From age 5 to 12, she was abused in a Tacoma foster home. WA just awarded her $9 million

Content warning: This story contains descriptions of child sexual, physical, and mental abuse.

For Ashley Miller, the hardest part about the sexual, physical, and mental abuse she suffered during her early childhood in a foster home in Tacoma was the pain.

“Continuous pain, physical pain, sexual abuse,” she explained. “It hurts, really hurts as a kid, not feeling normal like your peers and wondering why. Why can I not just be a normal kid and fit in? And not knowing how to fit in because of my growing up.”

Washington state agreed to pay Miller $9 million for the severe abuse she suffered during her seven years in foster care under the care of Sabrina Miller, who was eventually allowed to adopt Ashley at the age of 12.

Ashley Miller sued the Department of Social and Health Services, claiming the agency did not monitor the conditions of her foster home and failed to perform a background check on the convicted felon who was Sabrina Miller's live-in boyfriend and who Ashley Miller alleges raped and abused her for years.

RELATED: Debate flares over WA child welfare law after rise in deaths and injuries

The alleged abuser, Carlos McFann, pleaded guilty in 2024 to third-degree rape in Pierce County in an unrelated case. McFann has a previous conviction for drug trafficking and faced multiple charges of domestic violence when he allegedly abused Miller as a young girl.

Miller said she decided to sue the state when she realized her own daughter, who was 9 at the time, was also in danger of being abused by McFann, who remained in contact with Sabrina Miller as did Ashley. Ashley Miller did not want her daughter exposed to the same abuse she suffered as a young girl.

“It was a very rocky situation, and with myself too, facing my trauma, and knowing that the abuser was somewhat still around,” Ashley Miller said. “If I’m going to be a better parent and protector, then I have to actually take action.”

Miller filed her lawsuit in 2022. One of her attorneys, Caroline Golshan, said McFann’s criminal convictions would have disqualified him from being around foster children if the state social workers had checked his background.

“He wasn't keeping up with those charges, and there were outstanding warrants related to those,” Golshan said. “So, if they had done a background check, they would have found all of that.”

RELATED: Native children in WA are disproportionately taken from their families. Advocates are working to change that

In addition to not doing a background check on McFann, the lawsuit said social workers failed to do in-person checks on Miller every 90 days, as required by law. In fact, the time between in-person visits stretched from 200 to 500 days, according to the suit.

Attorney Vincent Nappo said Miller’s case was extreme in terms of the abuse she suffered and the lack of oversight and protection from the state agency.

“Ashley's case is one of the worst we have ever seen as far as the negligence and the failures to comply with safety requirements,” Nappo said. “And, of course, the sexual abuse, the physical abuse, and mental abuse is absolutely on the most severe side. ... Frankly, the only thing worse for a foster child in placement would be death.”

The $9 million settlement adds to the skyrocketing cost of lawsuits filed against the state at a time when Washington is facing what Gov. Bob Ferguson called “a historic budget shortfall” of close to $8 billion for the 2025-27 biennium.

In the most recent fiscal year, which ended June 30, Washington paid out close to $600 million for payouts and legal costs. In September, the state department that manages liability costs, requested an additional infusion of nearly $570 million.

RELATED: WA lawmakers faced with $570M decision on surging lawsuit payouts

Those costs include people suing the state for abuse they suffered as children in the foster care system. Earlier this month, a Spokane County jury ordered the state to pay $42 million to a woman who said she was sexually abused in her foster home.

Nappo said he believed the settlement cost would have been much higher if Miller’s case had gone to trial.

“When you go to trial, it's not about punishment. It's not about sympathy,” Nappo said. “We're here for justice, and justice in our civil justice system means the jury decides what the value of that injury is and the value of the impacts. And when you're talking about children and you're talking about rape and you're talking about the loss of a childhood, it probably doesn't surprise many people that we regularly see eight-figure verdicts when it comes to child sexual abuse.”

After a three and a half years in the legal process, Miller said she is ready to move on with her life. She now lives in Portland, Oregon, and has worked as a nurse since she was 16. Her daughter will turn 13 in December.

She said she hopes to use the settlement to help other people who suffer from similar abusive childhoods, so they don’t give up hope.

“I want to inspire a lot more people, reach, connect, relate, and let others know that they're not alone,” she said. “Because I grew up always feeling like I was alone.”