Former counselor says he was assaulted during Hallmark Youthcare escape

A former Hallmark Youthcare counselor says he was assaulted during the same July 5 escape that sent eight girls out of the Goochland County facility, adding a first-person account to the safety breakdown now facing the West Creek Parkway campus. His account ties the escape to questions about staffing, supervision and crisis controls at a treatment center that serves vulnerable youths in the Short Pump area near Route 288 and Broad Street.

The July 5 incident unfolded after eight girls escaped, allegedly assaulting a staff member and taking keys before getting out. All eight were later found safe. Less than 24 hours later, at about 10:09 p.m. on July 6, Virginia State Police responded after staff reported that five boys had left Hallmark Youthcare. Three were located shortly after the escape, and the final two boys were found safe on July 8.

Those two breakouts sharpened scrutiny of what staff knew before the escapes and how the facility responded once the alarms were raised. CBS 6 also reported that a Goochland lieutenant warned someone may be killed at Hallmark Youthcare if unsafe conditions continued, a stark warning that pushed the case beyond a routine escape and into a broader public-safety concern for employees, residents and families.

The pressure on Hallmark Youthcare intensified again on July 15, when the disAbility Law Center of Virginia filed a federal lawsuit against Hallmark Youthcare-Richmond, LLC and Acute Behavioral Health of Virginia, P.C. The complaint lists the facility at 12800 West Creek Parkway in Richmond and says the organization was denied access to speak with impacted residents on multiple occasions. The lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, placing civil-rights claims alongside the safety concerns raised by the escapes.

The escape episodes also landed against a backdrop of earlier trouble. A separate April 30 report said a juvenile was charged with sexually assaulting a resident at Hallmark Youthcare, showing the July incidents were not the first time the facility faced allegations tied to resident safety. A source cited in search results also described the center as having been cited by the state for 27 violations in two years, adding to questions about whether warning signs were mounting before the July breakouts.

For Goochland County, the stakes extend beyond one employer. Hallmark Youthcare sits near a busy corridor that many residents use every day, and the new allegation from a former counselor leaves families, nearby neighbors and former staff with the same unanswered question: whether the facility had the staffing and controls in place to keep both workers and juveniles safe.