Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health faces a lawsuit alleging children as young as 8 years old were sexually assaulted by the facility’s staff members.

In August, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an investigative report that revealed 41 children allegedly had been sexually abused at the facility over the course of 25 years. According to that report, children as young as 12 had been victimized by Devereux’s adult employees. Some of the youth had intellectual disabilities, which translated to IQs no greater than 50.

Devereux’s top executives said their commitment to safety and supervision improved when Carl Clark took the reins as chief executive officer in January 2018, but the Inquirer noted that four Devereux employees have faced child sexual abuse charges since Clark took the position. The four staff members are accused of abusing 11 children.

Devereux operates facilities in nine states, but is headquartered in Villanova, Penn. Fifteen different residential campuses are designed to treat children who struggle due to intellectual delays, mental disorders or trauma-related issues.

The facility is accused of covering up sexual abuse allegations for at least 25 years, and is in the company of the YWCA, several churches and the Boy Scouts of America, all of which have been accused of abusing generations of youth. 

Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health Allegations

The lawsuit’s 13 plaintiffs do not include any of the original 41 victims the Inquirer originally found.

The lawsuit against Devereux indicates one woman was only 8 years old when she says a number of staff members raped her and subjected her to other sexual abuse. When she brought forth the accusations to an employee with the Department of Human Services, the girl was accused of lying.

Two other former residents whose claims are addressed in the lawsuit say they were abused in 2008. One woman says she was 17 when a male Devereux staff member injected her with a sedative and raped her. She said the sedative caused her to pass out and that when she would regain consciousness, she would often discover that she had bled on her underwear.

The other 2008 sexual assault detailed in the complaint happened to a young man who was just a boy of 11 years old at the time. He said a female Devereux staff member molested him and forced him once to take down his pants in a corner of the laundry room which was not in view of security cameras. When a different staff member happened to stumble upon this abusive situation, that person disciplined the boy who was then injected with a sedative.

Former Staff Member Now in Prison

Everol Brackett was working at Devereux in 2013 when he allegedly sexually abused a 15-year-old girl. He gained her trust by granting her special privileges and buying her treats. Brackett was sentenced to prison in 2017 after sexually assaulting another Devereux female resident.

The Inquirer reported that Brackett befriended a 14-year-old girl, who he sexually assaulted in his own vehicle after he had taken the girl from the facility on a home pass meant to be used for a shopping trip. He then left her at a bus station to figure out how to return to residential treatment home on her own.

Now age 21, the young woman is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

City Removes Children from Devereux

In September, Philadelphia officials removed all of the city’s 53 children living in Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health residential campuses because city officials conducted a six-week study that found supervision was severely lacking.

City Commissioner of Human Services Kimberly Ali told the Inquirer, “We found [staffers] doing nothing. They weren’t doing their jobs. They were not watching the children. And if they were doing it, some of them were doing it sporadically.”

The city’s Department of Human Services and Community Behavioral Health was prompted to look into allegations of lax supervision after the Inquirer’s story was published.

In order to relocate all 53 youth, Philadelphia social workers will need several months, according to Ali.

Devereux released a statement in response to the removal of the children, which it said caused them to be “incredibly saddened” and that such decision was not justified.

Devereux’s website boasts that with Clark’s leadership, the organization invested in technology, including digital video surveillance “to prevent dangerous events from occurring and/or going undetected.”

The organization indicates the video surveillance is “an additional layer of supervision and accountability for individuals and staff.”

The Inquirer still found that campuses were understaffed and that several employees that were on duty tended to sleep through their shifts or their whereabouts were not accounted for.

Devereux is a nonprofit that reportedly receives nearly all of its revenue from various government funding sources, which total around $497 million each year.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.