The family of a 30-year-old developmentally disabled man who died after wandering away from his Portland group home on a 98-degree summer day filed a $15 million lawsuit Tuesday against the group home, Multnomah County and the state.
The lawsuit says Seth Musolf was found shortly before 6 p.m. on July 25, 2022, by an astute driver who noticed him collapsed and struggling to breathe on the sidewalk along Southeast Division Street.
The driver called 911 but paramedics couldn’t save Musolf, who was predisposed to dehydration and had been prescribed to take medication four times a day to prevent it, the suit states.
Musolf was more than three miles from the group home and was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m., according to the suit.
The suit claims his death was preventable and faults Well Care Group Home — alleging that Musolf walked away from the home that afternoon, between noon and 4:45 p.m., and there was only one staff member on duty until 9 p.m., when another arrived and one of them went to a nearby park to look for Musolf.
The staff member didn’t find Musolf and called police after 10 p.m. to report him missing, according to the suit. He had already been dead for hours.
The suit states Well Care didn’t notify Musolf’s family that he was missing until three days later. That’s the same day the medical examiner’s office and Portland police positively identified Musolf as the man found dying on the sidewalk, according to the suit.
Well Care and the person the lawsuit names as its owner, Roba Sultessa, couldn’t be reached for comment.
The suit also faults the county and the state for allegedly failing to do their part to intervene before Musolf’s death.
The suit states Sultessa previously operated an adult care home near the old Mall 205 in Southeast Portland but shut it down in 2021 after “extensive violations.” The suit notes that Multnomah County found Sultessa had “falsified multiple documents” submitted to the county about that care home. The county regulates such homes.
Months later, Sultessa opened Well Care Group Home after obtaining a state license for it, the suit says. Musolf moved in in April 2022 and was dead less than four months later, the suit says.
The state and the county didn’t offer immediate comment Thursday, but generally don’t comment on pending litigation.
A GoFundMe page posted by Musolf’s sister, Kameko Musolf, said her brother had been living in an adult group home because previous battles with cancer had left him with developmental disabilities and he “required a guardian care of sorts 24/7.” She said his cause of death was heat stroke.
Kameko Musolf said her brother was “a dearly loved human in all the communities he has had a chance to be a part of.” The biggest donation to the page was $1,000, and the donor was listed as Sultessa, the defendant in this week’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court by Portland attorney Kate Glasson and Amber Kinney.
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