Girls confined to 'box' if they fought sex abuse at Florida youth center, lawsuit says

Of multiple employees accused of sexual abuse at a now-closed Florida juvenile justice center, a lawsuit brought by five survivors says one staffer had girls who objected to abuse, or threatened to expose it, confined to what was nicknamed the “box.”

The small, cement room was used as a form of punishment at the former Milton Girls Juvenile Residential Facility in Santa Rosa County, located in the Florida Panhandle, the lawsuit says.

Guards and other employees stripped girls put in the “box” of their clothes, leaving them naked and without blankets in the room that lacked a sink and toilet, according to a complaint filed April 18.

One of the women suing over sexual abuse she endured recalls how she was once locked in the “box” for more than two weeks by an employee accused of sexually assaulting her about four or five separate times.

She’s joined by four other women in the lawsuit against Gulf Coast Treatment Center, the private company contracted by the state to run the facility, which closed in December 2012 in the wake of severe sexual misconduct reports and criminal investigations.

Harrowing accounts of the five women’s experiences, from when they were all younger than 16, are detailed in the filing, including one woman’s account of abuse by Ernest Parker, who’s now serving a 25-year prison sentence.

Parker, a former medical technician for the facility, was charged with 16 counts of sexual battery, the Miami Herald reported in 2017.

Nine girls reported Parker had abused them, according to the Miami Herald’s report. The girls, along with other residents, were considered juvenile delinquents and were supposed to receive counseling and rehabilitation services while at the facility.

Now, the lawsuit, first reported by the Pensacola News Journal, “represents a critical step toward justice and accountability,” Chris Klotz, an attorney for the five women who is a partner at Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz, told McClatchy News on May 21.

“These brave young women have endured unimaginable trauma, and it is our solemn responsibility to ensure their voices are heard and their trauma met with justice and compassion,” Klotz said in a statement.

Also named as a defendant in the filing is Universal Health Services, the parent company of Gulf Coast Treatment Center, which had a contract with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice to manage the Milton facility.

Joseph McHale, an attorney for Gulf Coast Treatment Center, declined McClatchy News’ request for comment. Universal Health Services and the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice didn’t return requests for comment.

Klotz, in the complaint, wrote: “The repeated instances of sexual battery of the plaintiffs involved penetration of their genitalia,” and were committed by “employees, actors, and agents of the defendants.”

The civil suit, Klotz said, “Not only seeks justice for the victims but also aims to uncover systemic failures within the juvenile justice system and the private entities entrusted with the care of vulnerable youth.”

When girls tried to speak up about the ongoing sexual abuse, Milton facility staff members, including managers, would ignore or stop them through various forms of control, like the “box,” according to the complaint.

Girls faced discipline, forced into silence

The woman sexually abused by Parker recalls him sexually battering her between 10 and 20 times, as detailed in the lawsuit.

Parker, according to the complaint, tried to build rapport with the girls. He’d let them stay awake to read, talk and color at night when they weren’t supposed to — privileges he allowed so he could groom them, the complaint says.

At night, Parker would visit the woman’s cell and “digitally penetrate her vagina with his fingers,” according to the complaint.

He’s accused of threatening her with discipline if she “objected to, fought, or reported” the abuse.

The woman recalls how, if girls shared negative experiences while speaking with family on the phone, the facility’s managers would step in to hang up the call, according to the lawsuit.

The girls were forced into silence and retaliated against when they tried to alert their loved ones or authorities of the abuse, according to the complaint.

The “box” was one method of retaliation and “used to control resident girls from reporting instances of sexual abuse,” the complaint says.

Those who kept quiet were rewarded with special treatment by a facility manager, the complaint says.

Girl fought back, ‘slammed’ against wall

When another woman, who’s a plaintiff, tried to fend off a male staff member while she was incarcerated as a minor and showering alone, he broke her nose, according to the lawsuit.

He first “entered the shower behind (her), grabbed her buttocks and shoulder and pushed her against the wall of the shower,” the complaint says.

During the assault, she became “loud” as she tried to fight him off, according to the filing.

In reaction to her resistance, he “slammed (her) against the wall in the shower,” breaking her nose,” the complaint says.

On a separate occasion, she once awoke to another staffer on top of her, inside her cell, with “the one hand over her mouth and his other hand inside of her underwear,” the complaint says.

A demand for a full investigation

Parker isn’t the only former staffer of the facility to be charged criminally.

Violent force used against one teenage girl by a guard, Shannon Abbott, resulted in Abbott being convicted of child abuse in 2013, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

Klotz told McClatchy News that the abuse and misconduct allegations involving the facility “are profoundly disturbing and demand a full and transparent investigation.”

The women he represents seek a judgment, an unspecified amount in damages and demand a jury trial. They’re suing on claims that includes negligence, fraudulent concealment of sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

If you have experienced sexual assault and need someone to talk to, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline for support at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the hotline's online chatroom.

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