Sentenced: 17YO Commits Suicide After Being Raped In Home That Housed Sex Offenders

[Sugar Cookie]

Wisconsin Department of Corrections officials would not explain to News 3 why daily monitoring was not done of sex offenders at a home where a 17-year-old girl reported a sexual assault last year.

That young woman later died inside a group home in Dane County that also closed following citations from the state.

News 3 has spent the last year investigating the case and supervision in both homes.

The sexual assault was reported in July of 2016, at 3150 St. Paul Ave. in the town of Blooming Grove. The area, while seemingly in Madison, is under the jurisdiction of the Dane County Sheriff's Department.

"We learned there had been a party hosted at an apartment that was actually housing individuals under DOC supervision as sexual predators," said Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney.

Court documents show the 17-year-old girl smoked weed and took Ecstasy and was taken to the party by a man on the Dane County Bail Monitoring program. Investigators say she was told by the three men who lived at the house, who were all registered sex offenders, that "she wanted this" and she reported being repeatedly raped.

One offender who was arrested for the crime, James Phillips, told investigators the four men were "taking turns," that the girl was "tossed around like a rag doll" and estimated she was assaulted 11 times.

The apartments where the incident happened were emergency housing for recently-released sex offenders, a place the DOC says was used for offenders at risk of homelessness.

Documents released to News 3 by the DOC show that regular daily monitoring of the offenders at the home did not happen.

There was an agent at the home the day of the alleged assault on July 7. She was meeting with Reginald Patton to move him into the house. Patton was later one of the four men charged in the case.

Another offender charged, Stephon Hiler, has already pleaded guilty to his role in the assault. His attorney says he has cognitive issues, and DOC documents from the day he was placed in the home show he was "low-functioning" and could not read or write.

"It's a travesty what happened, but part of the blame lies in them putting this cognitively disabled person inside this facility with no one to supervise them," said attorney Michael Covey.

Covey says he will ask for a shorter sentence for Hiler in part because he says the DOC bears some responsibility for what happened, and they set his client up to fail.

"There were drugs being used, lots of sex happening in this building and that's from police reports and witness testimony," Covey said. "It was animal house."

The Department of Corrections declined News 3's repeated requests for interviews. In a statement, a spokesman said the department discontinued the lease on the home and was no longer using any emergency housing locations in Dane County. Instead they're using "transitional housing" programs and have a policy that requires additional monitoring beyond monthly agent visits.

The second home connected to this young woman, though, is where she met her end.

The victim had been living at a group home in Dane County called the Spohn Avenue House for Girls, which has since closed.
Jennifer Ginsburg, program manager at Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center, is familiar with this case and the victim.

"We have a teenager that was victimized by two failed systems," Ginsburg said.

According to documents provided by the Department of Children and Families, the victim reported the rape to a staff member at the home at 1:30 a.m. on July 8. It wasn't until she told the group home director nine hours later that police were called, as is required by the state.

Then one month later, on Aug. 5, 2016, the victim of this sexual assault hung herself from a rod in her closet at the group home. She later died at the hospital.

The group home was cited by the state in August of last year for violating abuse and neglect reporting requirements for not reporting the sexual assault immediately. In October, the nonprofit that ran the home was issued another order saying the home "failed to provide a safe, stable and humane environment" and ordering it to correct the environment or face sanctions. Rather than take corrective action, Orion Family Services, which ran the group home, chose to close its doors.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/17-...-after-assault-at-doc-halfway-house/589013743

 

[JackBurton]

Seems a LOT of people need to be charged with some sort of crimes here. Unbelievable. Hopefully the girls family isnt complete scum, cuz theyre going to get quite the payday out of the state on this one.

Court documents show the 17-year-old girl smoked weed and took Ecstasy and was taken to the party by a man on the Dane County Bail Monitoring program.

So she was a piece of shit then. Meh.

 

[Peanut2]

If she was living in this group home, it means her family failed her and the poor girl had a horrible life prior to being victimized by these animals. She probably wouldn't have good coping skills and she likely wasn't resilient either, and the sexual assaualt on her was horrendous. This is just sickening.

 

[Keepalowprofile]

Seems a LOT of people need to be charged with some sort of crimes here. Unbelievable. Hopefully the girls family isnt complete scum, cuz theyre going to get quite the payday out of the state on this one.

I hope the scum parents don't get one cent.

 

[Sejanus]

So the State provided a rape toy right in the comfort of their own home.
Execute them all, including staff and the asshole genius that made the placement call in the first place.
This needs to go waaaay past a reprimand

 

[Sugar Cookie]

In the 2016 case involving a 17-year-old girl who committed suicide at the Spohn Avenue House for Girls, multiple men were charged and convicted for their roles in her repeated sexual assault at a state-run halfway house shortly before her death.

The victim had been placed in a Department of Corrections (DOC) halfway house on St. Paul Avenue in Madison, where these men—all registered sex offenders—were also staying. It was reported that the facility lacked adequate supervision, leading to the repeated assaults that the teenager reported just weeks before she took her own life.

The family filed a lawsuit - there is no published report if there was a settlement.

Closure of the Facility: Following state citations for failing to provide a "safe, stable, and humane environment," the nonprofit that ran the home, Orion Family Services, chose to close the Spohn Avenue House for Girls in 2017 rather than face further sanctions.

The primary individuals convicted in this case are:

• Nathan Thompson: Convicted in 2018 of second-degree sexual assault and multiple counts of bail jumping. He was sentenced to 13 years with 7 years extended supervision.

• 
  
  
• Stephon Hiler: Pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault - intoxicated vistim and was sentenced in 2017 to 17 years in prison with 5 years extended supervision

James Phillips pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault of an intoxicated victim. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison with 5 years extended supervision.

Reginald H. Patton was found guilty of 3rd Degree Sexual Assault, Exposing Genitals/Pubic Area/Intimate Parts to a Child

He was sentenced to 5 years in prison and 5 years of extended supervision.

He is currently incarcerated.

 

[Aedia]

They should be charged with her death!
It's hard enough being in an actual home with those abusing you, but a government run home where those who you are counting on to help in that situation are able to charge you if you try to run from the abuse?! That's Hell on earth! She was still there, trapped with those men WEEKS after reporting?! There was no escape but death in her mind. How horrible.