DSHS settles suit over 2 abused foster kids

A lawsuit filed against the state Department of Social and Health Services on behalf of two children who were sexually abused by their state-licensed foster parents has been settled for $2.5 million, according to DSHS officials and the children's attorney.

The lawsuit claimed that DSHS failed to properly "interview, screen and thoroughly research the background and qualifications" of James Harvey Posey and Winnifred Posey before placing two children in their Vancouver, Wash., home.

According to the lawsuit filed last year in Clark County Superior Court, the two children, then ages 3 and 6, were placed with the Poseys for seven months beginning in December 2003. During that time, the lawsuit claims, they were physically and sexually abused.

"The whole case just wasn't handled well," according to Seattle attorney James S. Rogers, who filed the suit on the children's behalf.

Rogers said that Posey had a history that included criminal convictions in Oregon, mental-health issues that necessitated a stint at Western State Hospital and complaints to DSHS' Child Protective Services from his own child.

"The state had a record of [Posey's] daughter, who was 13 at the time, calling CPS to report that her dad was beating her and her mother was striking her in the face," Rogers said. "But the investigator never even talked to her."

Further, according to Rogers, the state placed the two young children with the Poseys even though they had only been licensed to care for one child between the ages of 8 and 12 years.

Two months after the children were placed with the Poseys, Rogers said, the state missed another opportunity to protect the children when they failed to speak with educators at the 6-year-old's school who had called CPS to report the child had marks on her neck that she claimed were made by her foster father.

Sherry Hill, a spokeswoman for CPS, said the state has since changed the way it investigates prospective foster parents.

In 2003, when the Poseys were licensed, the state did national fingerprint-based checks only on prospective foster parents who had lived in Washington state for less than three years.

Two years ago, with implementation of the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection Safety Act, the state began running FBI fingerprint background checks on all potential foster parents, Hill said.

James Posey, now 60, was charged in 2005 with rape of a child, child molestation and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.

He pleaded guilty the following year to two counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and was sentenced to three months in jail. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.

Posey could not be reached for comment.

DSHS spokesman Steve Williams said the settlement was agreed to in July.

"It was made in the best interests of all parties, to spare the children the trauma of testifying and to avoid the high cost of further litigation," he said.

Williams said the children, who are now 9 and 11 years old, are in a "stable, loving home with relatives in another state."

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com