Lawsuit: Washington DSHS and Sound Mental Health

“She’s 28 now. But for a moment, she was 5 years old again, living a nightmare in this South Seattle foster home.

“What was happening was not a secret,” she said. “It was being expressed to CPS, to my workers.”

They say the owners of the foster home, Tracy and Henry Robinson, sexually and physically abused the children sent to live with them; where children were forced to sleep outside with the family dog as punishment.

Not even allowed to sleep in the dog house? she was asked.

“No,” she said. “But when she would come out in the morning and see me sleep, she would grab me by my hair and she would tell me only one ‘B’ gets to sleep and that’s my dog.”

The couple also served them dog food.

“They used to wrap Alpo in tortillas and feed it to us,” said another alleged victim, now 31.

The home, said attorney Lawand Anderson, “was essentially a house of horrors.” And she says counselors at Sound Mental Health were told, too.

And what did the counselors do? she was asked.

“Obviously nothing,” said Anderson. “My clients were sent home, back to the foster home, each and every day.”

The state’s own documents show the Robinsons’ foster care license was revoked in 1992 and again in 1999. But DSHS never stopped sending foster children to live with them.  

A victim, who is now 29, was asked if Henry Robinson attacked her, too.

“Yes,” she said. “Sexually abused, yes.”

Now five of those children are suing Sound Mental Health and DSHS.

Their attorneys say they never were safe.

“This is one of the worst homes I’ve ever seen,” said Lincoln Beauregard. “And it leaves me with the impression that it was a dumping ground for hard to place African American children.”

The couple they were placed with is African American, too. The women say their foster parents told them, “No one will ever believe you.”

And for a long time, that seemed to be true. But now they will have their day in court.”

Former foster children sue DSHS, Sound Mental Health [Kiro 7 4/25/16 by Deborah Horne]

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