The family of Neil Godleski has filed a $20 million lawsuit against DYRS, the Washington Times reports.
The family of a Catholic University student who was fatally shot while bicycling through Petworth last year has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the District’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, accusing the agency of failing to supervise the 16-year-old murder suspect committed to its custody.
The lawsuit states that on the day of the fatal shooting, DYRS “incompetently supervised the juveniles under their control,” allowing the suspect, Eric Foreman, “to evade supervision and detention.”At the time of the Aug. 22, 2010, homicide [of Neil Godleski], Foreman, who is awaiting trial, was staying at Dupree House, a group home operated by the DYRS-contracted company, Associates for Renewal in Education.
The lawsuit, initially filed by Godleski’s parents in D.C. Superior Court but moved to federal court this week, alleges the District, DYRS and Associates for Renewal in Education are at fault for Godleski’s death. It goes on to say that the District “should have known their employees at DYRS, acting at their direction, were incompetent and unfit to perform the duties of their respective jobs at the time they were hired and thereafter.”
Read the Washington Times’ full report here.
In March Nardyne Jefferies filed suit against DYRS on behalf of her daughter, Brishell Jones, who was killed in the so-called “South Capitol Street Massacre” in 2010.
