement in this civil rights class action lawsuit on behalf of pretrial detainees.
Sexual Abuse
- Sauder Schelkopf, and co-counsel, recently reached a $215 million settlement on behalf of female patients of Dr. George Tyndall, a gynecologist at the University of Southern California accused of sexual misconduct since the 1990s.
- We have represented survivors of clergy sexual abuse in dioceses throughout the country.
- We have a lawsuit pending on behalf of males who were victims of sexual misconduct by Dr. Richard Strauss, the Ohio State team doctor, while they were students and student-athletes at Ohio State University.
- We recently announced a landmark class action settlement in which the University of Michigan agreed to “major institutional reforms.” It was alleged that UofM longtime employment of a predatory former sports doctor evidenced a toxic environment where students face an increased risk of sexual violence in violation of Title IX. The settlement comes after widespread allegations by over 1000 survivors of sexual misconduct by Dr. Robert E. Anderson, former director of University Health Service, and a former athletic team physician, who worked at the University of Michigan from 1968 until his retirement in 2003.
We Want to Hear from You
If you are a survivor of physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse, you can confidentially contact the lawyers at Sauder Schelkopf by filling out the form on this page or calling 888.711.9975