RENEW lawsuit over abuse settled

SHERIDAN (WNE) — Counsel settled a three-year-long civil lawsuit against Rehabilitation Enterprises of North Eastern Wyoming in Sheridan in 4th Judicial District Court.
Parents and legal guardians of a former RENEW client filed against the rehabilitation center in 2014 when they became aware that their adult son, who has Down syndrome and has lived in RENEW housing since 2001, had been repeatedly sexually molested from August 2012 to March 2013 by another RENEW client sharing a bathroom with the victim.
The bathroom was only accessible through the victim’s bedroom.
Court documents filed by the plaintiff said complaints were made by the victim’s counselor to RENEW, but the abuse did not end.
The counselor reported the issue to the Department of Family Services and RENEW then moved the victim to a different house without the consent of his legal guardians. Court documents also say RENEW concealed facts and lied about circumstances related to the plaintiff’s son being moved to another group home and said the perpetrator was known to be prone to sexual abuse of others.
Presiding Judge John Fenn encouraged the attorneys to work out mediation judges and dates on their own during a Feb. 15, 2017, hearing addressing a laundry list of motions.
The case had initially intended to continue into a pretrial conference on April 3, 2017, before heading into a jury trial.
On Oct. 2, 2017, the court dismissed the case with prejudice, directing each party to “bear their own costs of suit.”