Bittersweet Justice: New York

Occasionally there is justice for those negatively affected by the child welfare and adoption systems. Unfortunately, it is usually bittersweet and much too late. This will serve as REFORM Talk’s justice files.

“A jury found Sullivan County negligent on July 23 in its handling of a foster placement in the late 1980s. The plaintiff, who was 15 at the time, testified that foster parent William P. Fox sexually abused him. His attorney, Daudi Justin, said the verdict totaled about $2 million, and Sullivan County Director of Communications Dan Hust said the county plans to appeal the verdict.

Court records identify the plaintiff only as N.R.

The jury found Sullivan County negligent in investigating and licensing Fox’s foster home, supervising and monitoring the placement, overseeing the county employees assigned to N.R.’s case and protecting him from foreseeable harm.

The lawsuit was brought under New York’s Child Victims Act, which temporarily allowed survivors to file civil claims that previously would have been barred because of the time that had passed.

Jurors also found that each form of negligence caused N.R.’s injuries. The findings concerning supervision of the foster home and oversight of county employees were unanimous. Five of the six jurors found the county negligent in investigating and licensing the home and failing to protect N.R.

“I believe we’ll have comment to provide after an appeal is filed on Monday,” Hust said.

Court records show the Sullivan County Department of Social Services placed N.R. with Fox on August 19, 1987. He remained in the foster placement for approximately two years.

Justin said N.R. testified at trial that he was required to share Fox’s bed during his first six months in the home and that no caseworker visited during that period.

According to Justin, a county caseworker and supervisor testified that state regulations required monthly visits and inspections of children’s sleeping quarters.

“The systemic red flags were glaring,” Justin said. “Had the agency conducted its required visits and inspected the sleeping quarters, caseworkers would have immediately discovered that the plaintiff lacked his own bed and that the children were housed in unlawful, substandard conditions.”

Another former foster youth testified that the children were housed in an unfinished basement and that he slept in a utility closet near a slop sink and broken stove, according to Justin.

Justin said the plaintiff also introduced a July 7, 1981 state Department of Social Services directive enforcing a regulation that prohibited placing foster beds in unfinished basements.

The former foster youth testified that Fox physically assaulted him and that he reported the incident to his caseworker after fleeing the home, according to Justin. Justin said the county did not investigate the report or interview N.R. or the other children who remained in the home.

N.R. also described the sleeping arrangements during a 2023 deposition filed with the court. He testified that four or five other foster children were living in the house when he arrived and that he did not initially have his own room.

After approximately six months, N.R. moved into a separate room. He testified that another boy then began sharing Fox’s bedroom.

The county maintained that the surviving evidence did not show its employees knew or reasonably should have known Fox presented a risk of sexual abuse.

Many of the records that could have documented the county’s handling of the placement no longer existed. The parties stipulated that the county destroyed the relevant records in accordance with the law. Justin said N.R.’s DSS case file and Fox’s foster-parent file were destroyed under routine record-retention practices.

Justin said the remaining records came from Family Court and did not include the caseworker notes, inspection records and other materials ordinarily contained in a DSS case file.

In seeking to have the case dismissed before trial, the county pointed to approximately seven occasions when its employees came to Fox’s property to deliver or retrieve foster children.

The county also cited a June 1988 report to Family Court stating that N.R. had made “significant improvements” in Fox’s home and an April 1989 update stating that his grades had improved.

N.R. acknowledged that caseworkers came to the property for other children but distinguished those contacts from visits intended to inspect the home or speak privately with him.

He testified that a caseworker entered the house when he was first dropped off but that he never witnessed a caseworker inspect the home or interview him there. He also acknowledged that he could not know whether an inspection occurred while he was away.

Before trial, Sullivan County retained a foster-care expert who concluded that the available records contained no evidence that DSS violated applicable rules, failed to conduct home visits or received notice that Fox presented a danger.

The expert relied partly on affidavits from two former county employees who described the department’s customary practices but had no memory of N.R.’s case.

One of those employees, former caseworker Lynn Albee, prepared reports concerning N.R.’s progress in 1988 and 1989. According to court records, Albee said it was her customary practice to visit foster children monthly, observe conditions in foster homes and report suspected abuse. She had no memory of N.R., Fox or any other child in Fox’s care.

Judge Meagan Galligan struck the county’s expert report before trial. Galligan found that the expert relied on customary practices rather than evidence of what occurred in N.R.’s case and drew conclusions from records that no longer existed. She also found that the report offered conclusions on questions jurors could evaluate themselves.

In an earlier ruling on the county’s request for summary judgment, Galligan dismissed two of N.R.’s eight claims but allowed the other six to proceed.

In that January 2025 decision, Galligan found that factual questions remained concerning whether the county investigated Fox before approving him, inspected his home or determined where the children slept.

Galligan wrote that, if N.R.’s testimony were credited, a jury could conclude that counting the beds would have shown that one or more boys were sharing a bed with Fox or another child. Further questioning could then have revealed that N.R. was sharing Fox’s bed, she wrote.

On December 1, 1989, Family Court transferred custody of N.R. from DSS to Fox. N.R. testified that he then moved with Fox to Florida.

The lawsuit is this was the first of three Child Victims Act cases involving Sullivan County foster placements to reach trial, Justin said. To the best of his knowledge, he said, it was also the first Child Victims Act case against a county to be tried since a 2025 Court of Appeals ruling concerning municipal responsibility for foster children.

That ruling held that a municipality with legal custody of a foster child has a duty to guard the child against foreseeable risks arising from its choice of foster parent.

Hust did not provide the county’s grounds for appeal but said a fuller response is expected after the filing Monday.”

Jury finds county negligent in foster-care case from 1980’s

[SC Democrat 8/7/26 by Sean Kuhn]