Boys Town reaches secret settlement with second woman alleging sexual assault by employee
A second woman who sued Father Flanagan's Boys Home in Omaha, Nebraska, over sexual abuse alleged by a house parent at the youth home has reached a private settlement with the nonprofit.
Shaelyn Nielsen, 25, said she could not comment on the confidential settlement, reached after articles about her case in the Des Moines Register. The first part of a two-part Register investigation, published Nov. 5, examined how alleged sexual assaults and rapes at the iconic Omaha home are shielded from the public and have gone unreported to oversight agencies.
Sitting in its own village on the west side of Omaha, Boys Town houses delinquent, foster and privately placed youths from Iowa and other states. The village has its own security and police department, which repeatedly has refused to release to the Register basic incident reports related to 12 alleged rape offenses on its campus in the last five years.
Nielsen, one of several former Boys Town residents who have said they were sexually abused at the renowned youth home over decades, alleged Sherdale Green, a Boys Town house parent who lived with her and other girls when she was 18, sexually assaulted her before she left Boys Town for college.
Nielsen and former resident Tayler Weatherall, a 24-year-old who reached a private settlement in the same case in September, told the Register this summer they filed their lawsuit because they wanted to protect other children still living at Boys Town.
Their lawsuit, filed by the Goosmann law firm, alleged that once the courts placed the girls at Boys Town, the home and its employees violated their duty to ensure the girls' safety. It also alleged that Boys Town was negligent in hiring a sexual predator to supervise teenage girls and that it failed to properly investigate and report the complaints of sexual misconduct to fire Green in a timely manner, or follow child abuse mandatory reporting requirements under Nebraska law.
Boys Town and Green have denied Nielsen and Weatherall's allegations. In a statement, the nonprofit said: "Boys Town reports all accusations to law enforcement and/or Child Protective Services, two independent entities, and fully cooperates with their independent investigations. Our safety numbers reflect the fact Boys Town actively encourages student reporting on campus ― no matter the circumstance or degree of offense."
At least two Boys Town employees have been convicted of having sex with youths housed at Boys Town in the last 10 years.
In 2014, Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services was notified of a sexual relationship between Robyn Wood, a shift manager supervising other employees, and a 17-year-old under the guardianship of the state of Nebraska. Wood was convicted in 2015 for having sex with what was deemed a “protected person.” She was sentenced to five years of probation.
Former house parent Jaime Rivera Jr., following a 2018 investigation, admitted he had sex repeatedly with a 15-year-old ward from Texas, court records show. When the girl threatened to expose Rivera before his arrest, he paid her $2,000 in hush money, the records show. Rivera was convicted of first-degree attempted sex abuse on a child, a felony.
Boys Town said this year it referred six of 12 rape cases reported over the last five years to the Douglas County attorney's office in Omaha. However, Rivera's was the only case prosecuted.
Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Reach her at lrood@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8549, on Twitter at @leerood or on Facebook at Facebook.com/readerswatchdog.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Secret settlement reached with second woman in Boys Town sex abuse suit
