State College treatment facility failed to protect woman from sexual assault, lawsuit says
A Pleasant Gap woman filed a lawsuit earlier this month that accused the Pennsylvania Treatment and Healing center of negligence after one the company’s drivers pleaded guilty in May 2018 to sexually assaulting her.
Justin Jackson, 27, of Maryland, was also named in the 32-page lawsuit that is seeking more than $50,000. Attorney Andy Rehmeyer accused the company and Jackson of failing to exercise reasonable care to ensure the woman — who is mentally disabled — was protected.
PATH attorneys Joseph Bongiovanni and Mariel Marsh did not immediately respond to request for comment Tuesday.
PATH, a company with a facility in State College, is licensed by the Department of Public Welfare to provide day treatment to children. It developed a health and safety plan in April 2016 for the then-17-year-old to assess her sexual history or behavior patterns that may have placed her at a health or safety risk, Rehmeyer wrote.
Part of that assessment prohibited her from being alone with men, and required she be the first child dropped off. In May 2016, Jackson twice dropped off all the other children first and drove her to an abandoned parking lot in Centre County, where he sexually assaulted her, Rehmeyer wrote.
Jackson was criminally charged in February 2017 and pleaded guilty to one felony count of corruption of minors. He is in the midst of serving a county jail sentence.
“Our office is committed to ensuring a safer community and our client has shown tremendous courage in coming forward,” Rehmeyer said. “The Centre County district attorney’s office did the hard work of successfully prosecuting the individual responsible for harming our client. This lawsuit seeks to hold the corporation civilly accountable for failing to protect a vulnerable member of our community who had been entrusted to its care.”