$200,000 in Rape Case of Foster Child

An 18-year-old who allegedly was sexually abused by the teen-age son of her foster parents more than 10 years ago won a $208,000 claim Tuesday from Los Angeles County.

The claim award is part of a $500,000 settlement for injuries the woman suffered while she was placed as a foster child with a Los Angeles family between 1984 and 1987.

The state of California, which must indemnify foster parents, will contribute $191,000 to the settlement, and the remaining $100,000 will be paid by a company that insured the foster family during part of the period in question.

The woman, identified only by her initials in claims reports, could not be reached for comment. But her attorney, Linda Wallace Pate, said the settlement will be used for schooling and to obtain psychological care for her client, who is the mother of three children.

“She still has a lot of problems, but the future looks good for her,� said Pate. “She feels good about this and now just wants to get on with her life.�

The foster parents could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The state revoked the couple’s foster care license in 1992, but they continue to adamantly deny the abuse allegations, said their attorney, Mark Weinstein, who also acted as private counsel for the county.

“They disagree that it happened, but they are also glad the case is now over,� said Weinstein. “They enjoyed caring for kids and this has ruined that endeavor.�

Despite the family’s denials, an administrative law judge found the allegations to be true and found that the foster parents “aided and abetted� the acts by failing to properly supervise the then 8-year-old girl.

The girl was placed with the family in the midst of a troubled childhood that included her mother’s suicide through an overdose of sleeping pills. The girl’s grandmother, with whom she had lived for a time, had been jailed for selling drugs and the girl was taken out of her great-grandmother’s home when an uncle who lived there was charged with abusing his own children, said Pate.

According to the claims report, the foster parents’ son was left to baby-sit the girl and other foster children, and allegedly raped her several times while she resided in the home.

The abuse was not reported until more than a year later, after the girl had been put in the care of another foster family.

According to a claims report, the young woman is now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and, as a result of her injuries, is likely to be harmed for life. Pate said the girl continued to have a troubled history after leaving the foster family, running away several times and living on the streets, but is finally beginning to turn her life around.

“The settlement will be structured so that she will have funds over her lifetime and will finally be able to get therapy and enter a community college,� said Pate. “She hasn’t been able to work before, but she has told me she wants to be a doctor. She has dreams.