Whatever happened to you at Bradley Hospital, it wasn't okay, and you get to ask about it.

You know the building, or your parents did. Veterans Memorial Parkway, the Riverside end of East Providence, the first psychiatric hospital in the country built only for children, and Rhode Island families have been sending their kids there since 1931. Ninety-five years. Twice now, in 2020 and again in 2025, a man who worked on its units as a behavioral health specialist has been criminally charged over what prosecutors say he did to an underage patient. Both cases are still open. If you were a patient there, or your child was, this is about you.

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6 questions. Your answers are private and go to one person.

This applies to you no matter what

It was a staff member, not a doctor. Both men charged so far were behavioral health specialists, the aides who sit on the unit with the kids all shift. That is exactly who a hospital is supposed to be watching.
The state put you there, not your parents. In 2024 federal investigators counted 527 kids in DCYF custody admitted to Bradley between 2017 and 2022; some of them stayed a year, a few longer. Being a ward changes nothing about your right to ask.
Nobody was ever arrested in your case. The two men charged are the record we can link to. They are not the whole of it, and a report that went nowhere is still a report.
It was years ago. For anyone under 18 at the time, Rhode Island's deadline runs at least 35 years past the act, and the clock doesn't start until you turn 18. Details below.
You were 18 or older when it happened. Bradley treats young adults too. The rules are shorter for adults, and a lawyer sorts out which ones apply, but it is still a question worth asking.
You're a parent, and your kid came home from Bradley different and won't say why. The Guardian option in the questions above is for you.

The Bradley Hospital cases: what the public record says, and when

We didn't write what's below. Police, prosecutors, the court docket, the Justice Department and the reporters who covered them did, and we link to every one. Both former employees named here have pleaded not guilty. Neither has been convicted of anything, and Bradley Hospital has not been sued over either man as far as the public record shows. Nothing on this page decides any of it.

November 2016 to October 2019

Nikkilas Jones was a behavioral health specialist on the Bradley staff for those three years. The State Police say that in late 2018, twice, he sexually assaulted a juvenile patient there. Their allegation, not a finding; he's pleaded not guilty. WPRI 12, Nov. 23, 2020.

November 20, 2020

Jones turned himself in at Superior Court. Thirty years old, from Warwick. The State Police Major Crimes Unit had built the case and the Attorney General's office had signed the warrant: two counts of second-degree sexual assault, which under R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-37-4 is a felony, three to fifteen years. Magistrate Patricia Harwood arraigned him, he pleaded not guilty, $20,000 personal recognizance, and he went home. State v. Jones, P2-2020-3110A. East Bay RI, Nov. 23, 2020.

May 13, 2024

Here the U.S. Department of Justice found the State of Rhode Island in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, because kids in state custody were being left at Bradley long past the point they needed a hospital bed. 527 DCYF children admitted from January 2017 through September 2022. 116 of them kept more than 100 days straight. Seven for over a year. One thing to be clear about, though: this was a finding against the state's child-welfare agency, not the hospital, and the only reason it's here is that it tells you who was on those units, and for how long. U.S. Attorney, District of Rhode Island.

December 19, 2024

Rhode Island settled: a consent decree, a court-appointed monitor, five years of federal oversight. The U.S. Attorney said plainly that the case was not about Bradley's conduct and that the government did not allege wrongdoing by the hospital. Rhode Island Current.

June 11, 2025

An allegation about a behavioral health specialist and a patient was reported to a clinical supervisor at Bradley. The hospital says it put the employee on leave that day, ran an internal investigation, fired him, and reported the matter to DCYF, the Department of Health, BHDDH and the East Providence police. DCYF confirmed it was notified under the state's mandatory-reporting law. WPRI 12 Target 12, July 11, 2025.

July 7, 2025

Then the second man. East Providence police picked up Jose Montanez, 33, also of Warwick. Police booked him on three felonies, second-degree sexual assault, third-degree sexual assault and indecent solicitation of a child, and one underage patient behind all three. Same week, arraignment. Out he went on $15,000 personal recognizance with the one condition anyone would expect, stay away from the patient. The arrest report? Police wouldn't release it. WJAR NBC 10, July 11, 2025.

February 26, 2026

Now the Superior Court case. On January 8, 2026 prosecutors filed an information in Providence/Bristol County Superior Court, and this is what it charges, three counts of third-degree sexual assault under R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-37-6, a felony, up to five years on each, for an offense the information dates to June 10, 2025. Montanez was arraigned on it and pleaded not guilty. State v. Montanez, P2-2026-0161A. Pretrial conference October 7, 2026. R.I. Judiciary Public Portal, docket pull Sept. 11, 2026.

September 2026

Where things stand: both cases open, nobody convicted. Jones has been through years of pretrial hearings and his trial is set for November 30, 2026. Montanez is much earlier in the same process. Presumed innocent, both of them, until a court says different. If either case moves, we'll change this line. R.I. Judiciary Public Portal, docket pull Sept. 11, 2026.

