Update: Woods Services disputes rape allegations in lawsuit
A lawsuit filed in Bucks County Court of Common Pleas against Woods Services, a Langhorne nonprofit that treats children and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, alleged that a 20-year-old woman there was raped by two other residents during a Valentine's Day dance in February.
During a Valentine's Day dance this year at Woods Services, a Bucks County facility for adults and children with developmental and intellectual disabilities, a mentally incompetent 20-year-old woman was taken into a bathroom and sexually assaulted by two boys who were also residents at Woods' Langhorne campus, according to a lawsuit filed Aug. 7 in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas.
Woods disputed the allegations.
The lawsuit, filed by Michael D. Shaffer, of Shaffer & Gaier LLC in Center City, alleged that "Woods did nothing to ensure that residents such as J.L. were properly supervised to ensure that proper and unwanted sexual activity did not occur at the Valentine's Day dance," even though the nonprofit "knew that some of the boys and girls that may attend the dance were sexually active but also cognitively impaired."
Woods countered in a statement: "Hospital medical records, the police investigation, and Woods own investigation provide clear evidence that categorically refutes the allegations. In particular, the allegation of a sexual assault brought by a resident was immediately reported, thoroughly investigated, and dismissed by the police and other regulatory agencies because of lack of evidence, including the results of an outside hospital medical exam following the alleged incident, which determined that the claim was unfounded."
The victim's discharge papers from the Jefferson Bucks Hospital emergency department list "tear of vaginal muscle" as a diagnosis. Now 21, the victim had been diagnosed with autism, bipolar disorder, and depression before being admitted to Woods, the lawsuit said.