Three months after a judge in 2004 sealed a lawsuit against the Spring Mountain Treatment Center, the mother who brought the case was a plaintiff in a second lawsuit that alleged an employee at the psychiatric facility had sex with a 15-year-old patient.

Jackie Joy Fisher, mother of a 13-year-old female patient, on Jan. 16, 2004, filed a lawsuit against the hospital in Las Vegas, but a judge sealed that case and then closed it a week later, court records obtained by the Review-Journal show.

As a result, no information is available to the public about that dispute, the lawyers in the case, the judge who sealed the case or why the case was closed so soon after it was filed.

However, a separate lawsuit, that was not sealed, was filed five months later by Fisher and Theresa Byrd, mother of a girl who was 15 years old when the incidents described occurred. The unsealed lawsuit states that an employee of the facility forced Byrd's daughter to have sex with him while he drove her to a doctor's appointment in a van operated by the center.

Fisher couldn't be reached for comment, and Darryl Dubroca, the chief executive at Spring Mountain, declined to comment.

Most lawsuits in Clark County District Court are open for public review; however, judges for years have sealed cases. No information is available to the public on those lawsuits, but the Review-Journal obtained limited information about cases sealed since 2000. Many litigants are wealthy or wield influence in Las Vegas politics, business or the courts.

Judges said the state Supreme Court's controversial 1995 Whitehead ruling gives them authority to seal cases, but critics said the practice is unconstitutional.

The unsealed lawsuit against Spring Mountain also states that both girls were subjected by two male workers to unwanted sexual remarks and advances, and that administrators inappropriately handled the situation after one of the girls complained to supervisors.

The lawsuit alleges one of the employees often told Byrd's daughter to "shake her ass" and that he also grabbed her breasts. The lawsuit claims the same employee forced Fisher's daughter to take off her clothes and that he made inappropriate sexual advances.

After Byrd's daughter complained to management about the incident in the van, the lawsuit states, supervisors didn't contact the girl's mother, but conducted an in-house investigation of the incident.

As part of the investigation, Byrd's daughter was alone at a "confrontation" meeting with managers and the employee under investigation, the lawsuit states. Byrd's daughter was then moved to another wing of the 82-bed facility, where she twice tried to commit suicide, the lawsuit states.

Spring Mountain, which offers psychiatric and residential programs for teens and adults, is licensed by the state as a psychiatric hospital and as a private school, according to the facility's Web site.

Spring Mountain is owned by a subsidiary of Universal Health Services Inc., the nation's third-largest provider of health management services. The company purchased Spring Mountain five months after the sealed case was filed in court.

The lawsuit states, "SMTC (Treatment Center) had a culture, environment, attitude and otherwise where its workers and employees were allowed to or not prevented from inappropriate actions and conduct, such as but not limited to: saying foul language; screaming and shouting inappropriate comments and remarks; making sexual innuendos, pleas and offers to the minor patients; engaging in sexually charged touching of minor patients; engaging in nonconsensual sex with its minor patients; and etc. -- all of which were endured by the plaintiffs."

Court records show that the case was resolved in August 2005 and that Fisher's daughter can collect an undetermined settlement amount when she turns 18 later this year.