A new Maryland bill aims to limit settlement money for victims of abuse in juvenile detention facilities.

At a House Judiciary hearing, fueled with passion on all sides, state lawmakers debated ways to strike a balance between properly compensating victims of alleged childhood sexual abuse in the Maryland Juvenile Justice System without bankrupting the state.

In 2023, the Child Victims Act, which removed the statute of limitations and allowed victims to receive up to $890,000 per occurrence of abuse, was made a law/.

Since then, 4,500 victims have filed claims, potentially putting the state on the hook for billions of dollars.

Co-council Adam Slater says there is only one proper solution.

“This bill is unacceptable and the government of Maryland must sit down with the survivors and come up with a mutually agreeable and acceptable solution, not one imposed on them,” Slater said.

The amendments still need to pass the Maryland House and Senate and be signed by Gov. Wes Moore before the end of the session on April 7.

If passed, these amendments would take effect on October 1, 2025.

For the proposed bill

Democratic Delegate CT Wilson, a victim of childhood sexual abuse, introduced amendments to House Bill 1378, which would lower the payout cap for each claimant to $400,000. 

It would also require an alternative dispute resolution process to promise transparency in these payouts.

“I wanted to make sure that whatever we do today, we don’t so irreparably damage our state, that we must go to bankruptcy,” Wilson said. “Because while the victims do need an opportunity to speak and they do need to come up in financial support, billions and billions of dollars is not what we can afford to do.”  

Opposing the proposed bill

Opponents, including national civil rights attorney Ben Crump, say these amendments revictimize those who were sexually abused.

“That’s not equal justice, that’s a shame, before God to tell that person who has lived with this all their life that you don’t have their day in court, and by the way, you can only get up to $400,000,” Crump said.

Antoine Harris, who is one of the alleged victims, said he was sexually abused during his childhood at the hands of the state. He also said he was conceived after his mother was allegedly raped at 17 years old by a speech therapist at the Montrose juvenile training facility Montrose.

“I believe that we don’t have to pay everybody at once; it can be spread out over time,” Harris said. “This has been many years that we’ve been waiting for justice. So, to expect the state to pay it out all at once, that’s not what I think is necessarily appropriate. The state is in a financial crisis, so the state can take time to pay us.”

Rally for alleged sexual abuse victims

On March 19, the alleged victims of sexual abuse in Maryland juvenile detention facilities rallied near Baltimore’s City Hall, calling for the state to be held accountable.

Alleged victims shared their stories of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the hands of staff within the juvenile justice system. 

“How many more survivors need to come forward before the state finally takes responsibility? How many more children have to suffer before a change is made?” an alleged victim said.

A statement from the Department of Juvenile Services reads, “DJS takes allegations of sexual abuse of children in our care with utmost seriousness…. DJS notes that all the claims brought under the Maryland Child Victims Act involve allegations from many decades ago. Beyond that, DJS will not comment on this pending litigation.”  

Lawsuits under Child Victims Act

After the Child Victims Act became a law, hundreds of lawsuits were filed over sexual abuse claims against the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which spanned nearly 80 years.

In April 2023, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office released a 450-page report that identified 156 priests, deacons, Catholic teachers and seminarians within the Archdiocese accused of abusing more than 600 victims. The incidents detailed in the report date back to the 1940s.

“The state is not above the law,” said Jerry Block, a lawyer for sexual abuse survivors. “The state is just as accountable as the Catholic church or any other institution that perpetrated sexual abuse.”  

Recently, more than a dozen former students at McDonogh School, a Baltimore County private school, came forward in a new complaint, alleging they were sexually abused.

The alleged victims claim to have suffered sexual abuse by former dean Alvin Levy, former Spanish teacher Robert Creed, and two more faculty members while attending the school between the 1960s and 1980s.

WJZ previously highlighted one of four lawsuits against McDonogh, claiming the school was aware of the abuse and failed to protect students.

The lawsuit details the former student’s account of being sexually assaulted several times by former dean Levy when he was 10 years old.