At age 10 the boy already had a thick and disturbing social services case file. He’d taken a knife and stabbed his older brother in the left eye and had a habit of plucking the left eyes from his dolls. He was cruel to animals, started fires at school and had a history of being sexually inappropriate with other children.
Despite those warning signs, workers at the South Carolina Department of Social Services and a private placement service called Growing Homes Southeast decided to move the boy into a foster home in Rock Hill with a much smaller 6-year-old boy hampered by serious mental and physical handicaps.
The foster mom of the house, Wyella Gaymon, alleged in a federal lawsuit against both agencies that social workers failed to tell her about the older boy’s problems and that he sexually abused the younger boy within a month of moving into the home.
After two years of legal maneuvering, Gaymon settled her claims against DSS for $150,000 in October 2012. Growing Homes entered into a settlement agreement with Gaymon on May 8, paying her an additional $150,000 and bringing an end to the suit.
The settlement spared the younger boy from having to testify about the sexual abuse he endured, said one of Gaymon’s attorneys, Robert J. Butcher of The Camden Law Firm. He added that the boy had shut down during his deposition, leading the defense attorneys to assert that he was incompetent and unable testify.
Those attorneys, William O. Sweeny III and John E. Tyler of Sweeny, Wingate & Barrow in Columbia, argued that the sex abuse did not occur and, even assuming that it had, the defendants were not liable because they did not know the older boy was sexually aggressive, according to Butcher. Sweeny and Tyler did not respond to interview requests.
There was no physical forensic evidence to show that the boy had been abused, which happens frequently in child-on-child sex abuse cases, according to Butcher’s co-counsel, Charles T. Brooks of Sumter.
But the boy’s therapist substantiated his claims, Brooks said, and thousands of pages of records detailing the older boy’s propensity for violence and sexual aggression helped show that social workers made a mistake when they moved him.
Also, during a deposition, DSS supervisor Philip W. Neely admitted that he did not require his staff to read the older boy’s full case file, or the complete files of any other kids before making decisions about their lives.
“No,” Neely had testified while being questioned by Butcher. “I don’t know of anybody who does that, and we certainly didn’t ask them to do that.”
Of the $300,000 settlement, $142,158 went to legal fees and costs, $16,000 went to Gaymon and $141,560 was placed in a special needs trust for the boy, which allows him to continue receiving Medicaid and an adoption subsidy. He can use the trust only to pay medical expenses not covered by the government, Butcher said. The remaining $280 was sent to Medicaid as reimbursement.
Follow Phillip Bantz on Twitter @NCLWBantz
SETTLEMENT REPORT: SEXUAL ASSAULT
Case name: N.G., by and through his guardian, Wyella Gaymon v. S.C. Department of Social Services and Growing Homes Southeast Inc.
Case number: 0:10-cv-02973
Court: U.S. District Court, Rock Hill
Date of settlements: October 2012 (DSS) and May 2013 (Growing Homes Southeast)
Amount: $300,000
Attorneys for plaintiff: Robert J. Butcher, Deborah J. Butcher (Camden) and Charles T. Brooks (Sumter)
Attorneys for defendants: William O. Sweeny III and John E. Tyler (Columbia)