Four former foster children have filed a lawsuit against their former foster parents and the state of Massachusetts, claiming they endured years of physical and sexual abuse.
The plaintiffs allege that they suffered beatings, verbal abuse and sexual molestation while they lived in Susan and Raymond Blouin’s home. They claim that the state of Massachusetts knew about how unsafe the home was, but continued to let foster children live there.
“This case is about a Massachusetts Department of Social Services-approved foster care home, the systemic torture of four minor children that occurred there for over a decade, and DSS’ deliberate indifference towards that abuse,” lawyers from the Boston firm Brody, Hardoon, Perkins & Kesten wrote.
The lawsuit names 14 DDS employees as defendants in the lawsuit. It also names Philip A. Paquette, Susan Blouin’s former boyfriend, and Jennifer Blouin, Susan and Raymond Blouin’s biological daughter.
The lawsuit claims that Paquette sexually abused and raped the foster children and that Jennifer sexually abused the girls and forced them to have sex with the family dog.
The suit adds that children were regularly bound with duct tape, locked naked in dog cages forced to wear diapers as late as age 13. It says that Paquette forced boys to drink their own urine, eat feces and fed a boy sandwich on which he placed a bodily fluid.
According to the lawsuit, the Blouins also forced the children to live in inhumane conditions, including making some sleep on plywood or in dog cages and feeding at least one, dog food for breakfast.
The plaintiffs allege that they were often deprived of food and locked in their bedrooms.
One of the girls in the lawsuit claims that Raymond molested her in the shower when she was 15. The other girl claims that he forced her to maturbate him every week from ages 5 or 6 to 12.
Raymond and Susan Blouin and Paquette have been criminally charged this year. The Blouins are facing one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and Paquette faces two counts of child rape.
The lawsuit seeks damages in excess of $40 million.
For information about personal injury claims, visit Cohen & Cohen.
