‘Horror House’: Reaches $6.75 million pre-trial settlement for New Jersey woman sexually abused in foster care

This is the Salmon household. The nursing home where a woman named JT was sexually abused by a man named Joseph Salmon during a five-week stay in 1972.

And now the state of New Jersey has agreed to pay JT $6.75 million as part of a settlement expected to be reached following a $25 million court judgment for a similar case last month.

“The Salmon House was a horror house of abuse,” said Vincent Nappo of law firm Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC, who represented JT alongside Matthew Bonanno of Rebenack Aronow Mascolo LLP in New Brunswick.

The Salmon home eventually closed, but not quickly enough.

Prior to JT’s abuse, two foster children complained that Salmon had urinated on them. This is often how young children describe certain sexual acts, Bonanno said. However, “little to no investigation was conducted to assess the safety of the home at this time,” the attorneys said in a news release.

“This complaint should have raised major red flags,” Nappo said, “and triggered extensive safety investigations at the home before JT or any other children were placed in Salmon’s care.”

In JT’s case, the state of New Jersey separated her from her family and placed her in the Joseph Salmon Nursing Home when she was 9, her lawyers said. She lived there for five weeks, from May 5, 1972, to June 19, 1972, when Salmon sexually abused her and other children on multiple occasions, including forced oral sex and penetration, Nappo and Bonnano said.

The abuse suffered by JT only came to light after a previous victim of Salmon complained to police, leading to a prosecution and conviction in 1972 for sexually abusing JT and others.

At trial, Bonanno and Nappo sought to argue that no child should have been placed in the Salmon Home based on the prior complaint, particularly when, as in this case, the complaint was never properly investigated to ensure that the home was safe for children, said they said.

“Little action was taken to investigate the Salmon home at the time, and as a result, JT and other vulnerable foster children were placed there and forced to endure horrific rape and sexual abuse,” the attorneys said in a joint news release.

According to Bonnano and Nappo, the state faces “dozens, if not hundreds” of sexual abuse lawsuits filed under the landmark 2019 Child Victims Act, which revived the legal rights of survivors of childhood sexual abuse , asserting claims against perpetrators and institutions allowed for abuse.

JT’s settlement is the largest reached before trial with the state of New Jersey, Bonnano said.

“Our client is extremely pleased with the settlement,” he added. “While we have little doubt that a jury would have returned a verdict many times higher, we are thrilled that JT can put the case behind him and avoid the emotional toll of a jury trial.”

Click here to follow Daily Voice Union and get free news updates.