Were You Abused or Detained at the Warren E. Thornton Center (WET) Juvenile Detention Facility in Sacramento, California?

You May be Entitled to Compensation. Call us at (650) 513-6111 for a free consultation.

A lawsuit, filed last week in California in the Sacramento Superior Court by NAACP Sacramento President Betty Williams, alleges that while under the care of the county, her 14-year-old relative was forced into sex work by a pimp who frequented a group home facility run by Sacramento County for foster children.  Prior to the girl’s removal from her father’s house she had been maintaining straight A’s in school and was active in cheerleading. Now she rarely attends school and is failing her classes.

The Sacramento County group home is a former juvenile detention facility in Rosemont, where foster children have been housed for more than 6 months. All the while receiving site letters requiring the children to be removed. State ombudsperson Larry Fluharty stated that the county is housing teenagers in “jail-like” cells with metal bunk beds, metal toilets covered with wood and that the environment could “retraumatize” the youth and cause the children to feel “Physically and psychologically unsafe.”

TIMELINE:

• DECEMBER 21 - Sacramento County Child Protective Services removes minor girl from her Fathers home after she attempted runaway. While in Sacramento County custody the minor attempted suicide and was returned home.

• MARCH ‘22 After attempting to run away from school the minor girl was again removed from her home and placed into an office building run by Sacramento County where she encountered a pimp on the premises and was forced into sex work.

• August ‘22 - The girl and other foster children were transferred to the Warren E Thornton Center Juvenile Detention Center on Branch Center Road where she continued to be sexually trafficked. Violating State laws of failure to investigate continued reports of sexual abuse, failure to properly train employees, failure to keep record of all reports received, and failure to place a 300 hold on the minor girl.

The lawsuit alleges that in December 2021 an unnamed girl ran away from home.  A few days later the police returned her to her home and contacted Sacramento County’s Child Protective Services and Social workers removed the minor from the house and placed her into an office building the county had been using to house foster children prior to the detention center.  While in the county’s custody the girl attempted suicide, and she was returned home.

Then in March of 2022 the girl allegedly ran away from School, and the she was again removed from her home and housed in the office building by Sacramento County.  The lawsuit further alleges that while living in the office building she encountered a pimp who had entered the facility and forced the child into sex work.  The young girl was then at some point transferred to a Bakersfield group home and then transferred back to the county run office building, all the while being followed by the pimp and continuously sexually abused & trafficked.

In August of 2022 the girl, along with the other foster children being housed in the county office building were transferred into the Warren E. Thornton Center (WET) juvenile detention facility on Branch Center Road where she continued to go missing while under the control of the pimp violating state laws, failure to investigate continued reports of sexual abuse, failure to properly train employees, failure to keep record of all reports received, and failure to place a 300 hold on the minor girl.

Williams said the girl felt like the facility was a jail.

“My heart breaks every day,” Williams said. “It’s almost like a slow death. Watching the potential of this flaming light just leave the body. It’s something that I think about every day, every night when I go to bed and every time I get up. It’s the feeling of being hopeless. That I’m at the mercy of a system that doesn’t seem to care about our children.”

TLO LAW attorney, and William’s lawyer Robert Thompson said, “You take a child who’s been ripped from her family and stuck her in a jail cell, (The county) should’ve been working on a plan for years. Other counties find permanent housing solutions, whether building something from the ground up or finding some sort of facility to house these children and properly supervise them. This is their job.”

“Most facilities for foster children are in residential neighborhoods, where it’s harder for pimps to wait outside,” Thompson said. The industrial center where the WET center is located is surrounded by public parking lots.

If you or anyone you know has been injured or assaulted while in the care of the Sacramento County juvenile system or at the Warren E. Thornton Center, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the California foster care attorneys at TLO LAW.  We are here to help.

Abused or Detained at the Warren E. Thornton Center (WET) Juvenile Detention Facility? Free Legal Consultation:

Call us - (650) 513-6111 or fill out the form below.

We handle Warren E. Thornton Center (WET) Juvenile Detention Facility Abuse and Detention cases in Alameda County, Los Angeles County, Marin County, Napa County, Orange County, Sacramento County, Santa Clara County, San Diego County, San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Sonoma County, Ventura County, and other counties across the State of California.