A four-year-old girl placed in the Oregon’s foster care system was subjected to sexual abuse that included rape because the state agency and the foster parents neglected to keep her safe, according to a sexual abuse lawsuit filed recently in Multnomah County.
The Oregonian reported that the alleged rapes and sexual abuse occurred on at least three occasions in June or July 2013 when the young girl was living in a foster home operated by Grace and Jacob Cummings. The lawsuit filed on behalf of the girl seeks $3.5 million in damages against the boys, the foster parents, and state child welfare workers employed by Oregon DHS.
According to the lawsuit, the boys were 12 and 15 at the time of the assaults, took the girl to a barn on the Cummings’ property, and sexually assaulted her on three occasions. The boys admitted to police that they engaged in sexual activity with the girl, the suit said. The lawsuit alleges that one of the boys made a video of himself having sex with the girl. The girl “emerged from the barn with her pants down” and said the boys had physical contact with her genital area, but the Cummings waited a day before reporting the incident to police, the suit said.
The boys are now in juvenile facilities after their arrests in July 2013 and the Cummings are no longer certified as foster parents by the state. Of course, none of this helps the little girl who was subject to such horrific abuse at the tender age of four. The damage has been done.
While a sexual abuse lawsuit can’t undo the abuse suffered by this child it can help prevent the negligence and disregard for children allegedly exhibited by the state agency and the foster parents.