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Ruling favors program, workers
The lawsuit said the plaintiff and a male worker had sex while she was in detention.
LISBON — Judge David Tobin of Columbiana County Common Pleas Court has ruled in favor of the Multi-County Juvenile Attention System in a civil suit brought by a woman who said she had sex with a system worker while she was a juvenile.
In his ruling released Tuesday, Judge Tobin said that the Multi-County system and its workers could not be held liable in the lawsuit because no one brought the alleged activity to their attention to correct it.
His ruling also noted the short time the plaintiff and the worker might have been alone.
The Canton-based rehabilitation program for youths is from seven counties, including Columbiana County, where the Louis Tobin Attention Center is located.
Kelly Reed of Wellsville said in a lawsuit she filed last year that she had been in the Tobin Center near Lisbon on two occasions in 2005. She was 18 when she filed the lawsuit in 2008.
In the lawsuit, Reed said that she and a male worker had engaged in sex while she was at the center.
Her lawsuit contended that the worker had “engaged in a series of sexual assaults and batteries” on Reed.
The man’s misconduct, she claimed, was “during the course of, and facilitated by his employment” by the system.
Reed said in the lawsuit that she suffered mental, emotional and psychological stress and harm and “invasion of bodily integrity.”
Reed had asked for more than $25,000 in damages against board officials and workers.
But Judge Tobin said there was a security camera that was designed to monitor improper behavior in the kitchen area where the contact was alleged to have occurred. But Judge Tobin wrote that a review of the video showed the plaintiff and Howell were in the kitchen only eight times in 30 days for a total of 33 minutes.
The ruling can be appealed.
wilkinson@vindy.com