Washington jury awards $130M in toddler abuse death, faults daycare and state

A 2-year-old’s death after months of documented abuse has led to one of the largest civil verdicts in Washington state history, with jurors concluding that multiple failures allowed the violence to continue unchecked.

TACOMA, WA – A Pierce County jury has awarded $130 million to the estate of Sarai Brooks, a toddler who died in 2022 after suffering what medical examiners described as prolonged abuse, finding that both the state’s child welfare agency and a Puyallup day care failed to act on clear warning signs. The verdict follows a five-week trial examining how repeated injuries observed by caregivers were neve...