Washington state will pay $9 million to a Portland woman who said she was abused for years as a child in its foster care system, adding to the growing number of payouts related to sexual assault in foster care and juvenile detention.
Ashley Miller, 34, alleges she was raped and abused from the ages of 5 to 12 by her foster parent’s live-in boyfriend in Pierce County. Miller sued the department in 2023, alleging the Department of Social and Health Services — the state’s child welfare agency at the time — knew the man was a convicted felon and was negligent in not properly monitoring the conditions in the foster home.
That man, Carlos McFann, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of third-degree rape of a vulnerable adult in Pierce County, but he has not been convicted of assaulting Miller or another child…