The state Legislature is being asked to fund a $1.6 million court award to a man who was sexually assaulted as a youth at a state-contracted mental health facility by a therapist who lied about his qualifications.

A lawsuit filed by the man’s parents alleged Jason J. Mossholder-Brom misrepresented himself as a qualified mental health professional on records provided to the state Department of Health’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division. The division then referred Mossholder-Brom for employment at Rainbow Rehabilitation Services Inc., where he was given “full credential status” before officials received documentation of his qualifications, according to the lawsuit.

At the time, the victim was a 10th-grader in special- needs classes who suffered from several mental disorders and a mild intellectual disability. He was referred for treatment in 2001 after “a series of behavioral episodes that required hospitalization,” the lawsuit stated. The Health Department arranged for him to be admitted to Rainbow Rehabilitation in February 2002.

About two months later, Mossholder-Brom allegedly molested the teen multiple times, according to the lawsuit. A few months after that, he allegedly was forced to participate in a group-sex incident with other youths residing at the facility, according to court records.

Mossholder-Brom was “released from his employment” in October 2002, but the lawsuit does not indicate why.

The youth was later released from the facility but did not tell anyone about the sexual assaults until almost a year later. In 2007, his family sued the facility, Mossholder-Brom and the state for negligence and inadequate care. (The Honolulu Star- Advertiser is not naming the victim because he was a minor at the time of the alleged incidents.)

Dana Viola of the state Department of the Attorney General said in a written statement “the Rainbow Rehab therapist/assailant lied about his qualifications as a therapist and assigned himself credentials that he did not in fact have.”

“We believe that the primary fault lay with Rainbow Rehab, which failed to thoroughly check the therapist’s background and credentials,” Viola said. However, since Rainbow Rehabilitation went out of business soon after the lawsuit was filed, the Department of Health was left to pay the $1.6 million judgment for the man’s future treatment.

The civil case went to trial twice — in 2009 and 2015 — with the state twice filing appeals to the Intermediate Court of Appeals, which reaffirmed the judgment in January.

The Attorney General’s office has asked the Legislature to appropriate the money under Senate Bill 2740.

The state filed a criminal case against Mossholder-Brom in 2004, but dropped the charges in 2007 after his lawyer argued the victim’s mental status might affect his reliability as a witness.