NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Department of Child and Family Services says it has launched a full investigation into allegations the state ignored repeated reports of the sexual abuse of a school-aged girl.
The allegations include the sex trafficking of the girl that stretched on for more than a decade.
That case drew extra attention this week when noted civil rights attorney Ben Crump said he’s planning to file a lawsuit against DCFS on behalf of the girl.
The girl is 16 years old now and is known only as “KM." The suit alleges the girl was essentially sold to men all across the state — including here in New Orleans.
Crump wasted no time in getting to his point: "We’re not going to have this anymore. We’re not going to let these Black girls suffer at the hands of these white men anymore.”
He goes on to say, “at best it was gross negligence, at worse it was willful neglect, and the question is why?”
Crump alleges DCFS knew about the abuse, but stood by and did nothing.
LaToyia Porter runs the center where KM was taken for safety. She says nearly a dozen claims to DCFS went unanswered, “it was just frustrating and kind of weird that every report just went nowhere, that no one was interested in listening or hearing, even law enforcement. It was strange. It was very odd.”
Porter, who is KM’s current legal caregiver, says she received the child from Children's Hospital New Orleans due to KM’s multiple suicide attempts in August of last year.
Porter says it took KM months to open up to her out of fear of the people she was accusing, but once she did, the flood gates opened up.
This is an audio recording of KM describing her early days of abuse.
But KM was not the only child abused.
In October, John Mack was arrested and charged with the rape of KM’s older sister.
Mack, the uncle of Louisiana State Representative Sherman Mack, was booked into the Livingston Parish jail on first-degree rape. He is also facing charges of misdemeanor sexual battery in Jefferson Parish.
While this case is currently being handled out of Livingston parish, Porter says KM’s fight began in New Orleans.
She says in her interviews with KM, she would describe in detail places where she was trafficked throughout the city.
She said KM was taken to, “the park by the zoo and the park with the rides. She describes those types of places.”
For Porter, she says there’s only one outcome she is willing to accept.
“The people involved that have hurt them, that have stood by and watched them be hurt or used their position to cover up the hurt, that those people be held accountable.”
In response to Monday’s press conference, a representative from the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services sent this statement:
"We welcome the attention that this case is getting, and we join in the outrage that people feel about what has happened to this young woman.
"As soon as I was notified about the case involving this child, I launched an internal review to examine the facts and the need to strengthen our processes and procedures.”