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Image: Logo of Washington State Department of Social & Health Services; via Wikipedia.
The state of Washington has agreed to pay $9 million to a Portland woman who said she was abused for years while in foster care, The Seattle Times reported yesterday. The settlement adds to a growing list of payouts tied to sexual assault within the state’s foster system and juvenile detention facilities.
Ashley Miller, now 34, says she was raped and abused between the ages of 5 and 12 by her foster parent’s live-in boyfriend in Pierce County. She filed a lawsuit in 2023, alleging the Department of Social and Health Services, then the state’s child welfare agency, knew the man was a convicted felon but failed to properly monitor her foster home.
That man, Carlos McFann, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of third-degree rape of a vulnerable adult. He has not been convicted of assaulting Miller or other children.
“I just wanted some answers, because I felt like, ‘Why me? Why was I left out? Why was I not able to be loved?’” Miller said in an interview.
Her case is one of many. In recent years, survivors of abuse in Washington’s foster system have increasingly turned to the courts. Earlier this month, a Spokane County jury ordered the state to pay $42 million to another woman who alleged she was failed by child welfare officials and endured years of childhood sexual abuse.
In Miller’s case, her lawsuit claimed DSHS social workers failed to make the legally required 90-day visits. At one point, Miller said she went 500 days without a visit while missing dozens of days of school. A background check of McFann’s criminal record would have barred him from living in a state foster home, according to her lawsuit.
Court documents revealed that in 2003, an adoption unit social worker noted the presence of a man in the foster home. The social worker wrote, “He will need to do a background check.” The foster parent refused, saying she would not ask him to comply. The adoption was finalized months later with no check performed.
In one email between DSHS employees, a worker expressed the desire to “finally get this case out of our system.”
“It’s beyond just being asleep at the wheel. … They were just completely checked out,” said a plaintiff’s attorney representing Miller.
Miller says she told her adoptive mother about the abuse but was ignored. She eventually sought legal help in 2022 after learning McFann was still visiting her adoptive mother’s home, where Miller’s daughter was sometimes present. That prompted her to confront how the alleged abuse had shaped her adult life.
“I was running from facing (it),” Miller said.
The state reached a $9 million settlement with Miller in early September to avoid a jury trial in Pierce County Superior Court.
“I give a lot of credit and respect to the department and to the state for settling this case before trial,” said a plaintiff’s attorney. “That is a great sign of trying to take some accountability, because we can’t undo the past.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Children, Youth and Families noted that nearly 90 percent of claims related to abuse involve incidents that occurred before DCYF took over child welfare duties in 2017. The spokesperson added that other states are also facing rising liability, given the risks of working with such a vulnerable population.
The Washington Office of Financial Management projects that legal claims for fiscal year 2026 will exceed $542 million. Over the past three years, the state has paid out more than $1 billion in judgments and settlements related to tort claims and lawsuits.
Are You A Survivor Of Foster Care Abuse?
If you are a survivor of institutional sexual abuse, learn about your legal rights with our Institutional Sexual Abuse Guide.
