Kearney center’s culture allowed sexual abuse of teens in state custody, new investigation finds 1%
By Sara Gentzler0%
7/28/2026, 8:41:47 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 8 faulty reasoning types, including Circular Reasoning, Availability Heuristic, and Confirmation Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 3% saturation with 73 hits. Analysis detected 298 faulty-reasoning hits from 2,406 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 5.5% and a BS Rank of 1% (22,220 of 22,405 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 99.20% of the article peer group.
Editor’s note: This story contains allegations of sexual abuse of children.
If you suspect that a child has been abused, call 800-652-1999 or report online .
This story has been updated to include statements from a legislative committee , DHHS and a spokesperson for the governor.
It was more than just a few bad apples.
A state-run youth center in Kearney meant to rehabilitate juvenile offenders has a “problematic” culture that allowed inappropriate relationships and sexual abuse, according to a 114-page report released Tuesday.
Four former employees at the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center have been arrested on sex abuse charges since last fall.
But that only scratches the surface of what teen boys have alleged.
At least 44 sexual abuse-related allegations were made by 37 boys against 19 different staff members at the center in the span of a year, according to the report from the Office of the Inspector General of Nebraska Child Welfare and Ombudsman’s Office.
Most of those allegations haven’t been substantiated.
The independent review also pointedly criticized the youth center’s response to these allegations.
It paints a portrait of a state-run facility that shoddily investigated accusations, often didn’t believe teen boys and created the conditions that allowed the abuse to continue.
“The culture at YRTC-Kearney normalized inappropriate staff behavior, which the facility failed to sufficiently address,” it found.
It’s a starkly different conclusion from the one the Department of Health and Human Services, which runs the youth center, reached in an internal review last fall.
State agency leaders then identified no systemic issues.
But DHHS seemed to tacitly acknowledge wider issues in recent months, sharing several operational and structural changes and ousting both the administrator in charge of the facility and her boss, who oversaw all three YRTCs.
The agency pushed back on many of the inspector general’s findings.
While the report notes the same patterns of staff behavior go back at least a decade, the inspector general hasn’t raised similar concerns about YRTC-Kearney’s culture in its last 10 years of annual reports, DHHS said.
“The (Office of the Inspector General) cannot rely on the number of allegations to conclude that the culture at YRTC-Kearney condones inappropriate staff behavior,” the agency said.
The Inspector General’s Office launched its independent probe last October, as months-old allegations came to light in juvenile court hearings.
Sorting through all the allegations proved a challenge.
“There were over 200 specific claims of a variety of behaviors by YRTC-Kearney staff,” the report reads.
“The result was a complicated web of allegations and facts.”
About two-thirds of the allegations involved the same six staff members — one staff member accounted for about a quarter of them.
And at least 11 of the 19 staff members were previously disciplined or named by youth in sexual abuse or boundary-related allegations.
Most often, the boys alleged inappropriate statements, such as flirtatious commentsMost often, the boys alleged inappropriate statements, such as flirtatious comments or sexually explicit conversation.
Many also alleged that staff touched them inappropriately.
And at least 15 youth had staff members’ personal phone numbers, the report reads.
The four former employees who have been arrested are among at least seven staff members who “allegedly engaged in sexual contact with youth or had ongoing relationships with youth” at the facility, according to the report.
One — Martha Ruiz Palacios — has been sentenced to two years in jail after entering a plea deal.
Two others, Tarah Ross and Katrina Fewkes, have pleaded not guilty to their charges.
The most recently arrested, Jessica Camacho, faces the most serious charges and hasn’t yet been arraigned.
The report detailed allegations that have resulted in criminal prosecutions, including that:
In March 2025, three teen boys were found with a cellphone that had photos and social media posts of the youth and text messages with plans to escape.
It also held sexually explicit content from two women, including one employed there as a youth program specialist.
There were nude photos and videos of youth at the facility, and videos of the employee masturbating.
There were also text messages between her and one of the boys about living together in the future.
She called him her “future hubby.”
