A caregiver at a state-run group home drugged and sexually abused a 30-year-old woman with an intellectual disability at the Salem facility, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The $9 million complaint, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, accuses the state of Oregon of negligence and sexual battery and seeks three times the amount of damages for the alleged abuse of a vulnerable person.
The lawsuit alleges that a state Stabilization and Crisis Unit failed to adhere to regulations that required the 30-year-old woman, identified as D.B., to be supervised in the locked-down facility at all times by at least two staff members, at least one of them a woman.
That didn’t occur, leaving one male employee sometimes alone with D.B. overnight, the lawsuit says. The man, a direct support crisis specialist, is accused of grooming the woman by kissing and groping her and giving her marijuana gummies and medications that were not prescribed for her. He then sexually abused her at least three times in late 2024, according to the lawsuit.
He’s accused, in one encounter, of sending a second staffer away before entering D.B.’s room, barricading the door and turning the TV loud enough to keep others from hearing his sexual assault of the woman, the lawsuit says.
D.B. disclosed the sexual abuse in December 2024 and was taken to a hospital for a sexual-assault exam. Male DNA obtained during the examination of the woman matched that of the state employee after police obtained a warrant for his DNA profile, according to the lawsuit.
The abuse was reported to Oregon State Police to investigate, but as of Tuesday, no criminal charges had been filed. The crisis specialist accused in the lawsuit was fired by the state, according to attorney Peter Janci, who filed the lawsuit.
The lawsuit names the alleged abuser, but he has not been charged with a crime. He’s now 45 years old.
Oregon State Police Capt. Chris Zohner said state police are investigating. The state police forwarded an initial report to the Marion County District Attorney’s office, but the agency’s criminal investigation is ongoing, Zohner said.
The Oregon Department of Human Services declined comment on the allegations, citing the pending litigation, according to spokesperson Jake Sunderland.
The lawsuit also names former Oregon Department of Human Services Director Fariborz Pakseresht as a defendant, alleging the abuse partly resulted from “longstanding systemic failures” in the department under his watch, including chronic lack of staff and excessive overtime for those working. Pakseresht served as director of the state human services department from September 2017 to Oct. 1, 2025. He’s now the interim head of the Oregon Health Authority.
The lawsuit was filed as the state faces a deadline to overhaul its stabilization and crisis units. In May 2025, state lawmakers passed a bill directing the Human Services department to draft a new work plan to improve its crisis care and ensure its community-based stabilization and crisis units stay in full federal compliance.
Workers, through their union representatives, had complained publicly about their safety, workers’ injuries and staff burnout due to mandatory overtime.
Janci said the woman’s family trusted the state to care for her and the state “broke that trust.” She’s now under the care of family members in Oregon, her lawyer said.
“Our client was a vulnerable woman with a disability residing in a locked state facility,” Janci said in a statement. “Her own care plan said she should never be left alone with a single staff member. We intend to prove the State ignored its own rules, and our client has paid a terrible price.”
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