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Negligence by nonprofits led to sexual abuse of foster kids, lawsuit says

Two nonprofits charged with administering Central Florida’s foster care system were negligent in their oversight, resulting in the sexual abuse of two girls placed in a Sanford home with a man who last year pleaded guilty to charges that he molested and covertly took video recordings of the school-age children as they changed in their bedrooms, a lawsuit alleges.

The suit, filed earlier this year in Seminole County, says Embrace Families and the Children’s Home Society of Florida failed to intervene when a Sanford foster dad secretly recorded the girls, then ages 6 and 9, in their bedrooms and bathrooms and touched their genitals while they were in his care in late 2021 and early 2022.

It’s one of two suits filed earlier this year claiming that Embrace Families, which oversees foster care in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties, was negligent in placing children in homes where they faced sexual abuse.

The Sanford man, Justin Dwayne Johnson Sr., pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of producing and possessing sexually explicit images of children. Investigators discovered evidence on his phone and other devices that he filmed and inappropriately touched several young children in his care, including a baby who was just a few days old, starting in early 2017.

“Unfortunately, the mental, physical and sexual abuse that occurred inside his foster home could have been prevented by the defendants if they simply observed the tell-tale signs of abuse occurring inside the foster home,” according to the suit, filed by West Palm Beach-based attorney Adam Hecht, who is representing the girls’ mother.

Embrace Families oversees foster care and related services for roughly 3,000 children through a contract with the Department of Children and Families, and works with other entities like the Children’s Home Society of Florida, which is also named in the Seminole suit. Embrace Families also was the target of another suit earlier this year alleging abuse of foster children by an adult living in their Orange County home.

Maureen Brockman, a spokeswoman for Embrace Families, declined to comment on the details of these cases, citing state laws intended to prevent public disclosure of information about children in foster care.

“While we are bound by law to protect the privacy of children and families in our system of care, you can be assured of this: The safety of the children is our top priority,” Brockman wrote in an email to the Sentinel.

A spokeswoman for the Children’s Home Society declined to comment.

Embrace Families also recently came under fire for a financial audit ordered by the Department of Children and Families, which alleged the organization had double-billed the state after it and two other related nonprofits received $2.4 million in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020.

The nonprofit’s interim chief operating officer said last month that the organization’s leaders thought they could use the state money allocated for salaries, which were covered by the later-forgiven PPP loans, for other expenses. DCF ordered Embrace Families to pay back approximately $523,342, which organization leaders say they have already done.

The nonprofit, which receives most of its money from the state, was warned it could lose its contract with the state’s child welfare agency if it did not correct the problems described in the audit. The report did not allege Embrace Families had failed to properly oversee Central Florida’s foster care system.

But a pair of suits filed earlier this year claim Embrace Families and two other entities it works with were negligent.  The suits were filed last March, just days before Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a slew of new limits on litigation that included shortening the statute of limitations from four years to two years in negligence cases.

In addition to the Seminole case, Embrace is named in a second lawsuit in Orange County, which alleges three foster children were abused by the brother of a foster parent who was living in the home.

It’s not clear whether the brother, who is not named in the complaint, was charged criminally, if foster care organizations knew he was living in the home, or if he had passed a background check.

But the suit claims Embrace Family and a second organization, One Hope United, were negligent in placing the children and overseeing their care in the home, where they were subjected to abuse. The foster mother’s brother touched the three children, who were all younger than about 10 years old, on their butts and nipples, the suit alleges.

One of the children suffered disfiguring injuries on his face while at the home and did not receive proper medical care, the suit said.

Additionally, the mother of the licensed foster mother was arrested at the home on gun-related charges in the children’s presence, “exposing them to dangerous, criminal behavior and traumatizing them.”

An attorney representing One Hope United did not respond to a request for comment on the organization’s behalf.

In the Seminole case, Johnson pleaded guilty in July 2022 to charges he produced and possessed explicit images of children.

The signed plea agreement noted he had dozens of sexually explicit videos and images documenting abuse of children in his care dating back to as early as 2017. He was sentenced last November to 170 years in federal prison, though he is appealing the judgment and sentence.

The problems at Johnson’s home only came to light after one of the children described in the recent suit noticed a blinking blue light near an electrical outlet in her bedroom and realized she was being recorded, Hecht said in an interview.

There were five children living in the home at the time, according to Johnson’s plea agreement. The girl who noticed the video camera told investigators that Johnson frequently commented on two of the other girls’ “boobs and butt.”  Another girl said Johnson had touched her “private parts,” and liked to give her “wedgies.”

Hecht said he thinks case managers, who often carry heavy caseloads and are overworked, overlooked red flags that should have set off alarm bells sooner.

For instance, the suit claims Johnson told foster care agencies he was married, but he had separated from his wife, who was not living in the home Johnson shared with his teenage son. Johnson also only allowed female foster children to be placed in his home, the suit says.

In addition to taking videos of the girls in their bedroom and bathroom, Johnson also recorded himself touching the girls’ vaginas and required them to lay in bed with him while he sexually abused them, the suit says.

Johnson made it difficult for caseworkers to perform home visits and case workers did not interview the girls privately, the suit alleges.

“The records reflect that the girls were just as happy as could be,” Hecht said, adding, “It’s just a lie.”

anmartin@orlandosentinel.com