TAMPA, Fla. — A new lawsuit describes claims of mental, physical, and sexual abuse against boys under the care of Clearwater foster parents that date back to 1997.
Close to a dozen agencies that are tasked with keeping children safe are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
In January, Clearwater Police removed nine boys from that Clearwater home.
Raymond Gilbert is a former foster child of Jacklyn and Jerold Logemann, the foster couple who is named in the lawsuit. He said when he first arrived at the Logemann home nearly 20 years ago, he was impressed by the nature of the large, waterfront house.
"You go into this place and it looks really nice on the outside," Gilbert said.
Miguel Fawcett shared the same feeling when he entered the home in 2012.
"I was like, it's a mansion," Fawcett said.
Kyle Maskell said the same. Maskell is 37 years old now but entered the Logemann home more than 25 years ago.
"When I first walked in the door, they had a pool table. They had video games. They had a workout room. They had all of this cool stuff," Maskell said.
The three men had different reasons for being in the foster care system, but the stories they tell about what happened inside the Clearwater home share disturbing similarities.
"Pretty much hell in the beginning," Maskell said.
All three men and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit report little to eat, manual labor from sun up to sun down, and what they thought was only happening to them, sexual abuse by their foster father.
"He was touching my shoulder and he would say like oh, can you scratch my back? So, I would scratch his back and stuff like that and he would try and caress my body and touch me," Fawcett said.
Maskell said the abuse happened to him too.
"He would touch you and he would cuddle up with you and he would massage you and show you pornography," Maskell said.
Those same allegations are contained in a 669-page lawsuit filed in Pinellas County.
Twenty men and children shared stories about the abuse they endured in the foster home dating back to 1997.
The defendants in the case are large child welfare agencies like the Department of Children and Family Services, Guardians Ad Litem, and the Logemanns.
Adam Hecht is representing the plaintiffs.
"Their stories were so similar. There was a pattern that all of these boys and men had experienced and then I came to the realization that this is real," Hecht said.
Hecht is also representing Crystal Ferrera. Her son recently lived in the Logemann's home and was removed.
"I was told very early on that he was refusing to see me and that the foster mother did not communicate with the family," Ferrera said.
She hasn't seen her son since 2018. The lawsuit states he experienced the same abuse as dozens of others had for nearly three decades.
According to the lawsuit, children were given little to eat. In order to get more food, they claim they had to give their foster parents massages.
A number of former foster children allege the foster father would take them to another house where they were sexually abused.
"This changed me forever. It killed the little Miguel. It killed the little boy," Fawcett said.
The Logemanns obtained attorneys with Escobar and Associates shortly after Clearwater Police removed nine boys from their home in January and began an investigation. The investigation was closed in April after the police chief said they could not corroborate claims of criminal conduct.
Dino Michaels and Rene Palomino are representing the couple. Michaels said he can't answer whether the claims from the men and victims themselves hold any validity because "I haven't questioned them. I don't know what their motive is. I don't know what their precise statements are."
As for his client, Jacklyn Logemann, he said the accusations against her were all false.
"She is an upstanding citizen. She's a model citizen. She is a person who fills a void in our society helping these children that need foster care," Michaels said.
Since January, ABC Action News has requested information from DCF about the foster parents.
It was asked how many children in total the Logemanns have fostered and the allegations.
Initially, a representative with DCF released this statement:
"The heinous allegations, in this case, are troubling, and upon learning of the allegations, the Department took immediate action. We are working with law enforcement and will ensure a full investigation will take place.
The Department is launching a review of the licensing process and related concerns of this home with our contracted providers, as well as our own internal processes. This is in addition to the standard investigations conducted by the Department concerning any allegation of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.
Further details regarding the investigation are confidential per section 39.202, Florida Statutes."
Attorneys for the Logemanns said that DCF also closed its investigation.
Hecht is continuing his fight for dozens of men like those he is representing.
"It's got to stop. You know there has got to be a stopping point," Gilbert said.
"I don't want them to ever be in the presence of another child. I don't want nobody to experience what I did," Fawcett said.
Meanwhile, Hecht said he believed there are one hundred or more men out there who share the same story of abuse.
