He alleged sexual abuse at defunct Tacoma boys group home. WA settles case for $150K
A man who alleged he was sexually abused as a teenager while living at a boys group home in Tacoma has settled a lawsuit against the state for $150,000, according to court records.
The plaintiff, identified by his initials in a July 2023 complaint filed in Pierce County Superior Court, claimed that staffers at the now-defunct Jessie Dyslin Boys Ranch failed to intervene and that the state ignored evidence of physical, sexual and emotional abuse occurring at the home.
The alleged abuse, which the plaintiff’s lawyers previously indicated happened when he was a child, stemmed from incidents when he was 18 years old in 1998, court records show. A staff member allegedly routinely forced the plaintiff to perform a sex act, according to the suit.
It was disclosed in June that the lawsuit had been settled, court records show. The case was officially dismissed on Sept. 5 against all defendants, including Washington state; the Department of Children, Youth and Families; and the since-dissolved operator of the former group home.
In settling the suit, the state did not admit liability, according to court records. In its earlier failed motion to dismiss the case, the state argued that a three-year statute of limitations had expired.
DCYF and an attorney representing the plaintiff declined to comment on the case’s resolution.
The plaintiff had been a ward of the state at Jessie Dyslin Boys Ranch, a state-licensed facility for juvenile rehabilitation that started in 1926 and closed in the early 2000s, the News Tribune previously reported. The facility has been scrutinized by others.
Two additional lawsuits were filed last year on behalf of alleged sexual-abuse victims at the group home from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. The state has denied allegations in both cases, which were continuing to be litigated, according to court records.
Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, a law firm uninvolved in the resolved case or the other two filed last year, says it has settled multiple sexual abuse lawsuits on behalf of alleged victims at Jessie Dyslin Boys Ranch.
