A 20-year-old Lancaster man has filed a lawsuit in Lancaster County Court alleging staff members at a Luzerne County juvenile center abused him while he was placed there as a 13-year-old.
In a complaint filed last month, Friday Butcher claims he was physically restrained and assaulted multiple times by staff members at a Pittston Township juvenile center run by Mid-Atlantic Youth Services, a for-profit company that operated similar facilities across Pennsylvania.
The assaults occurred in 2017 and 2018, when Butcher was 13 to 14 years old, and included staff hitting him in the genitals, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit accuses Mid-Atlantic of failing to properly supervise staff and respond to reports of abuse. “Mid-Atlantic, together with the power imbalance and authoritative inequity between the plaintiff and defendants, created a culture and social dynamic that weakened (Butcher’s) ability to resist (abusers) and/or report the misconduct,” the suit reads.
Butcher’s attorney, David Wesley Cornish, said Lancaster County Children and Youth Agency also had a responsibility to make sure Butcher was treated properly, and its failure to do so amounted to negligence. “Their duty is to assist with placing children in the care of the county or the state,” Cornish said. “They have the responsibility of helping to ensure that they put kids into a safe and healthy environment.”
Through a spokesperson, the Lancaster County commissioners office, which oversees the children and youth agency, declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Mid-Atlantic Youth Services could not be reached for comment Monday.
Butcher is currently incarcerated at SCI-Huntingdon state prison after pleading guilty to felony aggravated assault. That plea stems from an incident in 2018, when Butcher was 14.
Butcher’s father, also named Friday Butcher, said his son is committed to the suit. “I’m with whatever he’s willing to do,” the elder Butcher said.
Mid-Atlantic’s history
Mid-Atlantic Youth Services is still registered as a company in Pennsylvania, but its juvenile facility in Luzerne County, and a second one in Butler County, closed in 2020. Former websites and phone numbers for the company no longer work.
The company ran the facilities at the center of the 2000s “Cash for Kids” scandal, in which two Luzerne County judges received kickbacks for sending kids to Mid-Atlantic juvenile centers. The judges were later convicted of corruption, and a co-owner of the Mid-Atlantic centers pleaded guilty to charges related to the scheme.
Cornish said he plans to file other lawsuits against Mid-Atlantic on behalf of other alleged victims, the attorney said.
Cornish is a criminal defense attorney and founder of Philadelphia-based Cornerstone Legal Group. He has been involved in other lawsuits against juvenile centers in Pennsylvania, including the Glen Mills School in Delaware County. That facility closed in 2019 after an investigation from the Inquirer exposed a yearslong pattern of abuse there.