Will you chip in to support our nonprofit newsroom with a donation today?
Yes, I want to support My MLTnews!
Faced with more than 50 current lawsuits alleging sexual abuse at Snohomish and Pierce County juvenile detention centers, both counties filed legal paperwork Friday, July 24 arguing the state, not counties, are legally liable and financially responsible for what happened at these facilities.
Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Jason Cummings and Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett are asking a Thurston County judge to agree and name the state of Washington as the defendant in the case now and future cases.
Washington counties face hundreds of lawsuits with potentially more than a billion dollars in legal liability related to claims of juvenile sexual abuse by detention center staff for decades at facilities like Snohomish County’s Denney Juvenile Justice Center in Everett.
Earlier this month, nine more plaintiffs joined the suit against Snohomish County, bringing the total number to 21.
County argument: ‘The county pays. The court controls.’
The counties say Snohomish County Superior Court judges are separately elected state officers and report to the state Office of Administrative Courts in Olympia. Those judicial officers are state employees paid, in part, by the state. The County does not fill superior court judge vacancies, the governor does. The court is financially and legally responsible for its staff.
Court documents include this organizational work chart.
“Since 1913, superior court judges controlled the hiring, firing, supervision, and discipline of juvenile court personnel and have set the policies, procedures, and programming under which juvenile probation and detention operate,” the lawsuit says. If superior court judges are state employees, then – according to the counties’ interpretation – the state runs juvenile courts, which include juvenile probation and detention services.
The counties’ suit goes on to report that the counties “build, maintain, and pay for the facilities, but have no authority to run them.”
(King County is an exception, as it chose to manage the local juvenile detention facility.)
The outcome has enormous financial consequences for either the state or the counties.
According to the suit filed Friday, Snohomish County is named as a defendant or respondent in two multiple plaintiff suits and has received an additional 23 claims. The “potential exposure” for investigating, defending or settling the claims is estimated at over $87 million. Pierce County puts their exposure at nearly $700 million. Both counties say payments put other County services at financial risk.
Separately, local staff who reported abuse and were allegedly disciplined have also filed suits against local counties.
The plaintiffs
As part of the lawsuit, the counties included details of each act of alleged abuse at the Denney Youth Center and the Denney Juvenile Justice Center, where each plaintiff names Snohomish County as allowing the abuse to occur and failing to stop the abuse when it was reported.
Here is a copy of the July 24 filing.
We have requested a comment from the state Office of Administrative Courts and will add that if we receive it.
Real first and last names — as well as city of residence — are required for all commenters.
This is so we can verify your identity before approving your comment.
By commenting here you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct. Please read our code at the bottom of this page before commenting.