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MADISON - ST. CLAIR RECORD

Friday, March 29, 2024

Family sues Gateway Regional claiming it hid evidence of attack

Marcus

The mother of a minor child claims her son was raped while at a behavioral health treatment facility. After the incident, the facility allegedly attempted to conceal the event by eradicating the evidence, the mother claims.

The mother, identified only as C.T., filed a lawsuit May 22 in Madison County Circuit Court against Granite City Hospital Company doing business as Gateway Regional Medical Center.

In her complaint, C.T. alleges her minor son, who is identified as J.T., was admitted to Gateway on May 10. During his stay at the center, J.T. was sexually assaulted and raped multiple times by another patient at the facility, according to the complaint.

Instead of preserving evidence of the assaults, however, Gateway employees allegedly forced J.T. to take a bath following the rape and destroyed any evidence, the suit states. As a result, J.T. has been unable to present any evidence at a trial, the complaint says.

Due to the incidents, J.T. claims he suffered mental and psychological injuries, sustained pain and suffering and incurred medical costs.

His mother says staff at the hospital negligently failed to protect her son, failed to provide security and supervision in her son's hospital room, assigned a patient with dangerous propensities to J.T.'s room and failed to monitor J.T., among other negligent acts.

In her three-count complaint, C.T. seeks a judgment of more than $150,000, plus costs and pre-judgment interest.

Robert P. Marcus of Kujawski and Associates in O'Fallon will be representing her.

The judge assigned to the case has prohibited the parties' attorneys and staff from disclosing the identity of the plaintiffs, in response to a motion filed by Marcus asking that his clients be allowed to file under fictitious names.

"The identity of the minor child and parent should not be made available during the pleading and discovery stages of this lawsuit as such disclosure would add nothing to the case but would only serve to enhance and engender additional mental and emotional distress which would be suffered by the minor child and family if the true identity were made public as a result of filing of nonfictitious pleadings," he wrote.

Madison County Circuit Court case number: 12-L-717.

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