That teen later said he and the staffer had engaged in sexual activities.
She resigned.
Based on charging documents and juvenile court hearings , this appears to be Camacho.
The lawyer for one of the alleged victims in her case has said the teen was placed in confinement for months as punishment for the phone and was never provided therapy to address the alleged abuse.
A recent interview with the other alleged victim suggests he faced similar consequences and has also not received therapy.
In April 2025, another youth program specialist reported that a youth had touched her thigh.
The boy received a major rule violation and was placed in confinement.
But a note between the staff and the teen included sexually graphic statements, and video showed the staff had allowed the youth to touch her butt and held his “hands on her hips while his pelvis touched her buttocks as they descended a stairwell.”
The youth said they were in a relationship and that more sexual contact had happened.
She resigned.
Based on charging documents and juvenile court hearings , this appears to be Tarah Ross.
The IG’s office does not investigate whether specific allegations are true.
The Office of Juvenile Services, which is part of DHHS and oversees the youth centers, has a compliance department that looks into allegations like these.
It substantiated three more allegations in addition to the four in which the staffers have been charged, according to the report.
Compliance and the Nebraska State Patrol dismissed nine more after investigation.
Compliance found the rest — the majority of the allegations — to be unsubstantiated or unfounded.
But that doesn’t mean they’re untrue, nor does it mean there isn’t a problem, the inspector general’s report says.
Many of the allegations were unsubstantiated, it reads, because evidence was limited, witnesses weren’t available or the investigation wasn’t thorough enough.
“… (T)he number, breadth, and consistency of the allegations, along with the similarity to patterns of behavior seen in prior years, demonstrates a pervasive culture at YRTC-Kearney that normalized and insufficiently addressed behavior extending from boundary violations to inappropriate relationships and sexual abuse,” the report reads.
Most flooded in after the initial allegations came to light, according to the report.
But it’s worth considering, the IG wrote, that some youth might have felt they could come forward only after those became public.
Staff and internal investigators often characterized youth as manipulative, as initiating the contact and as fabricating allegations, the report says.
“… (T)hese challenges and characterizing the youth in this way, even where accurate, does not diminish the facility, and ultimately the state’s, responsibility,” it reads.
According to the report, judges moved eight teens out of the YRTC after learning about the allegations, and all but one of the staff members with substantiated allegations no longer work at YRTC-Kearney.
The one who’s still there was found to have committed a boundary violation, not sexual abuse.
There are good employees at the youth center, the report says, but also widespread issues not limited to the employees actually committing alleged criminal acts.
Internal oversight failures
The report singled out the compliance department as a weak spot.
Compliance’s reviews of the sexual abuse allegations were littered with issues “significant enough” to keep them from learning whether the allegations were true, the report says.
Compliance didn’t consistently look at staff’s prior disciplinary history.
They briefly noted key facts, but apparently didn’t follow up.
They deemed the absence of evidence a reason to decide an allegation was unsubstantiated or unfounded.
They ignored potential broader patterns.
In one case, the compliance team said an allegation was unsubstantiated, but then the employee was criminally charged under a higher standard of evidence for the same behavior.
Investigators found that compliance had determined the March and April 2025 allegations detailed above were “boundary violations” rather than violations of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, which would have required notification to the inspector general.
The YRTC campus in Kearney.
Photo by Naomi Delkamiller/Flatwater Free Press
The office did not know about the allegations for months, according to the report.
The deputy ombudsman for institutions was told about the cellphone incident, but wasn’t told about its sexually explicit material.
In Flatwater’s previous reporting, it found that key legal parties — the judge, lawyers and probation — had also been kept in the dark for months in the cases of two boys who had made serious allegations.
The report zeroed in on a gap in these internal investigations: In the past, the agency’s Division of Children and Family Services would determine whether abuse and neglect occurred.
It hasn’t done those more in-depth assessments at the Kearney center since 2019.
Without investigations into abuse and neglect, staff who have abused youth may not be placed on DHHS’ central registry that can prevent abusers from working with youth again, according to the report.
