Abused Foster Children to Get $1.95 Million : Social services: County agrees to compensate two boys who were beaten and molested, and their half sister, who witnessed the maltreatment at a Compton home.

Attempting to measure the value of the broken bones, bruises, sexual abuse and constant hunger suffered by two young boys in a foster home licensed by Los Angeles County, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed without comment to settle their lawsuit for $1.95 million.

In a report recommending that award, attorneys for the county said a jury might decide that the 14 months of abuse endured by the two boys, now 8 and 9, while living at a foster home in Compton warranted far more compensation.

According to the report, county social workers were not aware that the home’s operator, Lillie Hinton, was caring for several more children than the six for which she was licensed and that some of them were sleeping in a garage.

The county also acknowledged that it left the two boys there several months after being made aware that some of the other children were being abused.

Although foster homes are privately operated, they are licensed by the government and it can be held financially liable for failing to monitor or correct dangerous living conditions.

In 1990, citing similar cases in which the county failed to remove foster children from such situations, the state Department of Social Services took over the licensing and monitoring of foster homes. At the time, the county’s caseload per social worker exceeded state standards and the county often failed to report to the state cases in which children were beaten, scalded, raped or even killed until months later.

The two boys were taken from their mother soon after they were born addicted to the drugs in her system. In October, 1988, they went to live with Hinton, joining a half sister, who is now 15.

The county became aware of the conditions at the Hinton home in the summer of 1989 and launched an investigation that resulted in six of the children being taken away.

But the two boys granted the award Tuesday were left behind. They were being sexually abused by Hinton’s son, according to the county’s report. When they were bathed it was with a garden hose and cold water and, if they squirmed, they were hit on the head with the metal end, blows that left permanent scars.

Finally, after more reports of abuse were made to the county, the children were taken in December, 1989, to another foster home. Doctors then discovered the extent of their injuries. They had suffered fractures of the skull and broken arms, legs and feet; their ribs, backs and buttocks were bruised. They were malnourished, their stomachs bloated from lack of food.

No criminal charges were ever filed against Hinton and her son, although her foster care license was revoked.

In the report to the supervisors recommending the payment, Principal Deputy County Counsel Robert B. Reagan and Clayton Averbuck, a private attorney who worked on the case, said a jury would be “inflamed” by the details of abuse in the case and might be “sympathetic to the plaintiffs’ ordeal.”

The two boys will split $1.26 million to compensate them for their suffering and for the loss of earnings resulting from their injuries as well as for the cost of the psychological care they will need. A smaller share will go to the half sister because she witnessed the mistreatment. About a third of the money will go to the attorney who represented the children.

All three children are now living with other foster parents.

Averbuck said the settlement was “at the higher end” of such awards but is not the largest amount paid to children mistreated in foster homes. In 1989, the county agreed to pay $7 million to a child who had been raped repeatedly as a toddler. In 1990, the county agreed to pay $5.5 million to a boy who had been abused physically and sexually and reduced to a quadriplegic when he nearly drowned at a foster home.

The county Department of Children’s Services agreed with Tuesday’s award.