Olympia learning center is sued

The former assistant teacher at the Olympia Early Learning Center’s McPhee Road site, Elisha Tabor, 20, was sentenced in July to 18 years to life in prison for raping a 5-year-old pupil in the child’s home and a 4-year-old pupil at work.

The civil lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that a boy was molested by Tabor while he was between the ages of 2 months and 4 years old and enrolled at the Olympia Early Learning Center’s McPhee Road site between 2007 and 2010, attorney Darrell Cochran said.

Cochran said that the boy identified in his lawsuit filed in Thurston County Superior Court on Thursday is not one of the children that Tabor was convicted of molesting or raping.

According to the lawsuit, in 2008, a parent complained to the McPhee Road site’s then-director of operations, Rose Horgdahl, that “Elisha posed a danger to the young children at the facility.”

The OELC’s attorney, Michael Bolasina, said that allegation is untrue.

“It’s my understanding that she complained about any male employees working at the center with the children,” Bolasina said.

The suit also alleges that the same parent complained in 2009 that her daughter may have been sexually abused. The parent told officials at the center that she believed Eli Tabor was responsible, according to the suit, but “(d)efendant misdirected police and CPS investigators to another male employee named ‘Eli.’”

Bolasina said Cochran’s lawsuit inaccurately states that officials at the early learning center “misdirected” investigators. He said it is his understanding that both “Elis” were investigated after the 2009 complaint, and OELC cooperated fully. The complaint was deemed unfounded, Bolasina added.

The lawsuit filed by Cochran on Thursday is the third time a parent of a former pupil of Tabor’s has filed a lawsuit against the Olympia Early Learning Center, alleging the center knew or should have known about the abuse. Both of the other suits also were filed by Cochran.

One of the other suits alleges that Tabor molested a 4-year-old girl at the early learning center in February 2009. This 4-year-old girl is not one of the children Tabor was convicted of abusing.

The third lawsuit was filed by a parent of one of the children Tabor was convicted of sexually abusing.

The Olympia Early Learning Center has closed all of its offices, including a separate site in downtown Olympia, as of July 29, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Early Learning.

DEL is investigating a complaint in January that the center failed to report an allegation of abuse at its McPhee Road site. In February, the DEL put the McPhee Road location on its “do not refer” list, and its license is inactive.

Former Olympia Early Learning Center Executive Director Steve Olson has said that one factor that contributed to the closure of the McPhee Road site is that “we couldn’t re-enroll people as folks left.” Overhead costs became prohibitive as the number of clients declined, he added.

Phone numbers listed for OELC were disconnected.

Jeremy Pawloski: 360-754-5465 jpawloski@theolympian.com