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Father sues OnTrack over molestation By CHRIS BRISTOL The father of a 16-year-old girl who was molested by an OnTrack counselor has filed a $500,000 lawsuit against the drug-treatment agency. The complaint, filed last week in Jackson County Court, alleges that the counselor had a prior conviction for basically the same thing -- a relevant fact that OnTrack failed to uncover because it failed to perform an adequate background check. The counselor, Michael Lee Sanchez, was named as a co-defendant. He recently skipped town, prompting local authorities to issue a warrant for his arrest for violating probation. Sanchez was at least the third Rogue Valley counselor or therapist accused of sexual abuse since 1996. A new law that might have prevented the abuse by requiring background checks took effect June 1. The lawsuit accuses OnTrack of negligence not only for hiring Sanchez -- who was convicted of molesting a minor in Bakersfield, Calif., about 15 years ago -- but also for allowing him unsupervised access to the girl and failing to observe that he was "grooming" her for abuse. Sanchez, 33, was arrested in January on four counts of second- and third-degree sexual abuse. The girl, a patient at OnTrack's residential program for teens at 234 W. Fifth St., alleged that he crawled into bed with her one night and molested her. In March, Sanchez pleaded no contest to one count of third-degree sexual abuse. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail (with credit for time served) and five years of supervised probation, and ordered to pay the victim's counseling costs and to register as a sex offender. He was also prohibited from contact with children without written permission from his probation officer. Court records show that Sanchez almost immediately absconded from probation. Authorities believe he may have moved to Oklahoma to live with relatives. A warrant for his arrest was issued May 17. The lawsuit, filed by Medford attorney Kelly L. Andersen, seeks $500,000 for the victim's loss of trust in adults and other emotional trauma. It also seeks $10,000 for counseling costs. Andersen, who specializes in personal injury cases, is on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment. OnTrack is a nonprofit agency that operates a variety of outpatient and residential substance-abuse treatment programs, mainly under contract with the state and Jackson County. The agency receives about $1 million in funding from the county. The agency's director, Rita Sullivan, was out of town and could not be reached for comment. In Oregon, therapists and counselors in private practice are not required to have a license, nor are they required to undergo a background check. But a new law that took effect June 1 requires employees of agencies like OnTrack that receive state funding to submit fingerprints for background checks by the Oregon State Police and the FBI. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA