Updated: State Settles With Four More Men in Kiwanis Vocational Home Suits

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In 2015, a handful of lawsuits claiming abuse and negligence at Centralia’s now-closed Kiwanis Vocational Home began trickling into Thurston County Superior Court, mostly unnoticed by the public at large. 

Three years later, men continue to add their names to the growing list of former residents of the state-licensed group foster home for boys who are seeking justice in the form of monetary awards from the state of Washington and Kiwanis International.

“There’s upwards of 40 claimants at this point. More are just coming forward every day,” said attorney Darrell Cochran, who represents many of the plaintiffs. 

In addition to the four lawsuits previously filed in Thurston County, two additional lawsuits were filed in Pierce County Superior Court in December 2017, with 13 plaintiffs, and March 2018, with seven.

So far, the state of Washington has settled with seven plaintiffs — three men split a $1.5 million settlement in December, and another four were granted a total of $750,000 in separate settlements this month. In each of those cases, Kiwanis defendants have not settled, and parties are preparing for trial. 

The settlements were formalized in the past month. The largest, filed with Pierce County Superior Court on Aug. 14, awards one plaintiff in the December 2017 suit with a settlement of $399,000 from the state of Washington.  

The three remaining settlements, all filed Aug. 17  in Pierce County Superior Court in the same case, grant separate plaintiffs monetary sums of $40,000, $95,000 and $205,000.

The Chronicle began covering the allegations and lawsuits in a series of investigative reports last year. 

“Just an endless stream of cases are getting filed because people are coming forward … basically after having read your story … saying ‘Oh my gosh I experienced that and worse,” Cochran said. 

Most of the new cases are being filed in Pierce County Superior Court, Cochran said, because several Thurston County Judges have recused themselves for various reasons, he said. 

 

The Kiwanis Vocational Home just north of Centralia on Sawall Avenue was open from 1979 to 1994, by which time it had been renamed the Coffee Creek Center and placed under new management after crackdowns by the state due to financial issues. 

The home was founded and run for much of its existence by the Lewis County Youth Enterprises board and supported by Kiwanis through the right to name the facility after the organization. The facility’s board members were required to also be Kiwanis members. 

The home was intended to be a place for 11- to 17-year-old boys who were wards of the state — removed from their families by the state because their parents were unfit to care for them — who struggled to adjust to a typical foster home. 

Some of the boys had criminal or behavioral issues, but the home was not a juvenile detention facility and boys were not sentenced to spend time there as punishment by the court system. 

All of the lawsuits filed since 2015 name various local Kiwanis clubs, Kiwanis International, members of the board of KVH including Chuck McCarthy, Edward Hopkins and Lewis E. Patton and the state of Washington.

Complaints of violence at the facility started as early as 1981, with accusations of sexual abuse following shortly after. 

Former residents who spoke to The Chronicle claim violent hazing, sexual abuse by older boys on younger boys, sexual abuse by staff, assaults by staff, and generally poor conditions at the facility.

The Chronicle identified dozens of reports of assaults and abuse that was reported to Kiwanis and DSHS but was never forwarded to local law enforcement. 

Several audits and investigations were done on general conditions at the facility, including a 1990 audit by the state of Washington that found Director Chuck McCarthy had misappropriated $200,000, that he and other staff had been accused of physically assaulting boys and also found criminal incidents were not being reported to police. Documents obtained by The Chronicle show staff voiced concerns about the facility housing both sex offenders and victims of sexual assault together and the suits document instances in which employees claimed they were terminated for attempting to report rapes.

Investigations also concluded child care and counseling staff did not meet minimum requirements, but that KVH was billing the state anyway. 

The lawsuits filed in the past four years argue that DSHS and Kiwanis knew of allegations of abuse, mismanagement and negligence and not only allowed the facility to remain open and funded by the state, but allowed the facility to continue to grow — at one point reaching as many as 70 residents.

“The political interplay … shouldn’t be overlooked,” Cochran said, noting that prominent community members, including a Centralia city councilor, Lewis County Superior Court Judge and state representatives were instrumental in running the facility, served on KVH and Lewis County Youth Enterprises boards and helped keep the facility licensed through the state despite the complaints.  

“The Kiwanis political influence over the years of Kiwanis Vocational Home operations is a serious concern,” he added. “There is little explanation for them managing to stay open despite all of the allegations and illegalities other that political influence being involved.”

Kiwanis International attempted to distance itself from the home in court proceedings last year. Attorneys for the group argued local and regional clubs had no actual involvement in the home or knowledge of allegations of misconduct. By 1990, individual clubs were trying to strip the Kiwanis name from KVH.

However, Thurston County Judge James Dixon ruled against that argument in December 2017, citing communications filed in court documents on Kiwanis letterhead voicing concerns about day-to-day management of the home and referencing specific allegations of misconduct. 

The allegations against KVH are similar to those at another Kiwanis-sponsored facility — the Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch — which also closed in 1994.

The OKBR received extensive coverage from the regional media after its collapse. A December 1995 Seattle Times story called the ranch a “house of horrors” and blamed DSHS for allowing it to stay open as long as it had.