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Lawsuit over rape in mental health housing ends in settlement

Wenatchee World, The (WA) - 3/22/2014

March 22--WENATCHEE -- Lawyers have settled a lawsuit accusing Columbia Valley Community Health of failing to protect a mental health client from rape by a staff counselor in 2008.

The nonprofit health service would have faced trial April 14 over claims it was negligent in hiring Stephen A. Pasion, 39, accused of repeatedly having sex with the patient while he was the sole overnight staff member at CVCH's Stabilization House respite center.

The Chelan County Superior Court case brought to light other instances where Pasion abused his authority over people in his care, and later led to his firing from an executive post with the Wenatchee Boy Scouts after just one month. The health service said it was unaware of Pasion's disciplinary record when it hired him.

The settlement was reached March 14, with the terms and monetary award kept under a nondisclosure agreement, said plaintiff's attorney Steve Lacy of East Wenatchee.

The plaintiff, now 45, suffered depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress in summer 2008 and checked into Stabilization House, a residential mental health crisis center on South Miller Street in Wenatchee with room for up to four clients at a time. Pasion had been hired that January as a crisis stabilization counselor, and was the sole staffer on the premises from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. daily.

In a deposition, the plaintiff said on Aug. 3 Pasion invited her into the Stabilization House office, where clients were not allowed, and sexually assaulted her, threatening to kill her if she told anyone. He had sex with the plaintiff on two subsequent nights before her release, according to court records.

Lacy said Wenatchee police investigated the victim's claims, which she disclosed to a neighbor two weeks after leaving Stabilization House. Pasion was never criminally charged; The Wenatchee World has requested police records of the matter.

Pasion denied having sex with the client, but Lacy said lawyers for the health service argued any sexual contact was consensual. State law defines sexual intercourse between a residential mental health client and a facility supervisor as second-degree rape.

CVCH sought to dismiss the case, but Judge T.W."Chip" Small denied that motion in January 2013. Court minutes paraphrased Small as saying at the time: "Although rape may not have been foreseeable when (CVCH) hired the employee, they nonetheless knew or should have known his employment presented foreseeable harm."

Attorney James King of Spokane, who represented the health service, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Community Health fired Pasion from his post in October 2008 and the state Department of Health revoked his mental health counseling license in early 2009, citing sexual misconduct. CVCH's investigation into the rape claims turned up documents showing Pasion was forced to resign in 2007 as a Spokane County juvenile detention officer for mistreating young defendants in his custody.

Spokane County records show Pasion threatened to kick a youth in the face for poor performance during a physical fitness session, in 2003. In 2007, he threatened to allow a youth detainee to be sexually assaulted by another detainee, placing the two of them in the group showers unattended.

The youth had previously been involved in a sexual assault, and his placement alone with a second juvenile violated detention policy. Pasion admitted lying to investigators who looked into the matter.

Upon his resignation, Spokane County juvenile corrections officials warned Pasion they would disclose his misconduct if he "pursued employment involving juveniles, elderly, or disabled people," according to his letter of termination from CVCH.

But when CVCH checked Pasion's references in January 2008, Spokane County detention officials spoke well of him. Pasion's immediate supervisor, Scott Hegwer, described him as "very polite and professional." Detention program coordinator Bill Barnett wrote in an email, "I think very highly of Stephen Pasion and I am sure he will be an excellent choice."

Spokane County was initially a defendant in the lawsuit, but Lacy agreed to dismiss the county last October.

Pasion was never named as a defendant. In August 2011, he was hired as chief executive for the Apple Valley and Okanogan Valley districts of the Boy Scouts of America. A Scouts volunteer compiled documents on his troubled past and turned them over to the council, leading to Pasion's firing that September.

Officials with the Scouts' Grand Columbia Council later said their background check had turned up no red flags on Pasion's record.

He now works for the U.S. Post Office in Wenatchee.

Reach Jefferson Robbins at 509-664-7123 or robbins@wenatcheeworld.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRobbinsWW.

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(c)2014 The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, Wash.)

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