Suit accuses orphanage of negligence
Ann S. Kim, Staff Writer
HILLSBOROUGH -- An orphanage in Oxford failed to protect one of its charges from a volunteer who has been charged with multiple sex offenses against her, according to a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court.
The Masonic Home for Children at Oxford, the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina and the volunteer, James McDaniel-Webb, are named as defendants in a complaint filed this month by the girl's court-appointed guardian.
The complaint accuses the Masons and the orphanage of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. McDaniel-Webb, 48, is accused of battery and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The complaint asks for a jury trial and damages of more than $10,000, the exact sum to be determined by a jury.
McDaniel-Webb, a software developer from Fuquay-Varina, is in custody. He faces state charges of statutory rape, statutory sexual offense and another sex-related charge involving a juvenile and federal child pornography charges.
He was arrested last year after Wake County deputies learned of a nude photo of the girl that she sent to someone she was communicating with over the Internet.
The girl was 12 years old when her adoptive parents placed her the Masonic Home in January 2001, according to the complaint filed by her guardian, Michael W. Patrick. The complaint asserts that the home did not have adequate policies and procedures in place to protect children from sexual abuse until July of that year, a month before the girl left.
Despite being a felon, McDaniel-Webb volunteered at the Masonic Home between 1999 and July 2001, a time when he made what the suit calls "substantial" donations to the orphanage. When he was 19, McDaniel was convicted of aiding and abetting an escaped prisoner, his father.
Jerry Oliver, a lawyer representing the Masonic Home, said he had not reviewed the complaint and could not comment. But an orphanage official said last year that McDaniel-Webb would not have been allowed to serve as a volunteer had his criminal background been known.
The orphanage allowed the girl and another girl to go to McDaniel-Webb's home several times for unsupervised, overnight weekend visits in the spring and summer of 2001, the complaint states.
The complaint asserts that orphanage officials knew or should have known about at least two incidents of pedophilia between McDaniel-Webb and two girls in its care but does not say whether these took place during the overnight visits. Those incidents were not scrutinized or reported to authorities, according to the suit.
"Defendants failed to fully investigate, failed to act to protect the minor plaintiff, and otherwise ignored or downplayed the information of which they were aware concerning Defendant McDaniel-Webb, based at least in part of their knowledge of his financial contributions to them," the suit states.
In July 2001, the orphanage put an end to unsupervised visits between the girl and McDaniel-Webb. He then offered to pay the girl's adoptive parents -- who had been charged with neglect of the girl -- to consent to him obtaining legal custody of her, the suit says.
The following month, the adoptive parents told the orphanage they wished McDaniel-Webb to have custody of the girl. The orphanage told them it was opposed to the decision but released the girl to McDaniel-Webb's custody, the suit states.
According to the complaint, McDaniel-Webb sexually assaulted the girl until January of last year, the month he was arrested.