WA to pay $2.35M in abuse case settlement

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington state will pay $2.35 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who alleged that two state agencies failed to protect her from a sex offender who abused her when she was a child.

The Pierce County Superior Court lawsuit alleged that a paroled child rapist named Danny Dorosky Sr. was allowed to live with the victim's family, despite a Parole Board order that required intensive management and supervision because of the prior sex crime.

One of the woman's lawyers, Jason Amala, said Dorosky ingratiated himself into the victim's family and eventually moved into the home, where he abused the girl for almost three years. She was 10 when the abuse started, Amala said.

The woman also contended that the Department of Social and Health Services' Child Protective Services failed to protect her after school officials in Shelton reported the girl might be a sexual abuse victim.

Corrections spokeswoman Selena Davis confirmed the settlement and its amount late Wednesday. She said she could not immediately comment on case details.

DSHS spokesman Thomas Shapley referred inquiries to a lawyer with the state attorney general's office who did not immediately return a call.

The woman's lawyers say the abuse began in 1990. After the victim's father contacted law enforcement about the man in 1993, Mason County officials eventually arrested Dorosky. He was convicted of child molestation and rape. He died in 2004, Amala said.

In a phone interview Wednesday with The Olympian, the now 31-year-old woman said she had buried her awareness of what had happened until recently, when her own daughter turned 10.

She said she looked up Dorosky's court records and eventually hired a lawyer.

She said "it makes me sick" that state employees could have prevented what had happened to her and didn't.

The plaintiff, a state employee, added that she would appreciate an apology from the state. Beyond that, she said she hopes her lawsuit will lead to policy changes that will prevent supervision failures.

Source http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/WA-to-pay-2-35M-in-abuse-case-settlement-2713424.php

Prosecutor: Agency kept abuse complaint quiet - Montana

Associated Press

A Yellowstone County prosecuting attorney is questioning why a state agency didn't report a child molestation complaint to police.

"It bothered me," Scott Twito told the Billings Gazette ( http://bit.ly/u2i2Nh). "It is clearly a criminal matter and should have been reported to law enforcement."

He said the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office received an anonymous tip in March that a 43-year-old man had molested a 9-year-old girl.

He said investigators then learned that months earlier officials with the Child and Family Services Division of the state Department of Public Health and Human Services had dealt with the sexual abuse complaint by making an agreement with Jack Rumph that referred him to a Billings sex offender treatment program in exchange for not reporting the complaint to police.

After law enforcement officials became involved through the anonymous tip, Rumph was charged with two felony sex offenses and felony tampering. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Yellowstone County Court.

Hank Hudson, a manager who oversees three divisions of the state agency, including Child and Family Services, and Sarah Corbally, a division administrator, told the newspaper that decisions on whether to refer child sexual abuse to police are made on a "case-by-case basis."

Both said the agency's mission is to protect children from abuse and neglect, and each case is different.

"We make many referrals to law enforcement," said Hudson.

Health and Human Services officials also said such agreements where allegations of child sexual abuse aren't reported to police are rare, though they don't keep track.

"I hope and trust it's an anomaly," said Twito of the case involving Rumph.

State law requires teachers, medical professionals and others to report to police incidents of child abuse and neglect. But state law doesn't require social workers to make similar reports.

Twito said that means police would have never started investigating Rumph if not for the anonymous caller.

"If we don't get this anonymous tip, we don't have anything," he said.

According to recently filed charging documents, the social worker handling the case interviewed Rumph in March 2010 and said Rumph admitted he allowed the girl to touch him, but he denied touching the girl in a sexual manner.

The social worker interviewed Rumph a second time.

"According to her report, (Rumph) was `tearful' and `very remorseful,'" court records state. Rumph said several times that "this was nobody's fault but his."

It's unclear if the social worker interviewed the girl. A police detective interviewed the girl in August. The girl told police Rumph "had sex with me" and told her she would go to "little girl jail" if she told anyone.

Rumph is free on $30,000 bond. He faces a maximum possible sentence of 100 years on each sex offense charge.

Twito said sex abuse allegations should be reported to police not only because a possible crime has been committed, but because victims can receive help through the crime victims compensation fund, which can pay for counseling.

Source http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/prosecutor-agency-kept-abuse-complaint-quiet/article_900bf805-54dd-528f-8f0d-53908ab4287c.html

Can't Even Trust The Psych Docs

The below article goes to show that anyone involved with your child (through CPS or otherwise) might do something awful to them.

With so many foster children seeing these kinds of doctors, you have to wonder how many untold stories of psych doc molestation/rape may be going untold.

This doc sure is getting a short sentence!

Harford child psychologist pleads guilty to abusing 3 girls

By Mary Gail Hare, The Baltimore Sun

9:37 p.m. EDT, August 22, 2011
A Harford County child psychologist pleaded guilty Monday to child abuse and sexual assault of three young girls he had been treating at his Fallston office.

David Wayne Schrumpf, 55, of Whiteford will serve six years in prison, where he will undergo sex offender treatment, under terms of a plea agreement filed in Harford County Circuit Court. He is charged with one count of child sex abuse and two counts of second-degree assault.

Schrumpf will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He must also surrender his license to practice psychology and cannot seek another in any jurisdiction, according to the plea agreement.

The charges arose after one 7-year-old girl reported to her mother that Schrumpf had touched her inappropriately during a session at his office. Two other victims, who were 9 and 10 years old at the time of the abuse, came forward during the investigation, county State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly said. All the incidents occurred at Schrumpf's office in Fallston over a year beginning in October 2009, Cassilly said.

Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 31 in Harford County Circuit Court before Judge Maurice Baldwin.

Source http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/bs-md-ha-abuse-plea-20110822,0,1506215.story