A lawsuit and counterclaim involving allegations of improper conduct by a worker at an Iowa treatment center for adolescents have been settled out of court.
The initial lawsuit, filed by Hayley Heineman, alleged that in 2019, while she was living at Des Moines’ Orchard Place, a residential treatment facility for adolescents, she and an employee, Cody Lee Loew, “engaged in sexual, and impermissible non-sexual, communications through texts, phone calls, and Snapchat messages” — a claim Loew specifically denied.
The lawsuit, initially filed by Heineman under the name “Jane Doe,” didn’t cite Heineman’s age at the time of the alleged offenses but indicated she was a minor receiving mental health treatment at the facility. Heineman alleged that Loew stopped communicating with her after she was discharged from Orchard Place, reportedly sending her into a state of deep depression that resulted in therapy, medication and two failed semesters of high school…