Washington Pays $9M After Foster Girl Was Abused for 7 Years; Visits Lapsed Up to 500 Days

From the archive: This story covers events from September 2025. FAN is adding past cases to its public record; the latest available update is under “Where it stands now.”

Tacoma, Washington — Washington agreed to pay $9 million to a woman who says she was abused from ages 5 to 12 in a Pierce County placement where state social workers went as long as 500 days without a face-to-face visit and never ran a background check on a man living in the home. A notice of settlement was filed Sept. 8, 2025, the day the case was set for trial in Pierce County Superior Court.

What happened

The Department of Social and Health Services took custody of the girl in 1995, according to The Peninsula Gateway. After several earlier placements, she was placed in a caregiver’s home, where she lived for about seven years. A trial brief cited by the Gateway says the caregiver’s live-in boyfriend raped her from 1997 to 2003 while the caregiver also abused her and lied to a social worker about him. The woman, now 34, has described physical, mental and sexual abuse in that home.

Where the system failed

The lawsuit and records described in the three outlets that covered the settlement point to failures at nearly every step:

• Required in-person visits every 90 days did not happen. Gaps between visits ran from about 200 to more than 500 days, according to the lawsuit as reported by KUOW and the Gateway.
• A home study found the boyfriend was “very involved” in the child’s life, but the department never asked his name or ran a background check, which would have shown disqualifying convictions including drug trafficking and domestic violence, the Gateway reported.
• The state knew the boyfriend had been evicted from a foster home along with the caregiver, but no one investigated, according to the Gateway.
• Social worker emails showed 50 unexplained school absences in one school year. FOX 13 reported that the state did not act when officials flagged months of missed school in first, second and third grade.
• In 2003, the state endorsed the caregiver’s petition to adopt the girl, who was then 12.

From beginning to end, repeated failures, not just of department mandates, but legal mandates

Vincent Nappo, attorney for the plaintiff, to FOX 13

The boyfriend was never convicted of abusing her. In 2024 he pleaded guilty to third-degree rape in an unrelated case involving a disabled woman in Lakewood, according to the Gateway and KUOW. FAN is not naming him or the caregiver because neither was charged in this case. The caregiver is no longer a licensed foster parent, the Gateway reported.

The state’s response

The Department of Social and Health Services referred questions to the Department of Children, Youth and Families, which now runs foster care and did not immediately comment, the Gateway reported. FOX 13 reported that DCYF said it was working on a response. Nappo told FOX 13 the state chose to settle rather than go to trial.

Where it stands now

The $9 million settlement resolved all claims in the case. FAN found no further public update after October 2025. Because the case settled, no court ruled on the allegations.

The state’s own records showed the warning signs: missing school, a man in the home no one checked and visits that lapsed for more than a year. The state still endorsed the adoption. A settlement paid years later does not answer who signed off and why. FAN tracks these cases in its overview of foster care system problems.

Key facts

• Settlement: $9 million paid by Washington state; notice filed Sept. 8, 2025, in Pierce County Superior Court
• Abuse alleged from ages 5 to 12 in homes in Tacoma and Fife
• Visit gaps reached more than 500 days, according to the lawsuit
• No background check was run on the caregiver’s live-in boyfriend
• The state endorsed the caregiver’s adoption of the girl in 2003
• No one has been criminally convicted of her abuse

Sources

• The Peninsula Gateway (via The Spokesman-Review) — WA will pay $9M to woman abused ‘countless times’ in Pierce County foster home (2025-09-30)
• KUOW — From age 5 to 12, she was abused in a Tacoma foster home. WA just awarded her $9 million (2025-10-01)
• FOX 13 Seattle — WA pays $9M settlement to woman who claims abuse in foster system (2025-09-30)

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