Washington State Pays $16.95 Million to Survivors of Abuse at J Bar D Boys Ranch

J Bar D Boys Ranch operated near Ione, in Pend Oreille County in northeastern Washington, as a licensed group home for boys placed there by the state. From the late 1970s through the early 1980s, boys between roughly 10 and 15 years old were sent to the ranch after the Washington Department of Social and Health Services determined they needed out-of-home placement. What the state placed them into was something far different from care.

According to court filings, the boys were subjected to rampant sexual abuse, physical brutality, neglect, and deprivation of basic services at the hands of staff and older residents. Survivors described being raped, struck with cattle prods, and dragged behind horses. The operator of the ranch, Dave Goodwin, also ran a second facility nearby. A 1984 inquest by Pend Oreille Superior Court concluded conditions were 'disgraceful,' citing filthy bunkhouses, inadequate supervision, threats of violence, and a complete absence of therapeutic services. The state revoked the ranch's contracts at the end of 1984. No criminal prosecutions followed.

Almost four decades later, 12 former residents filed suit in Thurston County Superior Court, arguing that DSHS had known or should have known of the abuse and failed in its duty to protect children it had placed at the facility. One survivor, John Seckar, told the Spokesman-Review: 'I can't remember a day where I felt safe.' Another, Kelly McShane, said after the settlement: 'There had to be justice somehow.'

The civil trial ran for more than four weeks. Among the witnesses was Roy Harrington, a former DSHS regional administrator, who testified that the situation at J Bar D was 'unbelievable' and that the agency should have acted immediately. The case settled before closing arguments, on November 1, 2023, with Washington State agreeing to pay a total of $16.95 million to the 12 plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs were represented by Darrell Cochran and Andrew Ulmer of Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC. Cochran had previously represented victims of similar institutional abuse at the O.K. Boys Ranch in Olympia during the 1990s. A separate former resident, Terry Vanbuskirk, had settled an earlier individual case against the state for $1.5 million approximately one year prior to the trial.