A Lockport mother and son are suing their au pair placement agency after the au pair assigned to them allegedly sexually abused the young boy.
According to the complaint, the unnamed plaintiff sought the assistance of Cultural Care, Inc. in October of 2007 and was informed that an au pair named Julian from Columbia was available. The complaint states that defendant Dorte Strobel, an executive from Cultural Care, told plaintiff that if she did not pay the fee that evening and pick up Julian from his host family, he would be returned to Columbia and the search process for another au pair could take several months.
Read the remainder of this entry and the full complaint after the jump.
Woman sues au pair placement agency after son is sexually abused
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The complaint further states that Strobel told the plaintiff that
Julian's "previous placement did not work out" and that his prior host
family's telephone number would be provided but was not. Shortly
thereafter, according to the lawsuit, Julian was having parties when
plaintiff was not home and drinking and smoking against plaintiff's
wishes.
In November, the plaintiff asserts that she complained to defendant
Maureen McDonnell, Program Director from Cultural Care, but McDonnell
would not remove Julian. Somewhere between November and December of
2007, Julian struck plaintiff's son, sexually abused him and took nude
photos of him, the complaint states.
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10 1 09 Doe v Cultural Care -
1 Comment
china123 said:
Hi, I read your blog about Cultural Care today and wanted to let you know that this au pair agency has had many lawsuits involving sexual abuse, both au pairs on children and host fathers on au pairs! You can read about all of them on a consumer website that reviews all these agencies, www.aupairclearinghouse.com.
What I do not understand, is how does an agency get away with this kind of repeated offense? Au pair agencies are regulated by the USA government, but where is the "regulating?" Can these au pair agencies do whatever they want? Without any sanctions?
Mostly this agency seems to pay off their plaintiffs - and also, I don't know if you remember, but this is the same agency where the infamous Louise Woodward came from! They changed their name from EF Care to Cultural Care after the trial since no family would sign up with them. But, after almost what, 12 years after their au pair killed an infant by shaking him to death, they are still in the business of not screening their au pairs!
They are a terrible agency and one that we left before our year was up.
You don't see these kinds of stories about other agencies. I would warn any parent, considering an au pair, to avoid this agency like the plague (or like the Swine Flu). If you care about your children, pick another agency from the list of 12 or more agencies in the USA.
Thanks for the blog and posting the court document is brilliant - I enjoyed reading it in full.
Ex-Cultural Care Parent
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