Lawsuit: New Jersey Department of Children and Families UPDATED

“Six years ago, New Jersey legislators expanded the statute of limitations for survivors of sexual assault, responding to a wave of victims looking for justice years or even decades after abuse at the hands of predatory clergy, Boy Scout leaders, and others entrusted to care for children.

But the state has found itself increasingly held to account for sexual abuse people have suffered in the government’s custody, from foster care to state-run homes.

Officials paid more than $23 million to settle over a dozen of these complaints last year. They were among 332 payouts, totaling almost $178 million, that the state made in 2024 to resolve legal claims involving state employees, agencies, and property, according to records the New Jersey Monitor obtained under the Open Public Records Act.

Two of the largest payments in 2024 — $12 million and $6.8 million — went to women for sexual abuse they endured in foster placements, one dating back to 1987 and the other to 1963. The women said they reported the abuse while still in the care of their molesters, but child welfare workers did little to investigate and just moved them to other foster homes where they encountered new abusers.

Spokespeople from the state Department of Children and Families did not respond to a request for comment.

Several men received settlements for sexual abuse they endured while in state-run homes decades ago.

One said four male employees and two male residents at the New Lisbon Developmental Center, a state-run home in Burlington County for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, sexually assaulted him starting in 1950, when he was 8 years old, until he aged out of the system at 18. He received a $3.5 million payout. Another man who alleged he was abused at New Lisbon, where he was placed in 1987 at age 8, received $99,000 to settle his lawsuit.

Abuse also occurred at the now-shuttered Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center in Monmouth County, according to a man who said he was 13 in 1983 when an employee there began molesting him. That employee, Thomas Grisard, was later convicted, and the state paid the victim $750,000 last year to resolve his lawsuit.”

Lawsuits cost New Jersey $178M in 2024, as abuse claims rise
[New Jersey Monitor 06/05/25 by DANA DIFILIPPO]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “Ongoing lawsuits filed by people who say they were sexually abused as children while in juvenile detention centers, foster care, and other state-supervised placements could cost New Jersey at least $340 million, judging by past payouts.

The state has already shelled out tens of millions of dollars to resolve such claims, with the median cost of the settlements at $975,000 as of March, according to budget documents. ”

“But about 350 cases remain active, and more could come, because state lawmakers in 2019 expanded the statute of limitations for sex crimes to give victims a longer timeline to file civil lawsuits.

New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner last year consolidated about 250 cases against the state Youth Justice Commission at the request of victims’ attorneys and assigned them to Superior Court in Middlesex County. Those cases remain in the discovery phase. The other 100 or so cases name other state agencies as defendants and are proceeding separately through the court system.

Many of the lawsuits accuse guards, counselors, teachers, and other staff of wide-ranging abuses at a long list of the state’s youth jails and secure residential programs.

Victims said they were forcibly raped or coerced into unwanted sexual activity, with staff securing their silence with bribes of food, cigarettes, pornographic magazines, and other contraband or threats of discipline and loss of privileges. Some reported illicit strip searches that turned predatory, and one accused a staff member of using a broomstick to rape him. In some cases, the victims allege, other staff saw the abuse and did nothing to intervene or hold abusers accountable.

Most of the current cases stem from alleged assaults at the New Jersey Training School in Monroe, the state’s largest and oldest juvenile jail.

The feds identified the facility in 2010 as one of the nation’s 13 worst for sexual misconduct and use of force by staff, with as many as 35% of boys who were surveyed there reporting sexual victimization by staff. A follow-up study in 2012 found that abuse at the facility had declined but persisted, with up to 15% of boys surveyed reporting sexual victimization by staff.

Former Gov. Chris Christie said in 2018 that the state would close it, along with a girls’ jail in Bordentown. Both jails, though, remain open. Workers began construction late last year on two replacement jails in Ewing and Winslow that are expected to open in late 2027.”

Lawsuits over sex abuse of children in state custody could cost NJ $340M+
[News from the States 4/20/26 by Dana DiFilippo]