More lawsuits filed alleging children sexually assaulted at Illinois Youth Centers

CHICAGO (WLS) -- More lawsuits alleging children being sexually assaulted behind bars were leveled Tuesday in Chicago.

The suits have been filed on behalf of hundreds of men and women, who say they were abused as minors, while confined in juvenile institutions across Cook County and the state.

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Starting in May, the attorneys pursuing these cases have filed civil lawsuits on behalf of 667 men and women, who say they were sexually abused while incarcerated in juvenile detention centers across the state.

As the latest round of filings was announced Tuesday, two of the alleged victims came forward with their stories.

"I was a sexual assault victim at the hands of four employees at two Illinois Youth Centers. I was only 15 years old when it started. Even two decades, I still have nightmares about the incident," Khadafi Muhammad said.

Muhammad is now in his 30s. The sordid details of what he said happened to him are detailed in a 410-page legal complaint.

It is one that includes more than 200 other alleged victims of sexual assault.

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All of them were at one point housed in Illinois Youth Centers across the state. Attorneys said few, if any, of the perpetrators have been criminally prosecuted.

"We have identified more than 30 staff member perpetrators, who have been identified by multiple victims. There are perpetrators, who've been identified by 12 people, six people, four people," said Jerome Block, an attorney with Levy Konigsberg LLP.

Three separate lawsuits were announced Tuesday. Two name the state of Illinois and one Cook County, where 48 of the claimants were at one point housed.

Among them was 30-year-old Michael Moss. He was 17 years old when, in 2008, he entered the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center.

"I know what they did was wrong. I know the mistakes that I made to get to that predicament, but, at the same time, don't no one deserves it," Moss said.

The lawsuits, which cover a time frame between 1996 and 2021, accuse both the state and the county of turning a blind eye, saying they "have caused and permitted a culture of sexual abuse to flourish unabated."

"It continues to happen today. We know that. We have at least seven individuals that have been sexually abused in one of these facilities since Gov. Pritzker took office. It has to stop," said Todd Mathews, an attorney with Bailey Glasser LLP.

Spokespeople for the state and Cook County said they are not able to comment on pending litigation.