Lawsuit: Berkshire Farm Center and Service for Youth and Earl Hoffman

“Oswego County, which is being sued by a woman who says she was repeatedly sexually abused decades ago at a foster care home, will sue the foster parent accused of the abuse as well as the nonprofit that ran the home.

The Oswego County Legislature last week voted 21 to 0 to approve a resolution allowing the county to start litigation.

The county plans to sue Berkshire Farm Center and Service for Youth, of Canaan, N.Y., and Earl Daniel Hofmann Sr., 67, of Granby, seeking indemnification.

According to a lawsuit filed by a woman in state Supreme Court in 2021, she was about 11 years old around 1981 when she was placed in foster care at a foster home in Hannibal. The lawsuit says she was regularly and repeatedly sexually abused by Hofmann, who was her foster father. It says he plied her with alcohol on numerous occasions.

Hofmann said Tuesday he was not aware of the impending lawsuit and declined comment.

The lawsuit argues that the county, which contracted with private nonprofits to provide foster care services, was negligent. The county was the legal guardian of the alleged victim at the time.

Although she was granted permission to use a pseudonym in court proceedings, some of the original filings in the case included the woman’s name. The Palladium-Times is not identifying the woman.

The woman filed the lawsuit under New York’s Child Victims Act. More than 10,000 lawsuits were filed during the two-year window created by the law, which was extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The law set aside the usual time limit on civil lawsuits to let victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue institutions and people.

Several states in addition to New York have created windows allowing people to sue over childhood abuse regardless of how long ago it took place.

Oswego County was named in the original lawsuit but Berkshire Farm and Hofmann were not. The county has denied the claims in the lawsuit and raised numerous affirmative defenses.

During progression of litigation the county learned that the former foster home was run or supervised by Berkshire Farm and that Hofmann was the woman’s foster father.

Berkshire Farm has more than 550 foster homes throughout the state and serves more than 8,000 children and their families annually.”

Oswego County sues nonprofit, former foster parent over sex abuse accusation
[Owswego County News Now 3/14/23 by Ken Sturtz]

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