Jury finds DHS negligence led to abuse causing severe brain traumatic brain injury and quadriplegia of two-year-old child

SEATTLE – Attorneys from Schroeter Goldmark & Bender and Forum Law Group secured a record-setting verdict in late January against the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) for failing to respond to a child abuse hotline call. A Multnomah County jury awarded more than $29 million to the child after concluding that the agency’s inaction led to devastating and permanent injuries when he was just two years old.

The verdict includes $12.5 million to cover the child’s lifelong medical needs. The remainder of the verdict represents nearly $17 million in damages for the catastrophic harm he suffered, including a severe brain injury and quadriplegia.

Today, the child lives in Tennessee with his father and adoptive mother. As a result of the abuse, he cannot walk, speak, or use his arms and requires a feeding tube for nourishment.

Shortly after the verdict was announced, the office of Oregon Attorney General Daniel Rayfield informed the Multnomah County Circuit Court that it intends to challenge the award under a 2009 state law that caps damages in claims against the state. If applied, the statutory cap would reduce the total recovery to no more than $4.2 million – an amount that would cover only a fraction of the child’s projected medical expenses and eliminate the jury’s award for pain and suffering.

The jury determined that DHS was negligent after it failed to act on a December 9, 2017, report from Legacy Hospital that the child had been hospitalized for Suboxone poisoning. Suboxone is a medication commonly prescribed to treat heroin addiction. Evidence at trial showed that the DHS hotline worker who received the report did not forward the information to Child Protective Services (CPS) for investigation or even document the call at all.

During trial, DHS acknowledged that the hotline report was not processed but argued that Washington state CPS workers also received information about the child and failed to intervene. DHS further contended that the abuse was carried out by the child’s mother’s boyfriend, Samuel Rich. In a separate 2022 criminal proceeding, a Multnomah County jury convicted Rich of criminal mistreatment related to the child’s abuse.

On behalf of the child, attorneys Rebecca Roe and Chen-Chen Jiang of Schroeter Goldmark & Bender, along with co-counsel Scott Kocher of Forum Law Group, presented evidence showing that if DHS had reviewed its own child welfare database after the December 9 call, it would have revealed that Rich had previously been proven to have physically abused another two-year-old child. Records also reflected Rich’s heroin use.

“An agency cannot simply disregard its own rules and then when a child is catastrophically hurt as a result, throw its hands up to say that the rules wouldn’t have mattered anyways,” said attorney Chen-Chen Jiang.

Following the verdict, a family representative issued a statement: “DHS exists to protect children. They received a call to the child abuse hotline and failed to act. We hope this verdict sends a clear message that accountability matters and that no other child is put at risk this way.”