Lawsuit: Oregon and the Department of Human Services

“A boy who lived in the same Douglas County foster home where three other former residents were allegedly abused as children has filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming he too was abused while living there.

The lawsuit was filed Nov. 3 in Douglas County Circuit Court. Portland attorney Paul Galm is representing the boy. The state of Oregon and the Department of Human Services (DHS) are listed as defendants. The boy, who is listed under the pseudonym Z.S., is seeking $2.6 million.

Department of Human Services spokesman Jake Sunderland said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation.

According to the lawsuit:

Z.S. was born in 2010 and is currently 15 years old. He is presently in the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority and living at one of its sanctioned facilities.

At all times, Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) was aware of the boy’s “vulnerability as a minor with poor boundaries as a prior victim of physical and emotional abuse and neglect,” according to the lawsuit.

In or around 2018, when Z.S. was about 8 years old, ODHS removed him from the custody of his biological parents. In December of that year, ODHS placed him in a foster home where another boy, listed as J.L., also lived. J.L. was born in 2005 and was 13 years old when Z.S. came to live with him.

On at least one occasion, J. L. sexually abused Z. S., according to the lawsuit. The plaintiff did not consent to J. L.’s contact and abuse, which “harmed, offended, and traumatized him,” the lawsuit said.

As a direct result of J. L.’s sexual, physical and emotional abuse, Z.S. suffered economic losses, including but not limited to the costs of necessary counseling and related treatments and expenses, estimated to be $100,000, with the actual amount to be proven at trial, the lawsuit states.

Z.S. also reportedly suffered noneconomic losses, including but not limited to “emotional injury, mental anguish, embarrassment, shame, fear, hyperactivity, lack of focus, isolation, displacement from his school and peers, nightmares and sleep disruption, mistrust in the intentions of others, lack of self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and other psychological trauma,” according to the lawsuit.

This is the second such lawsuit filed in the last few weeks. On Oct. 21, another Portland attorney filed a lawsuit against the state and DHS, seeking $4 million on behalf of a boy who said he was sexually abused by another child while both lived in a Douglas County foster home. In that case, the parents of the home allegedly knew about the abuse yet allowed it to occur, according to that lawsuit.

These two lawsuits follow at least three other similar ones filed in the last few years involving individuals claiming to be abused in a Douglas County foster care home as children.

In February 2023, the state agreed to a payout of $425,000 to a boy who claimed he was physically and sexually abused for years while living in a foster home. In April 2024, the state agreed to pay $400,000 to settle a case involving another boy who claimed he was abused in the same foster home.

In those cases, most of the abuse — and all of the sexual abuse — allegedly came from other youth in the house, according to lawsuits filed on behalf of the boys.

In August 2024, a woman who claimed she was sexually abused in that same Douglas County foster care home for much of her childhood settled a lawsuit filed against the foster parents she said were responsible.

The woman had sought $2.6 million for alleged sexual battery, negligence and infliction of emotional stress. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Attorney Galm represented all three of those alleged victims. Galm said he expects to file another lawsuit, involving alleged abuse at the same home, within the next several weeks.

“There are good foster homes out there, in fact I think most of them are good,” Galm said. “But every now and then you get a home that is not so good, and in those situations you often find multiple instances of abuse.””

Another lawsuit alleges foster home abuse
[The News-Review 11/13/25 by Scott Carroll]

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