A man who spent part of his teenage years at Jessie Dyslin Boys Ranch in Tacoma says two male guards repeatedly forced him to engage in sex and otherwise neglected him during the 1990s. Thirty years later, he has filed a lawsuit in Pierce County Superior Court alleging the state knew about misconduct at the facility and let it continue operating anyway.
The lawsuit, filed on Nov. 2, names Jessie Dyslin Boys Ranch, former operator Mentor House, the Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families, and the Department of Social and Health Services as defendants, according to The News Tribune. The ranch operated from 1926 until the early 2000s as a state-licensed facility for juvenile rehabilitation, located in Tacoma. The suit alleges the state was aware of the ranch's history of sexual misconduct reports and permitted the facility to keep operating — and to accept the plaintiff as a resident — despite evidence of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.
The man says he continues to suffer injuries stemming from the alleged abuse and is requesting general and special damages, the outlet reports. His attorney, Lincoln Beauregard, represents the plaintiff and has said he has sued the ranch successfully more times than he can recall.
State Agencies Decline to Discuss Pending Case
A DCYF spokesperson, Nancy Gutierrez, declined to comment on the suit because it remains in active litigation. DSHS spokesperson Michael Marchand said the case appears to be a DCYF lawsuit, noting that many such suits still name DSHS even though child welfare matters are now handled by DCYF.
This is not the first time the ranch has faced these kinds of allegations. In a separate case, the state settled a lawsuit for $150,000 in June 2024 without admitting liability, the same report notes. Another man filed a lawsuit in 2023 alleging a ranch staffer forced him to perform sex acts.
Pattern of Abuse Claims Stretching Back Decades
An earlier News Tribune report found that the 2023 lawsuit was the third filed that year alleging residents had been sexually abused at the ranch, with two additional cases filed that January and February describing abuse dating to the late 1970s and mid-1990s. The law firm Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, which has represented alleged victims, said at the time that it had settled multiple sexual abuse lawsuits tied to the ranch and that abuse there had occurred as recently as the 2000s.
The pattern extends beyond Dyslin. At the O.K. Boys Ranch, another Tacoma-area juvenile facility, more than $22 million was eventually paid to 51 men who said they were abused there during the 1980s and 1990s, according to KIRO 7. Attorney Darrell Cochran has also said more than $5 million in settlement money had been distributed in cases tied to the Kiwanis Vocational Home, with 44 cases still pending.
No court has yet ruled on the allegations in this latest filing, and the defendants have not publicly responded to the specific claims beyond the agencies' statements that litigation is ongoing.
