A federal judge ruled Tuesday that high-ranking officials from Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services must face a lawsuit filed by former inmates at a Delaware County juvenile correctional facility alleging widespread abuse, at least for now. 

U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb of the District of New Jersey said in her order that it was too soon to determine whether DHS officials Teresa D. Miller, Theodore Dallas and Cathy Utz benefited from qualified immunity in the case because discovery has not played out.

Judge Bumb — who took over the case, which was filed in October, from Eastern Pennsylvania-based U.S. District Judge Michael M. Baylson — said she agreed with him that factual questions needed to be answered before the DHS officials could be let out of the lawsuit.

"This includes, inter alia, discovery regarding what the high-ranking DHS defendants knew about the abuse at the Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center during the licensing process," Judge Bumb said.

The defendants also argued that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the claims against them, but the judge disagreed.

"Again, Judge Baylson already ruled that the complaints 'satisfied the requirements of federal pleading and have stated serious claims that, if proven, may constitute violations of plaintiffs' civil rights,'" Judge Bumb said.

The DHS officials said in a letter to the court dated April 15 that they should not be held personally liable for abuse and neglect, arguing that the plaintiffs never produced evidence that the officials had any knowledge of the alleged abuse.

"The relevant question is whether the high-ranking DHS officials themselves had a clearly-established constitutional duty to personally prevent abuse or neglect at DCJDC merely because they were the highest-ranking officials of the state agency that licensed DCJDC," the letter said. "No Supreme Court or Circuit Court decision recognizes such a constitutional duty. The high-ranking DHS officials are therefore entitled to qualified immunity, and plaintiff's claims against them fail as a matter of law."

Several former inmates sued Delaware County and state officials last year, alleging they were sexually abused by staff members at the Delaware County Juvenile Detention Center in Lima, Pennsylvania, which shuttered in 2021.

A complaint filed on behalf of a plaintiff identified as S.J. alleges the issues in the facility to be systemic and widespread.

"For decades, there has been an epidemic of child abuse, sexual assaults and/or rape occurring in juvenile disciplinary institutions around the country," the complaint said. "This abuse has been perpetuated by administrators, counselors, guards, and peers alike. The emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect of minors has become engrained in these institutions, as they continuously choose to enable the abuse of children by turning a blind eye for callous economic benefit."

The suit alleges that the county allowed a culture of abuse to fester at the facility and to continue through cover-ups at all levels of operation. S.J. claims that DHS shirked its duty to oversee conditions at the correctional facility by failing to investigate complaints of abuse going back decades.

The complaint asserts that the defendants allowed the facility to "retain staff who not only abused and neglected children, but also threatened and intimidated minors to stay silent, after knowing of multiple instances of abuse and intimidation involving multiple staff members at DCJDC; thereby exposing children, including plaintiff, again and again to known danger."

Attorneys for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

S.J. is represented by Gaetano A. D'Andrea of Laffey Bucci D'Andrea Reich & Ryan LLP

The DHS officials are represented by Stephen A. Fogdall of Dilworth Paxson LLP.

The case is S.J. v. Delaware County et al., case number 2:24-cv-05477 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

--Editing by Amy French.