Six men filed lawsuits Monday claiming they were sexually assaulted as teens when they were held in Atlantic County’s juvenile detention facility.
In the lawsuits filed in state Superior Court, the plaintiffs accuse staff members at the Harborfields youth detention facility in Egg Harbor City of sexually assaulting them. The men says nothing was done to stop the abuse.
The teens were raped, forced to perform sex acts and groped, according to the filings. Two plaintiffs said their alleged abusers threatened to kill them if they reported the mistreatment.
A spokeswoman for Atlantic County’s government said the suits are being reviewed, but the county would not normally comment on pending litigation.
The cases were filed by Levy Konigsberg, a New York-based law firm that has filed several similar suits in recent months. Last week, the firm filed 11 suits by former detainees alleging similar sexual abuse at Camden County’s juvenile detention center.
In the Atlantic County lawsuits, the allegations span from 1992 to 2004 when the alleged victims were 13 to 17.
The alleged abusers, all men, are not identified by their full names, but the plaintiffs said they hope to learn their identities as the cases progress.
A 49-year-old Florida resident claimed he was assaulted by three Harborfields staff members during one incident when he was held there in the early 1990s.
His lawsuit described rumors circulating in the facility in the 1990s that staff were sexually assaulting detainees and, as a result, juveniles refused to shower out of fear. Rumors included claims that staff made detainees take sedative medication in order to get them to shower and that workers sexually assaulted the sedated youths, according to the suit.
When he refused to take the sedatives, the plaintiff claimed two staffers violently restrained him while a third groped his genitals. When the teen tried to resist, the three staffers hit him, the suit said.
One of the employees then sexually assaulted him, the suit alleged.
He was threatened with physical abuse if he “ran his mouth” about the assault and the men offered him extra food after the incident, the plaintiff said.
Two of the plaintiffs described separate alleged assaults by a person they believe was the same employee. They claim the man used strip searches as an opportunity to sexually assault them.
A 36-year-old Atlantic County resident claimed in his suit he was assaulted by the employee around 2002. He also said he was assaulted about 15 times by another staff member who anally raped him three times.
That employee threatened to kill the teen if he reported the abuse and said he knew the juvenile’s mother and could hurt her, according to the lawsuit.
A 38-year-old New York man held at Harborfields around 2001 claimed he was abused after getting into fights with other detainees.
When an employee grabbed and restrained the teen in order to break up the fight, the staffer sexually touched the juvenile over his clothing, according to the suit. The staffer is also accused of threatening to kill the boy if he reported the abuse.
In return for staying silent, the employee gave the teen access to a PlayStation gaming console, the suit said.
A 40-year-old man held in the facility around 2001 claimed a staff member groomed him by pretending to be friendly and acting like a father figure before the abuse began.
All of the alleged victims describe lifelong problems stemming from the assaults, including post-traumatic stress, depression and drug abuse, along with trust issues.
The suits describe past abusive behavior at Harborfield, pointing to news accounts of staff misconduct from the 1970s and 80s.
The lawsuits were brought under the state’s Child Sexual Abuse Act, a 2019 law expanding the statute of limitations for civil claims made by sexual assault survivors. It allows child victims to sue within seven years of first realizing the abuse caused them harm, or until they turn 55.
The plaintiffs accuse Atlantic County of violating the Child Sex Abuse Act, and claim the county was negligent in hiring, training, supervising and retaining center staff who abused detainees.
The suits seek damages for physical and emotional pain and suffering, and punitive damages.
Atlantic County’s Harborfields is also at the center of an ongoing legal dispute between the state and New Jersey counties that operate juvenile detention centers regarding overcrowding issues.
The state maintains that counties are responsible for finding available beds for pre-trial juvenile detainees when their own facilities reach capacity, while the counties believe that’s the state’s job.
Atlantic County faced overcrowding issues and riots at Harborfields in 2024 and struggled to find beds in other facilities.
The county sued the state over the issue last year and a judge ruled in December that the responsibility for finding space for detainees rests with the state. The case is now in state appellate court.
Stories by Matt Gray
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Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.