A teenage girl who was physically and sexually abused for a decade has filed a lawsuit against Childnet, accusing the agency of placing her in an abusive home without properly vetting her caregivers, even though a registered sex offender was living in the home.
Three people are awaiting trial on charges of physically and psychologically abusing the victim, now 17. Latricia Crawley, 48, Benjamin Lockett, 48 and Shankyria Clayton, 22, have not been accused of sexual abuse; the lawsuit filed on the victim’s behalf by her attorney ad litem identifies two members of Crawley’s family as sexual abusers of the victim. Neither has been criminally charged.
Abuse charges against a fourth defendant, Treaunshae Gibbons, Crawley’s daughter, were dropped, though she is still facing trial for alleged failure to report abuse.
Childnet and a co-defendant, the Partnership for Community Health, have each filed motions to dismiss the girl’s lawsuit. The Broward Sheriff’s Office, which ran child investigations for the Department of Children and Families at the time, has not filed for a dismissal and issued a statement Friday that they do not comment on pending litigation.
“She suffered 10 years of abuse and neglect in this home,” said Stacie Schmerling, attorney for the plaintiff. “The Sheriff’s Office and Childnet placed her in this home without properly vetting it, causing her years of harm.”
Schmerling cited BSO reports showing apparent knowledge that the girl was being physically harmed and scarred. But she was not removed from the home until October 2023, when she sent a message to her online teacher asking for police intervention. Lockett was eventually charged with child abuse without great bodily harm for, allegedly, punching the girl in the head, causing her to hit her head on the corner of a desk.
Officers saw a bloody and swollen cut on the left side of the girl’s head from the punch. Lockett punched the girl because he thought she ate candy, the affidavit said, and he threatened not to feed her for a week after he saw what she texted her teacher.
According to the lawsuit, the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Childnet should have known from a background check that the girl should not have been placed in Crawley’s and Lockett’s Margate home.
“There was a grandfather figure who was living in the home who was a registered sex offender,” Schmerling said. The lawsuit accuses the man of sexually abusing the victim starting when she was just 6 years old in 2014. “Thus far he has not been charged with a crime.”
She identified another sexual abuser as Crawley’s son, though he, too has not been charged. To protect the girl’s identity, the lawsuit does not specify how she came into the care of Crawley and Lockett. Their trial dates, and Clayton’s, have not been set.
Michael Weinstein, Crawley’s lawyer, told the Sun Sentinel Friday that she denies the allegations and is looking forward to being exonerated at trial.
According to the lawsuit, filed Oct. 24, the victim went on to be placed in several group homes after she was removed from Crawley’s and Lockett’s home. At those homes, she was repeatedly assaulted and became a victim of human trafficking, according to the lawsuit.
There is no date scheduled to hear the defense motions to dismiss.
Childnet’s motion includes the fact that some of the allegations raised in the lawsuit date back to 2014 and have passed the statute of limitations for legal action.
“Plaintiff had a parent, guardian ad litem, attorney ad litem, and child advocate from the date that she was in the child welfare system. Therefore, any of plaintiff’s claims arising on or before Oct. 24, 2021, are barred by the statute of limitations and must be dismissed,” the agency’s attorneys wrote. “Plaintiff has failed to plead sufficient facts to sustain claims for negligence.”
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.