NJ Training School in Montgomery was 'notorious' for child sexual abuse, lawsuit says
Five men between the ages of 49 and 54 are suing the state over sexual abuse they allegedly suffered while they were confined in the 1980s to the New Jersey Training School at Skillman in Montgomery.
The correctional facility, which was on Bellemede Mead-Blawenburg Road, closed in 1992 and the property was sold to the township school district for the construction of a new high school. When the facility closed, it was known as the Lloyd McCorkle Training School.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Somerset County Superior Court, is similar to one filed by the same law firm, Levy Konigsberg of New York City, in January against the state for alleged sexual abuse at the New Jersey Training School in Monroe. That 193-page lawsuit was filed on behalf of 50 men who were residents at the school.
The state has been given until June 17 to file an answer to that lawsuit. At the time the lawsuit was filed, Attorney General Matt Platkin said the allegations would be “swiftly and thoroughly” investigated.
The latest lawsuit says the facility was a "notorious failure" and "known for its dangerous conditions, with widespread reports of overcrowding, underfunding and horrific child abuse."
"The facility's culture of exploitation and violence frequently led to sexual abuse of the children confined within its walls," the lawsuit continues.
In 1988, Thomas Patterson, a former corrections officer at the Montgomery facility, was sentenced to six months in prison after he was found guilty of criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child. Charges of sexual assault were dismissed against him.
In one of the cases cited in the Montgomery lawsuit, one of the boys, who was at the facility between the ages of 15 and 17 between 1987 and 1989, was allegedly sexually abused by a female staffer who worked in the chapel area.
On more than 20 occasions, according to the lawsuit, the teen was sexually abused by the staffer, many times when she isolated him in the chapel after the other teens were dismissed.
On other occasions, the staffer took the teen on field trips to churches, where she also isolated him and allegedly coerced him into sex.
The staff member bribed him by offering him extra food and special privileges but threatened him with solitary confinement if he told anyone about the abuse, the lawsuit alleges.
In another case, a boy between 15 and 17 years old when he was at the facility in the mid-80s, was allegedly abused by two staffers, one male and one female, the lawsuit charges.
On six or seven occasions, the teen was abused by other staffers together on field trips to a local church, according to the lawsuit.
The two staffers likewise offered him extra food, cigarettes and greater privileges and threatened him with loss of privileges and sent to a harsher unit if he did not comply, the lawsuit alleges.
The suits filed by Levy Konigsberg were brought under New Jersey's Child Sexual Abuse Act, a 2019 law that expanded the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits in cases of child sexual abuse.
Most of the plaintiffs in the two lawsuits allege abuse as far back as the 1970s.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Training School in Montgomery 'notorious' for sexual abuse: lawsuit
