Sexual assault lawsuit targets Illinois DCFS over Bronzeville facility failures

A new legal complaint filed in the Illinois Court of Claims holds DCFS accountable for placing minors at Aunt Martha's Integrated Care Center, where a convicted felon assaulted five children.

DCFS sued over repeated assaults at now-closed Chicago residential facility

Attorneys representing a woman who was sexually assaulted as a teenager at a state-supervised residential facility on Chicago's South Side have filed a new complaint in the Illinois Court of Claims, abc7chicago.com reports. The filing expands on a lawsuit brought three weeks earlier and directly targets the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, an agency that cannot be sued in Cook County court.

The complaint concerns Aunt Martha's Integrated Care Center in Bronzeville, a now-closed facility that served at-risk youth. Multiple sexual assaults took place there between 2023 and 2024. Attorneys allege DCFS failed in its duty of oversight when placing minors at the site.

The primary complainant, Yadira Escamilla, had been classified as a high-needs resident requiring constant supervision. On 23 January 2024, she stood alongside Governor JB Pritzker at the grand opening of a transitional living facility she had just moved into. Within days of being returned to Aunt Martha's, she was sexually assaulted by an overnight manager named Trulon Henry.

"The State of Illinois was supposed to make sure that she was secure in the facility that they put her in," said attorney Ben Crump.

Henry had previously been convicted of armed robbery and served five years in prison before being hired by the facility. Attorneys said Escamilla had been placed in a basement room without cameras, despite her high-needs classification. The abuse continued for months before she reported it, after learning she was not the only victim. Henry was convicted in March of sexually assaulting Escamilla and four other children between the ages of 12 and 17.

"Background checks are so easy to do now but they hired a convicted felon and looked the other way," Crump said.

Governor Pritzker ordered Aunt Martha's closed after Henry was charged. Attorneys are now pursuing claims against both the nonprofit that operated the site — which continues to provide services for DCFS — and the agency itself.

Margaret Battersby Black, managing partner at Levin & Perconti, pointed to a long pattern of documented failures. "From 2018 until Aunt Martha's was shut down there were over 3,000 unusual incident reports to DCFS," she said. "Why didn't they heed those warnings? Why didn't they react? Why didn't they investigate?"

Representatives for both Aunt Martha's and DCFS declined to comment, stating they do not respond to questions about ongoing litigation.

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