Civil Suit Alleges Hanna Boys Center Female Employee Had Sex With Teen
SONOMA COUNTY (CBS SF) -- A civil suit was filed Tuesday that alleges a female staff member at the Hanna Boys Center had sexual intercourse on several occasions last year with an underage boy at the residential treatment center in Sonoma for at-risk youth.
The complaint alleges staff counselor Angelica Malinski took advantage of "virtually non-existent staff supervision" to groom the 17-year-old boy from the East Bay, eventually having sex with him at least three times between September and October in her staff room.
The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office charged Malinski, 22, with a misdemeanor charge of engaging in an unlawful sex act. A settlement conference is scheduled Thursday in Sonoma County Superior Court.
In the complaint filed in Sonoma County Superior Court, Oakland attorney Micha Star Liberty said the Hanna Boy's Center's motto is 'turning hurt into hope,' but the Hanna Boys Center's negligent conduct turned "hope into hurt."
"He was fractured in some ways and it shattered him," Liberty said.
The teen was having issues with impulsive/reactive behaviors and enrolled in the Hanna Boys Center on June 16, 2016, according to the complaint. The center has an on-campus high school and was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa.
An attorney for the diocese did not return a call for comment on the complaint.
The complaint alleges the Hanna Boys Center ignored concerns about the care and safety of the children at the Center. The Center's former clinical director, Dr. Timothy Norman, filed a whistle-blower lawsuit in June that contained his, parents' and staff members' concerns, according to the complaint. Norman subsequently was fired.
The Hanna Boys Center's Clinical Director Kevin Thorpe, 39, of Rohnert Park, who was the teen's caseworker, was arrested in June for alleged sexual abuse at the Center.
He is charged with 15 counts of forced oral copulation of two minors between Jan.2, 2007 and Aug.7, 2010. He is being held under $1.5 million bail in the Sonoma County Jail and is scheduled to enter a plea Wednesday in Sonoma County Superior Court.
The civil complaint filed by Liberty today seeks damages for negligence in hiring, training, retention and supervision of employees, infliction of emotional distress, intentional and negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract. Liberty also is demanding a jury trial on the allegations.
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