State of Washington Sexual Assault, DSHS – ($2.5 million)

SPOKANE – Our client, a disabled woman, was a patient at Eastern State Hospital. The hospital assigned a male nurse to provide one-on-one care and supervision for our client. The nurse trapped our client in a laundry room and raped her. HBSS determined that the nurse, a state employee, had been reprimanded and accused on previous occasions of sexual assault of vulnerable patients. HBSS initiated a negligence and civil rights lawsuit against the hospital and its administrators for failing to protect our client from a known sexual predator and for allowing that predator to remain on staff with the responsibility to care for vulnerable patients.