Family sues over alleged sexual abuse by adopted sons

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Beverly and James Hilger of Shelbyville, Ky., had already taken in  cosplay costumes   dozens of foster children since the 1990s — adopting six of them in addition to raising Beverly's two biological children — when they decided to open their home again in 2004.
Beverly had seen a local broadcast — "Wednesday's Child," featuring older foster children in need of permanent homes — and she and her husband decided to adopt two brothers, aged 11 and 15, they saw on TV.
But according to a new lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court, the Kentucky social-service workers responsible for overseeing the adoption never told the Hilgers — as required by law — that the boys had been sexually abused and had also engaged in sexual misconduct while in a foster home.
In the years after the Hilgers adopted them, according to the lawsuit, both boys sexually molested one of the Hilgers' younger daughters, Ashley Hilger, and one of the boys also molested two other daughters.
The suit was filed Monday by Beverly Hilger on behalf of her daughter Ashley, now 17, and seeks damages from two Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services workers who handled the adoption and their former supervisor.
"I'm shocked … that the cabinet didn't follow laws they were supposed to and disclose information that should have been," Ashley said Tuesday in an interview with her mother.
"It could have prevented a lot of things that have happened … if they would have just done their job," said Ashley, a Shelby County High School senior who agreed to speak publicly to draw attention to the state's handling of the adoptions.
Beverly Hilger added: "Our children were harmed. Our home was damaged because of this. It's important to know these boys weren't represented properly, either. ... They weren't placed in a home that could meet their needs."
The lawsuit alleges two of the plaintiffs — social-service workers Desiree Rhodes and William Hardin, based in Jefferson County — failed to abide by legal requirements that they disclose pertinent information  naruto cosplay costumes   to parents so they can make an informed decision about adopting a child.