Levy Konigsberg Attorneys Jerome Block and Clark Binkley have filed a lawsuit on behalf of over three dozen men who suffered sexual abuse when they were confined as juveniles at the Charles H. Hickey, Jr. School, one of Maryland’s oldest juvenile detention facilities.

NEW YORK, Dec. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Levy Konigsberg has filed a lawsuit against the State of Maryland, alleging that the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (“DJS”) failed to protect children from decades of sexual abuse at one of Maryland’s oldest and most controversial juvenile detention centers, the Charles H. Hickey, Jr. School (“CHS”). The lawsuit, brought on behalf of 37 men who were abused as children at CHS, is the latest in a string of Maryland juvenile detention abuse lawsuits spearheaded by Levy Konigsberg.

As detailed in the lawsuit, CHS has for decades been an embarrassment for Maryland and its mismanaged juvenile detention system, with even the State’s own governor once describing the facility as “a living model in what a system should not become.” In the early 2000s, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into the horrific conditions at CHS, citing—among many other disturbing issues—the prevalence of sexual abuse and lack of adequate procedures to prevent such abuse. Unfortunately, the warning signs went ignored by DJS, allowing generations of children to suffer sexual abuse at the hands of guards, counselors, and other staff members who were supposed to be looking out for them.

The suit filed by Levy Konigsberg, and co-counsel Brown Kiely LLP, was brought under the recently enacted Maryland Child Victims Act (“CVA”), a law that eliminated the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits in cases of child sexual abuse. The survivors seeking justice in this lawsuit were abused many years ago, some as far back as the 1970s, suffering in silence until their claims were finally made possible this year by the CVA. Despite the years and decades separating their experiences, the more than three dozen men whose claims were filed today experienced disturbingly similar patterns of abuse, evidencing a systemic failure by DJS to protect the children in its care.

In announcing the CHS lawsuit filed on behalf of 37 men, Levy Konigsberg Partner Jerome Block stated:

“Our clients arrived at the Charles Hickey School when they were young boys in need of the rehabilitation and care the juvenile justice system is supposed to provide. Instead, they were victims of a pattern of sexual abuse that goes back decades at the Hickey School. The sexual abuse inflicted on children in Maryland juvenile detention facilities was severe and widespread. The complaints filed so far are only the tip of the iceberg.”

Levy Konigsberg has filed hundreds of lawsuits on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse nationwide, and is at the forefront of CVA litigation in Maryland, having filed some of the first lawsuits about the widespread sexual abuse in Maryland’s juvenile detention facilities. The Baltimore Sun has covered Levy Konigsberg’s recent lawsuits on behalf of nearly 50 men and women who had been sexually abused as children at Maryland’s Cheltenham Youth Detention Center and Thomas J.S. Waxter Children’s Center. Interested parties can read the articles here and here.

Levy Konigsberg represents over 200 survivors of sexual abuse at Maryland’s juvenile detention facilities and plans to continue fighting tirelessly on their behalf.

For additional information about childhood sexual abuse lawsuits spearheaded by Levy Konigsberg, media members and journalists are encouraged to reach out to Attorney Jerome Block by using the law firm’s contact form: https://www.levylaw.com/contact-us/

Media Contact:

Jerome Block
[email protected]

SOURCE Levy Konigsberg