Oct. 21 -- A 5-year-old child was punched and beaten by staff and sexually abused by one of his peers during his stay at a troubled Albuquerque facility for children with disabilities and behavioral issues, a new lawsuit alleges.
The suit, filed last week in state District Court in Santa Fe by Kristina Martinez, the child's guardian ad litem, accuses the Bernalillo Academy in Albuquerque of allowing numerous abuses of children and putting profits from enrollment over the safety of the children. The home was operated by a subsidiary of Huntsville, Ala.-based Sequel Youth and Family Services LLC until December 2021.
The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department and its former Cabinet Secretary Brian Blalock knew about the ongoing abuses at the Bernalillo Academy and failed to protect the children there, the complaint alleges. Both are also named as defendants.
Efforts to reach Sequel and Blalock on Wednesday were unsuccessful. No attorneys were listed for any of the defendants in court records. CYFD spokesperson Jessica Preston wrote in an email the department had not yet been served with the suit and hadn't seen it, and thus could not comment.
"CYFD knew about a lot of this and allowed this place to continue to operate for longer than a decade," Martinez's attorney, Adam Flores, said in an interview. "... They have a lot of power to license and regulate these homes, and they completely dropped the ball. And so we want to bring that to light."
The child has suffered damages for costs of medical and psychological treatment, pain and suffering and other economic damages, according to the complaint. The suit seeks punitive and compensatory damages.
The alleged incidents in the suit happened years ago, according to the complaint. But Flores said it's taken time to gather records about the facility, collect statements from police and advocates who had been inside, and get disclosures from the child.
"When you're dealing with children, it takes much longer to get the sort of disclosures that you need in order to file a lawsuit," Flores said.
Sequel runs youth residential treatment facilities across the country on "barebones staff," and has a national reputation for severely abusing and neglecting children, the complaint alleges. The Bernalillo Academy was Sequel's 14th youth treatment facility to close within three years due to abuse allegations.
The suit alleges CYFD knew of Sequel's reputation before permitting the company to begin operations in New Mexico and that the department was aware of ongoing abuse and neglect at Bernalillo Academy for most of the time it was operating.
Citing an investigation by the nonprofit Disability Rights New Mexico, the suit alleges children were told to fight each other by staff at the Bernalillo Academy. The staff also used "excessive physical restraint" against children, often injuring them, administered "powerful psychotropic drugs to children without justification" and illegally refused to discharge children, the complaint alleges.
According to the complaint, Albuquerque police officers documented "alarming conditions" at the Bernalillo Academy, including suicide attempts by children at the facility, dried blood on the walls of one child's room, staff hitting children with sticks and children being overmedicated.
CYFD was made aware of these findings and reports, and even conducted its own investigation into the Bernalillo Academy, the complaint says.
That investigation, conducted in June 2021, found children were being beaten and sexual abuse was happening on the premises. Still, the facility was allowed to continue to operate for months after CYFD's investigation, the complaint alleges.
From February 2020 to November 2021, the child at the center of the suit suffered physical abuse from staff -- which included punching, pinching and "[beating] him" -- and at least one instance of sexual abuse from another minor, the complaint says. At least once, the child was hospitalized as a result of staff abuse.
He was also given drugs that made him "sedated and unresponsive" and that were not approved for use by his physician, the complaint alleges.
During his stay at the Bernalillo Academy, the child was also largely secluded from the outside world, the complaint says.
The complaint states Sequel took the child in to boost its profits and that the company "deliberately ignored" that the child was "vulnerable and in grave risk of harm from his peers and adults with power and control over him."
As a result of his time at the academy, he cannot read and can barely write, the suit says.
"His mental and behavioral health deteriorated in Defendants' custody," it says.
Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.