NYC slammed with 250 lawsuits over claims of child sexual abuse in juvenile jails

WNYC News

Nijere Stewart is still haunted by the five months he spent at a Brooklyn juvenile jail at age 15 — months during which he says he was sexually abused so often that he sat awake all night with his foot jammed against his door to keep people from coming in. Now, at age 30, Stewart has filed a lawsuit seeking damages from the city for the abuse he says he endured while in custody for a criminal case that was later thrown out.

He is one of more than 250 former juvenile detainees who filed lawsuits against the city on Tuesday claiming they were sexually abused as children by staffers and other detainees at the city's juvenile jails.

The abuse described in the lawsuits, which were all filed by the firm Levy Konigsberg, date back to the 1970s. They were filed under a 2022 city law that created a two-year window for people to sue over acts of violence from many years ago. The window is open until March 1, 2025.

“The way I was treated, I thought I would never get out,” Stewart said. “Honestly, I thought I might die there.”

In a statement, a City Hall spokesperson said the mayor’s administration is taking the allegations seriously.

“Sexual abuse and harassment is abhorrent and unacceptable,” the spokesperson said, adding that the “overwhelming majority of these cases predate this administration.”

For the full story, go to Gothamist.com.