By Janice Morse
Enquirer staff writer

HAMILTON - A federal lawsuit accuses a multi-county juvenile rehabilitation center of denying a 16-year-old Hamilton girl treatment because of her gender - and sending her to a state juvenile prison where prisoners allege a pattern of sexual assaults, beatings and improper medical care.

"The psychologist and court wanted to send her to the rehabilitation center, so she could have access to the services she needs. But they won't take girls - so I'm suing them," said Christopher Pagan, a Middletown lawyer who filed the suit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati on behalf of the Hamilton teen and her father.

The suit alleges that the Butler County Juvenile Rehabilitation Center has been illegally discriminating against girls, including the Hamilton teen, by offering education and counseling to "similarly situated boys" but excluding girls.

Center officials, who didn't return calls seeking comment Thursday, last year said budget cuts forced them to close a six-bed unit that served girls from four Greater Cincinnati counties but often wasn't filled to capacity. Boys from Butler, Clermont, Clinton and Warren counties have continued to be accepted for the remaining 30 beds.

Closure of the girls' unit left juvenile court judges to choose between two extremes: Setting troubled girls free or sending them to a facility with the state's most serious juvenile offenders.

The Hamilton girl, who was convicted in May of burglarizing her mother's home, was sent to Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility, Ohio's only prison for girls.

Scioto, near Columbus, faces a federal lawsuit and two investigations into allegations that prisoners have been abused and assaulted, then systematically denied access to proper medical care and legal help.

"Instead of getting the services she needs, she's up in this horrible prison," Pagan said, "all because Butler County doesn't think girls should be treated as well as boys."

The lawsuit alleges the girl's gender-based exclusion from Butler County's rehabilitation program violated her constitutional right to equal protection under the law "(and) resulted in a placement that is more detrimental to her development, safety and well-being."

The suit asks the court to declare the center's practice unlawful and to award monetary damages and attorneys' fees.

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E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com