By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - A federal suit filed over the 1999 beating and rape of an 11-year-old boy at Butler County's juvenile detention center has been settled for $200,000.

But the case also is pushing officials to fix problems that might have contributed to the attack - and to make changes that could save the county money in the long run.

A Butler County magistrate this week approved the county's offer to settle a federal suit the boy's mother filed in 2001.

The suit alleged officials neglected to take reasonable steps to protect the Hamilton boy, whose identity is concealed in federal court records under the pseudonym, "Johnny Roe."

His lawyers say overcrowding was a major factor leading to the attack on Johnny. Experts say the case underscores the consequences of overcrowding, a problem that plagues about half the nation's juvenile detention centers.

"When we have severe overcrowding, it has a detrimental effect on all conditions in the facility," said Marc Schindler, staff attorney for the Youth Law Center, a nonprofit agency in Washington, D.C. "But what is good news is that there are a number of facilities across the country that have successfully addressed these issues."

Under the settlement, Butler County admitted no liability but agreed to an unusual condition: to enlist help from a National Juvenile Detention Association program that has helped reform detention systems in 20 other locations. Butler will be Ohio's first county to undergo a months-long process, beginning with community meetings to be scheduled soon.

Attempts to obtain comment from Butler juvenile court authorities and Jack McGowan, a lawyer who represented the county in the suit, were unsuccessful.

Cincinnati attorney Jennifer Branch, who represented the boy and his mother, commends the county for trying to remedy overcrowding and other factors that provoked the attack. "They are recognizing they did have a problem, and they're trying to fix it," she said.

Hamilton lawyer Mark Conese, who worked with Branch on the case, said he intends to monitor conditions at the detention center. He said he will seek court sanctions if he sees signs of overcrowding or other significant problems.

At the time of the attack on June 25, 1999, the Butler juvenile cells were overflowing.

"They were holding 46 children in a facility built for 18," Branch said. "The overcrowding caused Johnny to be locked in a cell with three older boys without supervision - and that's how he could be raped without anyone knowing."

Staff members ignored Johnny's mother's warnings that her son "had been punched in the face, chest and body and had been threatened with rape," the suit says, alleging that staff members' overmedication of the boy made him more vulnerable.

The boy's "horrific" injuries required several days' hospitalization, the suit says. Because of the rape, Johnny attempted suicide repeatedly and spent months in a residential treatment center for disturbed children.

A 13-year-old attacker was sentenced to a year in a state facility.

Since then, Butler added beds to ease overcrowding, Branch said. But her clients wanted more improvements.

"We got something out of the settlement that you can't get at trial - and that was for Butler County to agree to plan ahead, so the facility doesn't get overcrowded again," Branch said.

As a result of the settlement, the boy will receive $84,500; his mother, $10,000 plus $11,000 costs; and $94,500 will go to the attorneys.

David Roush, director of the agency that will work with Butler County on its long-term juvenile justice plans, said the focus will be on finding better, less-expensive ways to deal with delinquent juveniles besides locking them up.

His organization, the National Juvenile Detention Association's Center for Research & Professional Development, operates from Michigan State University. The center has helped develop plans for 20 juvenile justice systems from Maine to Hawaii, relying mostly on local solutions. "We make an assumption: every person you need to solve the problem in Butler County is in Butler County," Roush said.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com