Foster-Gomez Lawsuit: Polinsky Center Abuse Allegations

More than 150 former residents of San Diego County’s A.B. and Jessie Polinsky Children’s Center have sued the county in the Polinsky Children’s Center lawsuit, alleging that staff members sexually abused them as children between 1994 and 2020.¹ The cases were filed in San Diego County Superior Court beginning in September 2024 and remain pending as of mid-2025. The county has said it does not comment on pending litigation.²

Who Filed the Lawsuits

The first wave came on September 30, 2024, when Slater Slater Schulman filed on behalf of more than 100 former Polinsky residents.¹ A second round of roughly 50 suits followed in April 2025, filed by the Herman Law Firm, pushing the combined total past 150 plaintiffs.² By April 2025, Herman Law reported more than 75 filings for its clients alone.³ Attorneys from both firms have said they are coordinating.

The complaints name the County of San Diego as the primary defendant, along with 50 unnamed defendants.⁴ Polinsky is a 24-hour emergency shelter operated by the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency for children removed from their homes; it is licensed for up to 204 children from infancy through age 17 and admits more than 1,000 children each year.⁵

What the Complaints Allege

According to the Slater Slater Schulman complaints, staff members groped children during gym activities and forced sexual acts in children’s bedrooms at night. Children were allegedly told they would never be allowed to leave if they reported what was happening.¹ Plaintiffs also allege that children were drugged to facilitate abuse or to maintain control over them.²

Individual accounts described by Manly, Stewart and Finaldi include a nine-year-old boy allegedly assaulted repeatedly in his bedroom in 1998, a seven-year-old boy allegedly groped in 1999, and an eight-year-old girl allegedly groped that same year.⁴

The suits are not limited to individual acts. Plaintiffs contend the county allowed children to be left alone with abusive staff, neglected to perform adequate background checks, and did not properly staff or monitor the facility.¹ Herman Law’s filings additionally allege that the county failed to investigate reports of abuse, intimidated victims, and concealed known risks posed by certain employees.³ Former Polinsky staff have told NBC 7 the facility was chronically understaffed, with employees and volunteers mistreated and children difficult to supervise.⁴

Who Can Still File a Claim

The Polinsky suits rest largely on AB 218, the California Child Victims Act, signed into law in 2019. The statute changed the civil filing rules for childhood sexual abuse in two ways. It extended the deadline so survivors can sue until they turn 40, or within five years of discovering the abuse and its effects, whichever comes later. And it opened a temporary three-year window letting survivors of any age file otherwise-expired claims. That window closed at the end of 2022.¹

New filings continue because the extended limitations period still applies. Survivors who are under 40, or who only recently connected their childhood abuse to its psychological effects, may still be within the deadline. The Polinsky complaints also raise negligence and failure-to-protect claims against the county, which can carry their own timing rules. Both firms handling the current cases have said they are seeking additional former residents.³

What the County Has Said

San Diego County has not addressed the substance of the allegations. A spokesperson told NBC 7 the county “does not comment on pending litigation.”²

This is not the county’s first exposure on child-welfare abuse claims. In 2018, the Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to approve a $3 million settlement with twin brothers who alleged sexual abuse by their foster father, Michael Hayes, who admitted to the abuse. That settlement prompted the Board to convene a working group to review the child welfare system.⁶

At Polinsky itself, the San Diego County Juvenile Justice Commission’s 2024 inspection documented staff misconduct involving four employees and three children ages 9, 11, and 12 during 2023. The four staff members were no longer employed at the facility by the time of the report. The commission noted the victimized children had not reported the abuse on their own and called for better awareness of reporting procedures among the youth at the center. The same inspection flagged high rates of children going AWOL, no system for tracking use of physical restraints, and delays of five to seven days in obtaining students’ special-education records despite a county agreement requiring a two-day turnaround.⁷

Where the Cases Stand Now

As of mid-2025, all of the Polinsky Children’s Center lawsuits are pending. None have gone to trial, been settled, been consolidated, or been dismissed based on available reporting. Attorney Blake Woodhall of the Herman Law Firm has publicly called the county “apparently one of the largest employers of child molesters in the state of California,” and Adam Slater of Slater Slater Schulman called the alleged abuse “utterly unacceptable” at a facility “meant to provide safety and care.”² Both firms continue to intake additional former residents who may have experienced abuse at the center.³

1
PR Newswire. More Than 100 Former Residents of Polinsky Children’s Center Sue the County of San Diego
2
NBC San Diego. Alleged Victims of Sexual Abuse at Polinsky Children’s Center Sue San Diego County
3
Herman Law. San Diego County Faces Hosts of Lawsuits Alleging Child Sexual Abuse Negligence at Polinsky Children’s Center
4
Manly Stewart & Finaldi. Alleged Victims of Sexual Abuse at Polinsky Children’s Center Sue San Diego County
5
San Diego County. Polinsky Children’s Center
6
NBC San Diego. County Settles Sexual Abuse Claims With Twin Brothers
7
San Diego Superior Court. 2024 JJC Facility Inspection Report – Polinsky Children’s Center