State agrees to pay $875K

State agrees to pay $875K
By Tim Carpenter
Created July 6, 2009 at 11:07pm

Updated July 7, 2009 at 12:05am
The State Finance Council voted Monday without public comment to pay $875,000 in compensation to a Kansas man sexually assaulted at age 11 while improperly incarcerated by the state in a Salina treatment facility with older, violent offenders.

Deputy Attorney General Mike Leitch presided at a closed-door meeting with Gov. Mark Parkinson and top House and Senate leaders before the council endorsed settlement of the federal lawsuit filed by one-time Wichita resident Brandon Blackmon against current and former staff at the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

“We believe this settlement is in the best interests of the state,” said Ashley Anstaett, spokeswoman for the attorney general.

Blackmon, 23, alleged his civil rights were violated by SRS employees who had him sent to a residential facility serving adolescent male juveniles convicted of sex crimes. He also asserted SRS didn’t respond appropriately to abuse he suffered at the center.

A state judge had recommended Blackmon receive conduct disorder therapy at a pre-adolescent facility, but SRS intervened to overcome objections about placing the boy at St. Francis Academy in Salina.

Blackmon was convicted of raping a 4-year-old girl in 1996 — a conviction later overturned. Blackmon has denied allegations against him, court records say.

St. Francis staff opposed SRS because Blackmon would be the youngest child in the compound and his personal safety wasn’t assured. The Rev. Thomas Campbell, former vice president at St. Francis, predicted Blackmon “would be 'fresh meat’ and the 'target of sexual predators,’” court records say.

Within six weeks of entering St. Francis in May 1997, Blackmon alleged he was sexually assaulted in a bathroom by a 15-year-old juvenile twice his size.

When informed of the incident, SRS social worker Margo Crile told St. Francis staff not to notify the boy’s mother. Crile said she would “take care of it,” court documents say. A St. Francis employee called the mother two days after the assault. The mother hadn’t been informed by Crile.

St. Francis discharged Blackmon in March 1997, but SRS didn’t relinquish custody until July 1998. His rape conviction had been reversed in March 1998 by the Kansas Supreme Court. Blackmon, who filed a $3 million lawsuit in 2005, is an inmate at Lansing Correctional Facility. He is serving time on a 2007 conviction for aggravated battery.

In March, a federal judge in Wichita rejected arguments Crile had immunity.

“The court finds that a jury would conclude Crile abdicated her professional responsibility by placing Blackmon at St. Francis,” U.S. District Court Judge Monti Belot wrote in a court order.

The litigation also named Janet Schalansky, SRS deputy director; Teresa Markowitz, SRS commissioner of children and family services; and Deborah Cochran, Crile’s supervisor. Cochran is the only one of the four still employed by SRS.

Court records say Markowitz personally pressured Campbell twice to take Blackmon. The judge concluded she violated her professional duties by helping put Blackmon into St. Francis. Belot ruled Schalansky was entitled to immunity, while Cochran’s involvement didn’t rise to the level of civil liability.

The $875,000 settlement covers all SRS employees who were sued. SRS spokeswoman Michelle Ponce declined to make a statement on the lawsuit or the council’s decision.

“I don’t have any comment,” she said.

St. Francis Academy attorney Kevin Carrico had a one-word response to the settlement.

“Wow,” he said.



Tim Carpenter can be reached at (785) 295-1158 or timothy.carpenter@cjonline.com.