Middlesex Failed To Protect Juvenile Detainees From Sex Abuse: Suit

MIDDLESEX COUNTY, NJ — Six men and women have filed a lawsuit against Middlesex County claiming they were sexually abused when confined at the Juvenile Detention Center (MCJDC) in North Brunswick.

The lawsuit, filed May 28, was brought by plaintiffs ranging in age from 34 to 45. Some allegations go as far back as 1991.

The four men and two women claim staff members at MCJDC used their positions of power to sexually abuse them, all of whom were minors at the time.

“Defendant’s employees and/or agents have engaged in inappropriate and unlawful sexual relationships with children detained at MCJDC. These relationships often involved grooming and bribery whereby children detained at MCJDC were routinely offered special privileges and/or contraband—such as cigarettes and food from outside the facility—in exchange for sexual favors,” according to the lawsuit.

The suit charges that children who were abused rarely filed grievances against their abusers for “fear that they would face retaliation or that their complaints would not be taken seriously.”

The suit also says that the children could not trust the facility’s staff, who regularly subjected them to physical violence.

The lawsuit filed by attorneys Moshe Maimon and Corey Briskin, says there is a well-documented history of child abuse at MCJDC. There has also been “severe underreporting of sexual abuse at MCJDC” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is the latest in a string of New Jersey juvenile detention abuse lawsuits spearheaded by the law firm Levy Konigsberg.

The suit was filed under New Jersey's Child Sexual Abuse Act ("CSAA"), a 2019 law that expanded the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits in cases of child sexual abuse.

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