Former patients of a Dearborn Heights residential treatment facility are suing the center, claiming they were sexually and physically abused during their stays.
A civil complaint was filed this week against Vista Maria in Wayne County Circuit Court by two law firms on behalf of six women, attorneys said. Their lawsuit seeks damages for injuries.
“The claims laid out by each survivor were hard to believe at first,” Ayanna Neal, an attorney with Grewal Law PLLC, one of the firms representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“They didn’t seem possible,” she said. “But as we spoke to more survivors, each from a different time frame at Vista Maria, many of them never knowing each other, their stories were too similar to be made up.”
The filing of the lawsuit comes nearly two months after the attorneys announced that they represented victims of the alleged abuse at Vista Maria, a 140-year-old nonprofit that provides child welfare services.
“The survivors were sent there to be safe; instead, they were taken advantage of,” Neal said. “That is why we are seeking nothing short of complete and total justice.”
A spokeswoman for Vista Maria was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.
However, the two firms representing the plaintiffs said 55 former Vista Maria residents claim they were subjected to sexual, emotional, and physical abuse at the facility when they lived there as children.
They also said the lawsuit was filed on behalf of six plaintiffs who were minors when they lived in the facility at various times between 2000 and 2025. Five of the plaintiffs are adults, and the sixth is a minor represented by a guardian.
All of the plaintiffs were placed at Vista Maria by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services via a court order in a juvenile or neglect and abuse proceeding or because of a foster care placement.
Vista Maria announced in October that it was ending the residential treatment program for young girls. Facility officials did not explain the decision, but the center had issues with security and the Dearborn Heights police.
“This is not just about what happened to a few individuals; this is about a system that failed the vulnerable young women it was entrusted to protect,” Moose Scheib, an attorney with Moose Law Firm PLLC and the second firm representing the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement.
“When dozens of survivors come forward with the same experiences, it shows a pattern of systemic abuse and cover-up,” he said. “This lawsuit is the beginning of holding the system accountable.”
cramirez@detroitnews.com
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: 6 sue Dearborn Heights treatment center, claim sexual, physical abuse
Reporting by Charles E. Ramirez, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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