The child welfare agency in Oregon recently agreed to pay a $1.3 million settlement, ending a lawsuit filed on “behalf of a girl who was allegedly sexually abused by her Gresham foster father in 2014.” This latest horrid incident of abuse began when the child was only four-years-old when state workers placed her with “Gabriel David Wallis and his wife” after the state determined she needed a safe and stable home instead of living with her mother and step-father. According to court documents, her mother and step-father “neglected her and exposed her to a high-risk environment involving drugs, prostitution and gang activity.” However, Wallis was “self-identified as a sex addict during the state's screening and caseworkers either knew or should have known that he looked at child pornography online,” according to the lawsuit.While discussing the lawsuit and his client's experience, Josh Lamborn, the child's lawyer, said:“This case was one of the most egregious I've ever seen for certifying a foster parent who has these glaring issues. These red flags were just so obvious and the (foster home) certifier did really nothing to independently investigate these issues.”

Scared Child; image courtesy of Counselling via Pixabay, www.pixabay.com

Lamborn added that in placing the child in the company of a self-described sex addict such as Wallis, the state “neglected her safety” since they knew “he was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and had obsessions and compulsions with pornography and strip clubs.” It truly is mind-boggling why the state ever certified Wallis to care for children in the first place knowing his background and addictions.So when was the abuse discovered? How long was it allowed to go on? Well, according to court documents, the abuse lasted about two months during the summer of 2014. The abuse itself was discovered when the child “spotted Wallis' wife's personal lubricant gel and stated it was her special lotion.” Alarmed at the child's statements, the wife “took the girl to trained child abuse investigators.” During interviews with investigators, the girl “described how her foster father, whom she identified as Wallis, would do 'secrets' with her while the foster mom was swimming or babysitting other children.” These 'secrets' included sexual abuse and resulted in her and her one-year-old sister being removed from Wallis' home.It wasn't long after the child disclosed her abuse to investigators before Wallis was charged with “rape and six counts of first-degree sex abuse” by the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office. However, it should be noted that in 2015, he was acquitted “on all counts and...is not required to pay any damages as part of the recent settlement.”According to the settlement agreement, the state of Oregon will pay about $1.3 million in a trust for the child.

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Oregon pays $1.3 million settlement after placing foster child with self-described sex addictOregon Department of Human Services agrees to $1.3M settlement for foster child