BELFAST, Maine — A girl who a Sweetser employee allegedly sexually assaulted while the teenager was living in Belfast’s residential treatment center is suing the nonprofit for negligence, negligent supervision and more.
The teenager, identified as “Jane Doe”, and her mother are also suing former Sweetser employee Trey Knof. The 25-year-old from Newcastle is currently in jail awaiting trial on several counts, including unlawful sexual touching of a minor, aggravated sexual assault, breach of bail conditions and possession of sexually explicit material.
The lawsuit alleges that Knof sexually assaulted the girl, even after Sweetser fired him, and that Sweetser failed to take appropriate action after learning of the employee’s behavior.
The teenager was admitted to Sweetser’s residential treatment program in Belfast in December 2018 when she was 13. Agency officials knew she had suffered multiple sexual assaults as a child and needed specialist treatment and protective precautions, according to the complaint filed by her lawyer, Stephen Smith. of Augustus.
Nonetheless, the company hired Knof as a caregiver in January 2019 and failed to conduct an adequate background check, according to the lawsuit, filed earlier this month in Somerset County Superior Court.
“Knof had no prior experience and no special training to be a counselor or caregiver,” the lawsuit said. “Knof’s only qualification to work at Sweetser seemed to be that he had worked as a veterinary assistant at an animal hospital.”
Knof was assigned to the girl’s unit, where despite a lack of training in maintaining boundaries or dealing appropriately with young girls with traumatic histories, his job was to drive the teen and other residents to appointments. and to provide emotional support, according to the lawsuit.
Knof “began having an inappropriate relationship” with the girl in the summer of 2019, according to the lawsuit. In June, the teenager told emergency department staff at Waldo County General Hospital, where she was taken for a crisis assessment, that she believed she was pregnant and had had unprotected sex the previous week.
A few days later, she was taken 200 miles north to the Children’s Crisis Unit at Aroostook Mental Health Services in Fort Fairfield. Knof visited her there, sat her on his lap and was seen touching her inappropriately, according to the lawsuit.
“During this visit, Knof told the plaintiff, ‘We can date secretly until you’re older, because if anyone finds out, I could get in legal trouble,’ the lawsuit said.
The crisis unit director called Sweetser after learning about Knof’s visit. Aroostook County staff also notified the girl’s mother, identified as Mary Doe in the lawsuit.
But Sweetser officials and staff never asked the girl about Knof’s visit or informed her mother. When her mother brought it up with Sweetser staff at a meeting that month, the Belfast living unit supervisor told her it was “dealt with,” according to the lawsuit.
Knof made special visits to the girls’ unit weekly, and sometimes daily, just to see her, according to the lawsuit. He would also take bets with colleagues on “who could sleep with the plaintiff first,” according to the lawsuit. Also, when Sweetser’s staff thought the teen needed to be disciplined, they had Knof restrain her by having her sit on his lap while he hugged her tightly.
“This ‘discipline’ was practiced frequently by Knof,” the lawsuit said.
Sweetser held multiple counseling sessions with Knof over several months regarding “breaking boundaries” with the girl, and at one point the agency tipped him off and asked him not to go to his unity.
But in December 2019, Knof entered the girl’s bedroom and sexually assaulted her, leaving behind a bag of Skittles, “as if for payment”, according to the lawsuit. About an hour later, another employee asked the girl why Knof came and how the girl got the candy. But Sweetser never addressed the incident, according to the lawsuit.
Knof was fired on January 3, 2020, but the agency did not tell the girl’s mother or take any further precautions. A few days later, the unsupervised teenager met Knof in the parking lot of the Hutchinson Center at the University of Maine in Belfast, where he sexually assaulted and abused her in his vehicle, according to the lawsuit.
The teenager spent the following weekend at her mother’s home in Somerset County, and while she was there Knof snuck into her bedroom window and sexually assaulted her, the lawsuit alleges . Knof also told the teenager that he still had a set of keys for Sweetser, then made a plan to run away with her to another state.
On January 13, someone found a tablet at the residential center in Belfast which contained messages between Knof and the girl, including explicit photos and sex memes. A sex toy was also found in the girl’s bedroom, along with a handwritten, sexually explicit letter that read “From Trey” at the top.
Sweetser eventually informed the girl’s mother of Knof’s abuse and reported it to the Belfast Police Department that day, according to the lawsuit. Three days later, detectives spoke to the girl, who said she had frequent sex with Knof, and the two were “constantly talking” via social media.
But she told police Sweetser’s staff didn’t notice her because she was “invisible to them,” according to the lawsuit.
After Knof was arrested and charged in connection with the alleged sexual abuse, the girl tried to process her feelings about what happened with other Sweetser staffers.
“Instead of listening to plaintiff with support and understanding, Sweetser staff threatened plaintiff with punishment for discussing these events,” the lawsuit said.
But Sweetser staff told her colleagues and other residents about Knof, so the girl was harassed by other residents.
The lawsuit seeks to find Sweetser liable for negligence, negligent supervision, invasion of privacy and negligent infliction of emotional distress. He also seeks to find Knof liable for sexual assault and battery and intentionally inflicting emotional distress.
Plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages, costs, and attorneys’ fees from both Sweetser and Knof.
Justin Chenette, director of communications and public relations at Sweetser, said the agency could not comment on the lawsuit at this time.
“The well-being of the customers we serve is our top priority,” he said.
Jeremy Pratt of Camden, a defense attorney representing Knof on the criminal charges but not the civil case, said Thursday he had no comment.
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