Agency Is Sued in Sex-Abuse Case
Newsday - Long Island, N.Y.
Author: By Michele Salcedo.
Date: Apr 9, 1993
Little Flower Children's Services, the Catholic child-welfare agency in Wading River, is among the defendants in a federal lawsuit filed
yesterday on behalf of one of eight boys alleged to have been sexually abused by a house parent.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, seekscompensatory damages of $7 million and unspecified punitive damages for civil rights violations of "John Doe," a
14-year-old boy who says he was sexually and physically abused during the year he lived at Little Flower. Barry Wiggins, 26, was arrested Feb. 4, and pleaded not guilty to seven counts of sex abuse after one of the 10 residents of St. Peter's
Cottage told a counselor that Wiggins demanded sexual favors and would withhold privileges or beat them if they refused, police said. The complaint alleges that city administrators, who are named as
co-defendants, did not properly supervise the foster-care services provided by Little Flower. Little Flower "failed to properly hire, rehire and retain their employees" and "failed to properly supervise
and discipline their employees," the complaint said.
"He {the plaintiff} had a psychiatric history and had been in and out of foster care for quite some period of time," said Bruce Young, the Manhattan attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of one of Wiggins'
alleged victims and the boy's mother. "They knew he needed supervision and he got the wrong kind."
Adrienne Carr, director of development for the agency, said Wiggins' credentials and references were strong. "We have a criteria and we check references and his were excellent," she said. "He was involved in a church group. We did the right thing as far as references were concerned."
The action filed in federal court yesterday is the second suit in two months seeking more than a million dollars in damages and naming the
child welfare agency. On Feb. 18, Maria Garramone, 37, a special-education teacher who had a part-time job at Sears in Lake Grove in 1991, and her husband, Gerard, filed a $1.1-million suit in
state Supreme Court in Riverhead against Little Flower. Maria Garramone was putting out stock in the children's department at Sears on Nov. 221991, when four girls walked through her department.
"It looked as though they were trying to steal some items," said Maria Garramone, in an interview at the Bay Shore office of her attorney, Andrew Siben. "I figured I'd let them pass and then I'd call security.
When I turned to get something, one of them hit me with something from behind."
The four girls, who were all 13, repeatedly kicked her and stomped on her right wrist, she said. She learned the girls were from Little Flower when the house parent who brought them to the mall came to
collect them. "She dropped them off and needed to do something with her mother," said Garramone, who is left with numbness in her right hand and
permanent damage to the left side of her face.
The lawsuit alleges Little Flower was "careless, reckless and negligent in the supervision of . . . children, in hiring incompetent personnel, . . . in failing to foresee this accident and incident and
in failing to provide safeguards" for the children.
Carr said she was unfamiliar with the Garramones' lawsuit. The agency's rules, however, call for a houseparent and a recreational counselor to accompany the 10 children housed in each cottage when they leave the agency's grounds.
"They have to be in a group," Carr said. "There's no way they're allowed to just wander around. They cannot be off ground unsupervised."
Carr said the agency is evaluated by the state, by the New York City Child Welfare Administration and by internal audits. "We've had exemplary reports in the past," she said. In the past few months, Little Flower has made headlines with Wiggins'arrest and the arrest of two girls, aged 11 and 14, on third-degree arson and burglary charges. They allegedly set the fire that destroyed the North Shore United Methodist Church on March 16. Garramone said she decided to file the suit out of frustration. "I can
understand these children have problems," she said. "But there comes a time they should be made to deal with the consequences of their actions. From what I see, I don't think there were any consequences. What frustrates me is, I don't see anything changing."
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
Abstract (Document Summary)
The complaint alleges that city administrators, who are named as co-defendants, did not properly supervise the foster-care services
provided by Little Flower. Little Flower "failed to properly hire, rehire and retain their employees" and "failed to properly supervise and discipline their employees," the complaint said. The action filed in federal court yesterday is the second suit in two
months seeking more than a million dollars in damages and naming the child welfare agency. On Feb. 18, Maria Garramone, 37, a special-education teacher who had a part-time job at Sears in Lake
Grove in 1991, and her husband, Gerard, filed a $1.1-million suit in state Supreme Court in Riverhead against Little Flower. In the past few months, Little Flower has made headlines with [Barry Wiggins]' arrest and the arrest of two girls, aged 11 and 14, on third-degree arson and burglary charges. They allegedly set the fire that destroyed the North Shore United Methodist Church on March 16.
