Delaware County Courthouse
MEDIA, Pa. – The victims of a woman convicted of torturing children is suing Delaware County Children and Youth Services and Chester Community Charter School, alleging staff ignored signs of physical and sexual abuse.
Attorney David Bogdan, as the guardian ad litem for a pair of sisters, filed a lawsuit last week in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas that claims the failures of those defendants allowed Anais Munoz, the girls’ aunt, to continue strangling, burning and raping them.
Munoz, who faced hundreds of criminal charges, has been sentenced to 15-30 years in jail. During her second criminal trial (the first ended with a hung jury), Judge John Capuzzi lamented the actions of the officials now facing suit.
“I am appalled about some of the conduct of people that could have done better in this case, particularly children youth services, particularly the original investigator who felt it more important to take Christmas break rather than gather evidence,” he said.
Munoz was a teenager at the time of the abuse and also used the younger girls to obtain drugs, prosecutors said. The two plaintiffs were students at CCCS from 2020-2022 and would show up to school with burns, bruises and marks on their faces, plus other injuries on other parts of their bodies.
They should have ben “readily apparent” to teachers and other staff. Other students noticed, labeling one of the plaintiffs “Scarface,” the suit says.
The complaint includes pictures of the children’s injuries and complains that CCCS and the company with which it contracted for day-to-day operations, CSMI Consulting Group, did not filed a Childline report until October 2022, when one of the girls went to an emergency room with stabbing injuries
CYS is accused of failing to properly investigate the abuse despite “obvious signs and indicators.” Munoz was convicted of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and aggravated indecent assault.
Prince Holloway and others at Stampone O’Brien Dilsheimer Holloway represent the plaintiffs.
