A former inmate at a county juvenile detention center in Pennsylvania is suing the county and multiple state officials, saying he was sexually abused at the detention center, victim of an epidemic of child abuse there.

The suit was filed on behalf of a plaintiff identified as S.J. in Pennsylvania federal court on Tuesday. S.J. alleged that he and other children were sexually assaulted by Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center staffers and that leaders ignored abuse reports for the sake of the county's finances.

"The case is about all of the young boys and girls who were sentenced to a lifetime of pain and anguish by the physical, emotional and sexual abuse and neglect that they were forced to endure. Plaintiff is but just one of those children. There are countless others," the complaint said.

The complaint said the county public defender's office conducted an investigation into the detention center in response to claims of abuse against children and found them to be credible. The investigation found that the facilities were filthy and in disrepair, and that in addition to physical and sexual abuse, the inmates were kept in isolation for extended periods with intermittent access to heat and water, and were denied access to medical care, according to the complaint.

All of this was known to higher-ups, and even swept under the rug in some cases, the complaint said.

"For decades at [the detention center], a culture of abuse not only festered, but was perpetrated by staff and perpetuated by those at every level within [the center], through repeated cover-ups. From guards to supervisors to counselors to superiors of every level, various and heinous abuses were both known and ignored," the complaint said.

State and county officials failed to provide the proper oversight to ensure that juveniles at the facility, in Lima, Pennsylvania, remained safe, the complaint said. The Lima center closed in March 2021 after reports documenting abuse, but the facility is still licensed, the complaint says.

The defendants chose "to protect their own reputation and bottom line at the expense of the safety and well-being of children in need and in their care, custody and/or control," the complaint said. "The full extent of their efforts in fostering a culture of secrecy that allowed such pervasive abuse of children and the effects of the same may likely never be fully known."

The suit also includes the state Department of Human Services and the nonprofit Child Guidance Resource Center, which provided counseling services to the inmates, as defendants. 

The department said Wednesday that it could not comment on pending litigation, but added, "DHS has zero tolerance towards abuse and harassment, and we take seriously our responsibility to protect the health and safety of children at licensed facilities."

Gaetano D'Andrea, who represents S.J. and others suing the county, said, "It's incredibly sad that this is the sixth case that I've filed against the Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center. They've delayed, stalled and did everything they can to deny justice to these children who were at these facilities, for decades."

The cases have been filed separately but are consolidated for discovery purposes. D'Andrea said he would not combine them all into a class action or multidistrict litigation because it would be a "disservice to the clients." While combining might be expedient for discovery purposes, it is "most beneficial for the survivors to do these as individual cases," he said.

S.J. is represented by Gaetano A. D'Andrea of Laffey Bucci D'Andrea Reich & Ryan LLP

Counsel information for the county was not immediately available.

The case is S.J. v. Delaware County et al., case number 2:24-cv-05477 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

--Editing by Karin Roberts.