More Than Just Luck Podcast
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Amani only spent a year at Vista Maria in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, from 2016-2017.
But she saw enough to know something wasn't right.
"Some of the relationships with the girls were totally inappropriate," Amani said on the recent edition of "Voices Unmuted," an investigative series on alleged physical and sexual abuse at the juvenile care facility for at-risk girls.
"A male staff member putting their arm around girls. That shouldn't be allowed. You know what I mean? It's just weird but everyone just turned a blind eye to it. How do you know he wouldn't reach down and touch a boob?"
Hosted by Greg Wier, the author of "More Than Just Luck," a no-nonsense, real-life memoir about ambition, betrayal and triumph, Amani described the behavior of some of the men who took advantage of their positions of authority.
"Mr. R bought me chips and McDonald's," Amani said. "I feel you should help everybody equally, especially at that age. I was vulnerable because I was in a place by myself with no other adult."
Watch Voices Unmuted Podcast Series on More Than Just Luck YouTube
Amani, who didn't use her last name for privacy reasons, turned 16 while she was at Vista Maria. A runaway who arrived at the facility 10 years ago, she said she wasn't sexually molested or physically abused during her time there.
A civil lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court in April, 2026, named six plaintiffs who say they were abused as minors while living at the facility from 2000 and 2025. More than 100 former residents have come forward this year.
"More Than Just Luck" has documented more than 25 stories of physical, psychological and sexual abuse, unsafe conditions and negligence at Vista Maria.
"Vista showed me what not to be as an adult," Amani said. "You can't treat people differently, the way they did. It doesn't matter where you came from. These staff can't be talking to girls that like. They're already at rock bottom."
Now, a decade later with a child of her own, Amani said she was fortunate to come from a "good family," which asked questions of the Vista Maria staff but didn't know the extent of the problems.
"Would I want my child at Vista? Absolutely not," Amani said. "There's multiple reasons why, but they said they're changing lives, changing people one life at a time. They're not though. They're making it worse."
End the Deadline on Justice for Child Abuse Survivors in Michigan.
