State Settles ‘Horrific’ Seattle Child-Abuse Case for $6.55 Million

The state Department of Social and Health Services reached a $6.55 million settlement Tuesday in a horrific child abuse case involving six Seattle boys who were starved, locked in a closet, and sexually and physically abused for years.

The case - a lawsuit filed by the children's grandmother - had been scheduled to start trial Tuesday in King County Superior Court.

From Seattle PI.com, Vanessa Ho

"I think DSHS did the right thing, finally, for this grandmother and her grandchildren," the grandmother's attorney, Blaine Tamaki, said in a statement.

He said the boys had endured "unimaginable acts" from the time they were very young and that the parents were drug addicts. He said the children were starved, kept in a locked closet, and and sexually and physically abused by their father and mother's boyfriends.

He said one boy was so distraught that he pulled his hair out with pliers when he was 4. Three other children attempted suicide, at ages 7, 11 and 14. The 14-year-old threw himself onto a moving train and survived the impact.

"It was a very ugly, horrific environment," Tamaki said. "The physical and psychological damage is almost incomprehensible."

The entire time, the grandmother, who lived in Yakima, had complained repeatedly to DSHS. Over the years, physicians, counselors, therapists and an attorney also contacted the agency, and Tamaki said 33 complaints were filed with Children's Protective Services.

"But no meaningful action to help the children was ever taken," he said. He said the agency didn't follow up on the complaints, or had marked them as "low priority." He also said the parents were never prosecuted for abuse. In addition, the agency destroyed its entire file on the family -- only eight months after the grandmother gained custody of her last two grandchildren in 2000. For the lawsuit, the abuse was documented through existing medical and counseling records.

"They take the position that (the file loss) was inadvertent and unexplained," Tamaki said. "We think the destruction speaks for itself."

DSHS spokeswoman Sherry Hill said the state agreed that the children had been abused and neglected. She said the abuse happened "some time ago," and that the state has since improved its system of tracking complaints and detecting patterns of abuse.

"We feel by resolving this matter, the settlement fairly compensates the plaintiffs, which they can use to meet any of their special needs they may have in the future," Hill said.