New York City agreed today to pay out nearly $10 million as the first settlement in a lawsuit that followed one of the more disturbing child abuse cases in recent history.
The money will go to victims of Judith Leekin, who 30 years ago in Queens began mistreating foster kids in her care, then moved to Florida, adopted 11 special-needs children from New York, and abused and tortured them – all while collecting more than $1 million in government subsidies.
A federal judge in New York sentenced her to 11 years in prison in 2008 on fraud charges.
A judge in St. Lucie County sentenced her to 20 years in prison in 2009 for abuse of children and disabled adults.
Among them was an autistic boy – now an adult – who spent his childhood “essentially in a bucket, where he would eat, sleep, urinate and defecate,” according to letter used at one trial.
Authorities in Florida said that Leekin had utilized numerous aliases – including Judith S. Johnson, Judith Lee-kin-de Johnson, Michelle Wells and Eastlyn J. Giraud – to adopt the 11 children and disabled young adults in New York between 1993 and 1996.
Child welfare officials have said the adoptions took place before a policy was instituted in 1999 to take fingerprints from adoptive parents to verify their identities.
After one of Leekin’s trials in 2008, attorneys for the victims slammed New York state’s Office of Children and Family Services for the lax oversight that led to Leekin’s adoptions, saying that that “the process to foster and/or adopt children in New York during this time was easier than buying a used car.”
The victims’ identities are not revealed in court papers, because they were juveniles at the time the crimes took place.
Of the $9.7 million settlement, $6 million will go to two of the victims, officials said. The remaining $3.7 will be shared among the eight other victims, officials said.
Claims against a variety of other agencies named in the lawsuit are still pending in Brooklyn federal court, officials said.
“Judith Leekin’s extraordinary criminal scheme was unprecedented,” said Bruce Strikowsky, an attorney who represented the city.
“Though the city had strong legal defenses, this settlement will benefit those harmed most by Leekin — the children she abused. They have been, and continue to be, the city’s primary concern,” the attorney said.
mmaddux@nypost.com