State agrees to settle suit over sex-abuse case

DETROIT (AP) - The state has agreed to pay $850,000 to settle a lawsuit by a Detroit-area couple who were charged in a sex-abuse case involving their autistic daughter before prosecutors dropped it in 2008.

Bob Wheaton, a state Human Services spokesman, tells the Detroit Free Press that the state "wanted to put this behind us." He says the state didn't admit any wrongdoing in the case of Julian and Thal Wendrow of West Bloomfield Township.

The Wendrows' lawyer, Deborah Gordon, called last month's settlement "a compromise agreement ... that was sensible."

The Wendrows' federal lawsuit against Oakland County and school officials is scheduled for trial Oct. 8.

The criminal case was developed through a controversial way of communicating in which messages are typed on a keyboard with an adult's help.

Published: Fri, Sep 05, 2014

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