Third employee lawsuit says KY Department of Juvenile Justice covered up mistreatment
For at least the third time this year, a lawsuit alleges the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice harassed and ultimately fired an employee for reporting the mistreatment of youths held in state custody.
During the recently ended 2023 General Assembly, lawmakers made a number of changes to state law to address problems of chronic abuse and neglect of youths in the juvenile detention centers. Lawmakers also called for DJJ Commissioner Vicki Reed to step down, although Gov. Andy Beshear said he still supports Reed.
Sejonie Neumann worked as a social service clinician at two DJJ facilities in Jefferson County, the Louisville Day Treatment Center and the Jefferson Regional Juvenile Detention Center, for most of 2021 and 2022, according to a whistle-blower lawsuit she filed March 28 in Jefferson Circuit Court.
In her suit, Neumann said she sometimes was shocked by conditions inside the detention center.
For example, she said, she learned in the summer of 2022 that a teen girl had performed oral sex on a teen boy inside the facility, an act caught on security video footage. But apparently, nobody had reported the incident to internal investigators or sought a medical assessment of the girl for a possible sexual assault, she said.
Given that failure in oversight, Neumann said, she herself called the Internal Investigations Branch at the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, which oversees DJJ. She also notified the DJJ staff psychologist, she said.
“Ms. Neumann’s coworkers reacted negatively to learning of Ms. Neumann’s actions,” the suit alleges. “They told Ms. Neumann that she ‘talks too much.’”
Neumann said her colleagues began to ostracize her and gave her work for which she wasn’t prepared, such as handling security duties by herself, a role usually performed at DJJ by so-called “youth workers.” She no longer was allowed to conduct group therapy sessions with youths, which had been her original job, she said.
As time passed, Neumann raised additional concerns about safety violations and the mistreatment of youths, she said, including the decision to withhold their showers and recreation time for multiple days.
“But the issues were never addressed, with Ms. Neumann’s coworkers often responding with crude remarks such as, ‘That’s what they get,’” the suit alleges.
Last fall, Neumann’s colleagues correctly suspected that she was an anonymous source leaking information to WAVE-TV in Louisville about problems inside the detention center, such as escapes and fires, the suit alleges. Her supervisors assigned blame to her when various things went wrong at the facility after that, the suit alleges.
DJJ fired Neumann on Dec. 29, unfairly citing issues with her work performance, the suit alleges.
In a prepared statement on Monday, the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet denied Neumann’s allegations and said she was terminated “after multiple incidents of misconduct.”
“The Department of Juvenile Justice does not retaliate against staff or youth for reporting misconduct,” cabinet spokeswoman Morgan Hall said.
“Facilities routinely encourage contacting the facility’s superintendent and/or the Internal Investigations Branch of the cabinet when misconduct is witnessed, which allows corrective action to be taken as needed ensuring safety and security is upheld,” Hall said.
However, Neumann isn’t the only former DJJ employee claiming the agency covers up mistreatment of youths.
Two DJJ nurses, Nina Burton and Joanne Alvarado, sued Jan. 31 and alleged they were effectively forced out in “a toxic cocktail where violence was not only predictable, but inevitable.” The nurses said they were harassed and even cursed at when they tried to provide compassionate medical care for the youths and when they reported abuse. They worked at the DJJ facility in Adair County.
David Richardson, a DJJ social service worker, sued April 13, saying he was wrongfully fired for reporting the physical abuse of a boy held in custody as ordered by an assistant superintendent. Richardson also worked at the Adair County DJJ facility.
The Justice and Public Safety Cabinet likewise has denied the allegations made in those two suits.
