A former resident of the now-closed Cresson Secure Treatment Unit for juveniles has filed a federal lawsuit contending he was sexually abused by a staff member when he was incarcerated there at age 17.

The lawsuit was filed last Thursday with the U.S. District Court in Johnstown and now becomes the second such complaint against the operator of the facility, the Justice Resource Institute of Needham Heights, Massachusetts.

The firm, referred to as JRI, operated the facility under contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare.

An audit of the facility released in 2011 by Auditor General Jack Wagner indicated that JRI was under contract with the state to staff and operate the treatment unit that had 52 beds, including a 13-bed unit designed for treatment of emotionally disturbed offenders.

The audit concluded, “The treatment program used at Cresson Secure Treatment Unit is firmly grounded in the balanced and restorative justice model in which each committed youth is held accountable for his actions and encouraged to accept responsibility for his behavior.”

The facility, the audit stated, provided individual counseling and family counseling.

It offered an education program provided through the Appalachian Intermediate Unit.

The Cresson unit, located on Correction Road, was closed in 2015.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday by Pittsburgh attorney Jason E. Luckasevic, presented a different view of the facility, noting that a Department of Justice report released in 2010 reported that the Cresson Secure Treatment Unit “had some of the highest rates of sexual victimization reported by the youth inmates at three times the national average.”

Luckasevic last October filed a lawsuit in which two former residents of the facility complained about the sexual abuse they experienced at the facility.

The lawsuit was recently amended to include only one plaintiff, but now a second lawsuit has been filed in Johnstown on behalf of another alleged victim.

The individual filing the lawsuit was referred to only by his initials — a protection offered to the victims of child sexual abuse — the lawsuit explained.

The accusation is that the juvenile spent a year at the Cresson facility and then was released.

He charges that a female staff member routinely would take him to a portion of the hallway leading to the outside of the facility at which there was “blind spot,” or an area not covered by the facility’s security cameras, and there improperly touch him.

She would bring him food and tobacco products for complying with the abuse.

“Defendants knew, or should have known, that (the abuser) was sexually abusing children at Cresson Secure Treatment Center,” the lawsuit stated.

The abuse caused harm to the teen, who “will continue to require counseling, therapy and other treatment,” according to the federal petition.

It charges JRI with civil negligence, negligent supervision of the staff, negligent hiring, training and retention of staff and breach of fiduciary duty (to avoid harming children).

It is seeking in excess of $50,000 on each count.

District Judge Stephanie L. Haines has ordered JRI to answer the first lawsuit by April 3.