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A married couple from Terre Haute, Indiana has filed a lawsuit against the Centennial-based agency Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI), alleging that the agency failed to disclose that a teenage boy they adopted had been sexually abused and that this failure allowed two younger children in their home to be abused by that teen.
The couple filed the lawsuit against CCAI in a Denver U.S. District Court on Tuesday, August 13. According to the claim, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the couple and two Chinese boys. The couple is seeking an undisclosed amount of money and a judge’s order that would make sure the agency follows court-ordered protocols that would protect other families from facing similar dangers.
According to the lawsuit, the couple started adopting Chinese Children after their six biological children had become adults. In 2014, they adopted a boy identified as N through Bethany Christian services. The following year, they adopted a boy they believed was 12 through CCAI, who is identified as L in the lawsuit. The lawsuit says that L was actually at least 15 or 16 years old when he was adopted.
In the first month after L was adopted, N started showing possible signs of sexual abuse, including hair loss and decreased appetite, the lawsuit said.
The couple adopted a third boy through CCAI in 2016 – a 5-year-old identified as J in the lawsuit. According to the claim, J would regularly awake screaming and crying and N would regularly go into his parents’ room at night.
According to the lawsuit, the parents eventually realized that L’s alarm was going off every night at 3 a.m. and that he would “rape his adoptive brothers” at this time. The lawsuit says that admitted to doing this.
The parents brought L to a behavioral health center, where he reportedly told a therapist that he had uncontrollable sexual urges and that he would abuse his adoptive brothers again if he had the opportunity to do so. He was charged with two counts of sexual battery and was sent to a juvenile detention center in Terre Haute, according to the lawsuit.
After discovering L’s alleged sexual crimes, the parents say that they contacted Chinese Children Adoption International and that an employee denied knowing about the teen’s history of sexual abuse. According to the lawsuit, the employee also said that he was 12 years old – even though he was actually three to five years older.
The lawsuit also says that, “CCAI also knew or should have known that the orphanage minor child L was adopted from had a reputation for prostituting the children in its care to adults.”
According to the lawsuit, an Indiana counseling agency confirmed that L had sexually abused multiple children before he was adopted. He reportedly told a therapist that he had been removed from foster care at age 5 or 6 for sexual activity with another child. The lawsuit says that he also said he had been sexually active with children and adults since age 11 in China.
The lawsuit says that the parents had to sell their house at a loss and move to Washington state because of the financial and emotional damages caused by the abuse. Additionally, they say they lost their health care business.
N and J have both been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and an attachment disorder and also struggle with rage, irritability, nightmares, and sleep disturbances, the lawsuit says.
Attorney contributor Dan Lipman represents sexual abuse victims and their families in civil lawsuits. We’ve asked Dan to discuss the legal rights available to families affected by sexual abuse caused by adoption agency negligence:
Adoption agencies have a legal responsibility to make sure that their clients are protected from preventable dangers, including sexual abuse. For example, an agency would have a duty to disclose that a child or teenager in their orphanage had a history of sexually abusing other children before placing that child or teenager in a family’s home.
If a failure to disclose a history of abuse results in a family’s other children becoming victims of abuse, that family may have grounds for a lawsuit against the adoption agency.
If you or your child is a survivor of sexual abuse related to adoption agency negligence, you can learn more about your family’s legal options by speaking with an experienced sex abuse victims attorney.
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