Right now, unlike at other facilities, YRTC employees land on that list only after a criminal conviction.
DHHS, in its response to the report, disputed some of these characterizations, defending the compliance team as “constantly evaluating the safety of youth by ensuring adherence to YRTC policies and procedures designed to, among other things, prevent child abuse and neglect.”
The Office of Juvenile Services has passed its last four Prison Rape Elimination Act audits, according to the agency’s response.
The department referred all incidents referenced in the report to the Nebraska State Patrol for its investigation.
But the report notes that the State Patrol won’t investigate if there’s no alleged criminal activity.
Recommendations: DHHS and law changes
The watchdogs made four main recommendations, including potential law changes.
Lawmakers should change state law so that all allegations of sexual abuse are automatically reported to the Inspector General’s Office, the report says.
And DHHS’ Child and Family Services should resume its in-depth abuse and neglect investigations at the YRTCs, which could require changing laws.
“The staff behaviors and actions alleged and detailed in this investigation amount to abuse of the youth in DHHS’ care and custody,” it reads.
“These incidents should be investigated as such.”
Lawmakers are poised to act in response to the report.
The Legislative Oversight Committee, which is composed of the speaker of the Legislature, the chairs of four legislative committees and four other state senators, thanked investigators and said their recommendations “deserve serious consideration.”
“Oversight does not end with the publication of a report … The task now turns to the Judiciary and the Health and Human Services committee to monitor changes that may be necessary based on the Inspector General’s recommendations, request regular public updates regarding corrective actions, and evaluate whether additional legislative action is necessary to strengthen protections for youth in state custody,” the committee said.
State Sen.
Brian Hardin, chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, said he asked a group of lawmakers to visit the centers in person.
Senators have already visited Kearney and another facility and plan to visit two more later this summer, he said.
“It’s all moving in a healthier direction,” Hardin told Flatwater.
Among the report’s other recommendations: DHHS and YRTC-Kearney should “implement consistent processes for holding staff accountable” for boundary issues and thoroughly review how the compliance department does internal investigations.
It should enhance youth program specialists’ supervision and increase youth programming and activities, the report says.
A policy that allows staff to be alone with youth should also be reviewed.
And the agency should “address the culture problem” at YRTC-Kearney, it reads.
DHHS itself rejected that there is a culture problem.
Last September, the state agency asked the ombudsman and inspector general to come to Kearney and interview youth privately.
They interviewed 13 at random, and all felt safe, according to the agency’s response.
“It is unreasonable for the (Office of the Inspector General) to assert that a culture that normalizes inappropriate staff behavior exists and that the facility failed to address said systemic culture problem, when they themselves failed to identify any such problem over the last ten years,” the response reads.
The Inspector General said it’s “illogical” to think that the office couldn’t make a new finding based on new evidence, noting that none of the incidents in the report had been reported to the office from 2016 to 2025.
And those 13 interviews don’t “negate the significant evidence of the 44 total allegations,” they wrote.
The agency did accept some of the report’s recommendations.
In one case, it agreed to conduct a review of activities and programming.
In another, to make structural improvements.
And to boost surveillance.
In its responses, the agency noted: “DHHS takes every allegation of abuse or neglect seriously and values youth voice.”
And DHHS has already made some reforms — attached to the report is a letter with a list of 37 changes made.
It also detailed changes and touted a successful, recent reaccreditation audit in a public statement after the report’s release.
“DHHS is carefully reviewing the OIG’s final report and will continue evaluating operations at Nebraska’s YRTCs to identify opportunities for continued improvement,” the statement reads.
A spokesperson for Gov.
Jim Pillen also pointed to improvements and repeated that any perpetrators “need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
DHHS is a code agency, meaning it’s under the governor’s control.
“Abuse of children in state custody will not be tolerated,” spokesperson Laura Strimple said in the statement.
“Governor Pillen has been firm in that message, including in his discussions with DHHS leadership.”
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