We checked this on September 12, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from September 2026. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in a Bradley Hospital lawsuit

The hospital, not only the man. Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital has 70 beds, children and young adults, and roughly 700 employees. Since 1996 it has been part of the system that calls itself Brown University Health now and called itself Lifespan until 2024. A behavioral health specialist on a locked children's unit answers for himself, if a jury ever convicts him. The hospital is a different question: who it hired, how closely it watched him, what it did the day someone spoke up. Those aren't our words. Rhode Island put them in its own deadline statute in 2019, negligent supervision, hiring, training, monitoring, failure to report, concealment, one after the other.

Here is what the record says about knowledge, and it is thin so far. In the 2025 case Bradley says it heard the allegation on June 11, put the employee on leave, and reported it to four agencies. Whether anyone knew anything earlier, about either man, is not in any public filing we have found. That is a question for a lawyer with subpoena power, not for a web page. Two behavioral health specialists charged seven years apart is a fact. What it means is for the lawyers.

No civil suit against Bradley Hospital or Brown University Health over either man is on the public record as of September 2026. If you talk to us, you would be early, which mostly means the people you talk to will listen carefully.

Your deadline: the Rhode Island statute of limitations for sexual abuse at a children's hospital

If you were under 18 at the time: at least 35 years from the act, and the clock doesn't start until your 18th birthday. That is R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-1-51, and it is why we ask your age at the time. Put plainly: abused as a child in Rhode Island, you have until you're 53 at the very least, or seven years from the day you understood what it did to you, whichever is later. And since 2019 the same section reaches past the abuser to the institution, negligent supervision, hiring, training, monitoring, failure to report, concealment, each one named. Someone on a Bradley unit in 2018, or in 2025, is nowhere near the edge of it.

If your years there were long ago and the old deadline already ran: there's a newer law. Governor McKee signed it (H 7200 Sub A / S 2616 Sub A) on June 11, 2026, it took effect July 1, 2026, and what it does is bring expired childhood sexual abuse claims back to life, the negligent-supervision claims against the institution included, so long as they're filed by June 30, 2028. That is a real date and it is the one date on this page with an end. It leaves time for a conversation, and it has an end.

If you were 18 or older at the time: § 9-1-51 is written for children, so it does not help. Rhode Island's general rule for injuries to the person is three years (§ 9-1-14(b)), and when that clock starts, and whether anything paused it, is a lawyer's call, not ours. Bradley treats young adults, so if this was you, answer the questions anyway and say so on the call.

Your situation still qualifies even if

You never told a soul, or you told a nurse and it went into a chart and nowhere else.
You were medicated and the memory has gaps. Kids on a psychiatric unit often are.
You were there because of something you did, or something the state decided, and you figure that counts against you. It doesn't.
It was another patient. The hospital runs a locked unit, and the job of a locked unit is watching.
You aren't sure what to call what happened. You don't have to call it anything to ask.
You live in Massachusetts or Connecticut now, or farther. Most people do by the time they are ready.

Bradley programs covered

Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital, 1011 Veterans Memorial Parkway, East Providence (Riverside) · the inpatient units for children and for adolescents · every other Bradley program, day, residential, outpatient or in-home, on the campus or around the state. Another Rhode Island hospital's psychiatric unit, or a residential program run by someone else? The questions still work. Answer them and say where.

Questions people are asking

Can I sue Bradley Hospital?

Nobody has yet, as far as the public record shows, and the two criminal cases are still pending. Whether you can depends on your age at the time, when it happened and what the hospital knew, which is what the questions above start to sort out. A lawyer gives the real answer after a conversation.

Has anyone at Bradley Hospital actually been convicted?

No. Not Nikkilas Jones, charged in November 2020, trial on the calendar for November 30, 2026. Not Jose Montanez, charged in July 2025 and arraigned in Superior Court in February 2026. Both pleaded not guilty, both are presumed innocent, and we won't call anyone convicted who hasn't been. A civil claim is its own thing, separate from the criminal case, and a lawyer can walk you through how the two fit.

How much does a sexual abuse lawyer cost?

Here, nothing. Every case is on contingency. The lawyer is paid only out of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered you owe nothing. Not for the call, not for the review, not for the case.

I was a kid there decades ago and never said a word. Does Rhode Island's statute of limitations shut me out?

Probably not, and here's why: the deadline is longer than most people guess. R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-1-51 gives you 35 years from the act, or seven years from when you understood what it did to you, whichever lands later, and it doesn't start counting until you turn 18. Since 2019 it reaches the institution too, not only the abuser. And if yours already expired, the 2026 law (signed June 11, 2026) reopens it, so long as it's filed by June 30, 2028.

My child was at Bradley and won't talk about it. Can I reach out?

Yes. Pick the Guardian option on the first question and the rest will ask about them instead of you. A parent is how most of these calls start. Nothing happens after the call unless you say so.

What kind of lawyer do I need?

A civil lawyer who sues hospitals and the systems that own them over institutional sexual abuse, not only the person who did it. That is the only kind we work with, and the firm we work with takes Rhode Island cases wherever you live now.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed Rhode Island attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.