http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs ... 20383/1018Another 'safe' place for a teenager.
Westchester faces abuse suit
By TIMOTHY O'CONNOR
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: October 12, 2005)
WHITE PLAINS ? The boy who said he was sexually assaulted two years ago by a fellow Children's Village resident while a counselor held him down is suing Westchester County, the residential treatment center and his two accused abusers in a federal court.
The boy asks for at least $40 million in damages in the lawsuit that says his civil rights were violated.
A jury acquitted the counselor, Jason Brown, of 138 Archer Ave., Mount Vernon, of all charges. Elliot Perryman, then a 16-year-old resident of the treatment center in Dobbs Ferry, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, admitting he injured the boy with a broomstick on the night of Nov. 20, 2003, but not admitting to any sexual assault.
The boy filed suit earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. A federal judge ordered the case sealed, and the public was not privy to filings in the case. The case was eventually moved to U.S. District Court in White Plains, where Judge Charles Brieant ordered it unsealed, but allowed the boy to file anonymously under the pseudonym John Doe.
In the lawsuit, the boy, who was 14 at the time of the incident, says the Nov. 20 assault was not the only time he was abused.
"This attack was the culmination of a series of abusive acts that were inflicted upon John Doe while he was at Children's Village by Brown, Perryman and others," his attorney, Alan Vinegrad, wrote in the complaint.
In the Nov. 20 incident, the boy said Brown and Perryman chased him into a shower room at Wolfe Cottage. The boy said Brown held him down while Perryman sexually assaulted him with the broomstick.
Vinegrad did not return calls seeking comment on the case.
In court papers, the county and Children's Village have denied any wrongdoing. Brown and Perryman have not filed any response to the complaint.
The county will not be held liable if any damages are awarded in the case, said Susan Tolchin, chief adviser to County Executive Andrew Spano. Tolchin said by the terms of a contract the county has with Children's Village, the treatment center is responsible in case of any lawsuit.
Linda Stutz, the vice president for institutional advancement at Children's Village, declined to comment on the case, saying the treatment center does not speak about pending litigation.
Brown could not be reached for comment. Perryman, now 18, is in Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, where he is serving a sentence of one to three years, said Carter Perryman, his uncle and guardian. Carter Perryman said his nephew was a victim in the case, just like the boy. Perryman had been sexually abused as a boy, his uncle said, and should have received better treatment at Children's Village.
"All this was in his history. They should have foreseen this," he said. "The suit should be addressed to the people in charge there, not my nephew."
The complaint lists five other incidents of alleged abuse by Brown, Perryman, and another unnamed resident against the boy and other residents.
Lawyers for both sides are due back in court Nov. 10.
