A Clark County Superior Court Judge on Friday denied a request filed by Daybreak Youth Services to halt the examination of materials seized during a search of the treatment facility related to allegations of sexual assault and other issues.
Judge Robert Lewis told attorneys for Daybreak Youth Services at a hearing that Clark County deputies were acting within the scope of search warrants issued by the court. He denied the attorneys’ request for a temporary restraining order.
“(The search warrants) are not overly broad in terms of what the deputies are looking for. They say they can go in and look for certain evidence involving certain people, and in some instances I think, that even includes a date range,” Lewis said. “The area they can search is broad. The building is large, and there are many computers, but what they’re looking for is narrow.”
Investigators looking into Daybreak Youth Services allege instances of sexual assault and problems with client and staff safety, and a pattern of inadequate reporting as required by law, records obtained from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office show.
Deputies served search warrants Tuesday at the Brush Prairie youth outpatient and inpatient mental health and substance abuse treatment facility, 11910 N.E. 154th St.
Affidavits filed in support of the search warrants detail alleged instances of sexual violence among clients, sexual misconduct by a staff member with a client, and a night when a client attempted to hang himself twice in minutes.
None of the incidents appear to have been properly reported to law enforcement or child welfare officials, according to the records.
Daybreak Youth Services’ board said in a statement that it is cooperating with sheriff’s office and taking the accusations seriously.
A day after the facility was searched by authorities, attorneys for Daybreak filed a complaint for injunctive relief against the sheriff’s office seeking to prohibit investigators from reviewing, releasing or using certain records that were seized.
Those records include Prison Rape Elimination Act documentation with the full names of individuals involved, confidential health care records, hard drives and external thumb drives and numerous computers, according to the complaint.
The attorneys requested the documents to be turned over to the judge or a “special master” for review before Clark County deputies can use them in any way.
“To be clear, Daybreak does not seek to impede CCSO’s investigation or to suppress any evidence,” the complaint says. “Daybreak instead is concerned with allowing CCSO with access to the private, personal, privileged, and highly confidential records of the youth treated at (the) facility.”
Daybreak attorney Bradley Andersen said during the hearing that the nonprofit was not challenging the content of the search warrants, but it was concerned that deputies were acting outside of the scope of the warrants.
“What (state prosecutors) are doing is they want to go through every file. They don’t deny that, but the search warrants say the search must pertain to” certain people and alleged crimes, said Andersen.
The plaintiff’s attorney argued that allowing law enforcement to search broadly through seized property sends a negative message to the clients of Daybreak.
“It will have a chilling effect,” he said.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes said there is no dispute among those involved in the case about the known alleged victims and suspects, and investigators have the right to look through materials they believe may have applicable information.
Hayes noted that the computers seized from Daybreak Youth Services on Tuesday have been returned. Investigators made copies of the data on the computers, he said. So, if deputies determine certain files don’t apply to the investigation, they’ll delete them.
Hayes told the judge that if deputies found evidence of further crimes during their limited search, they may apply for additional search warrants.
Ultimately, Lewis agreed.
“They must have a good faith belief that whatever is being searched contains the information they’re looking for,” Lewis said.
