A woman has filed a lawsuit against Thurston County alleging the county failed to protect her from sexual abuse while in juvenile detention between 1996 and 2000.
Lawyers for the woman, only identified by her initials, filed the lawsuit in Pierce County Superior Court on May 13. She is being represented by Seattle lawyers Kirk C. Davis and Jonah L. Ohm Campbell.
In the complaint, the lawyers allege a guard at the Thurston County Juvenile Detention Facility sexually assaulted the woman, then a minor, in her cell on multiple occasions, causing her “physical and emotional pain.” The lawyers claim Thurston County knew or should have known about the guard’s “criminal conduct and grooming.”
The Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office serves as the legal representative for the county. Tara Tsehlana, a spokesperson for the office, said they’ve received a draft of the complaint but have not yet been officially served with the lawsuit.
“At this point these claims are allegations, but our office is taking them seriously,” Tsehlana said. “The Thurston County Juvenile Detention Facility follows best practices with regard to the safety of in-custody youth.”
Tsehlana said the county’s team has asked the woman’s counsel for more information about the alleged incidents. If they are served, she said the county will respond in accordance with court rules.
The five-page complaint only identifies the guard by a single name he’s believed to have gone by. In a statement to The Olympian, Davis said the parties have yet to begin discovery, an evidence-gathering process, so many details are still unknown.
Davis said the woman he’s representing recently reached out to his law firm. He said she never reported what happened to her to law enforcement.
The woman is seeking “fair compensation” for the alleged abuse, Davis said.
The complaint offers a few details about the abuse the woman allegedly endured as a minor.
The woman was sent to the detention facility for juvenile offenses and at-risk youth petitions between 1996 and 2000.
The guard allegedly came to her cell after doing checks on the other juveniles at night. She claims he spoke with her over the intercom to tell her “some of the things” he planned to do to her.
She alleges in the complaint that he opened her cell door on multiple occasions and had sexual intercourse with her.
The complaint contends the county was negligent in “hiring, monitoring and supervising of staff and residents” at the detention facility by allowing a “sexual predator” to have “unlimited, unsupervised access to vulnerable children.”
“Staff used their position of power to intimidate vulnerable children placed there in order to sexually abuse and exploit them, including Plaintiff,” the complaint says.
The complaint says the woman continues to suffer from emotional trauma.
Court records indicate a jury trial for this case may be held as early as November 2025.
