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SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

Friday, March 29, 2024

'Humiliated and afraid': Behavioral health org sued after employee allegedly molests young female client

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GALVESTON – Benjamin Landgraf of the law firm McGehee, Chang, Landgraf has filed a state district lawsuit against a nonprofit behavioral health organization after a young female client was allegedly sexually assaulted by one of its employees, recent Galveston County District Court records show.

The 11-page suit filed against The Devereux Foundation, doing business as Devereux Texas Treatment Network, on Nov. 13 in the Galveston County 56th District Court claims that Shailen Jamal Simmons molested Z.G. at a Houston area motel last Mar. 16.

Z.G. was under the care of Devereux’s League City facility. The suit states that the child was purportedly sexually abused at Devereux on a few occasions last year, prompting her release to her legal guardian, who is the lead plaintiff.

According to the original petition, Simmons traveled to the hotel where the complainant and Z.G. were staying and lured the girl away as her guardian slept. Simmons, who is a co-defendant in the litigation, “then drove Z.G. to a motel in neighboring Harris County and sexually abused her for several hours,” court papers assert.

“Humiliated and afraid” at first, the suit says, the girl “found the courage to report the abuse to a counselor at Devereux.”

Meanwhile, Simmons faces felony charges for sexual assault of a child.

Consequently, Z.G.’s guardian seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.

Galveston County 56th District Court Case No. 18-CV-1575

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