RALEIGH - A state agency was wrong in refusing to pay for the medical bills for psychiatric treatment of a 14-year-old rape victim, a Superior Court judge ruled this month in a Wake County lawsuit.

The N.C. Crime Victims Compensation Commission initially told the victim's mother that it wouldn't pay $8,000 owed to doctors and hospitals because the Brunswick County girl was drinking alcohol and using marijuana at a party the night she was raped.

But Superior Court Judge R. Allen Baddour Jr., in a Sept. 5 ruling, found that the 20-year-old man who raped the girl, and other adult men at the 2004 party, plied the girl with drinks and encouraged her to use marijuana once she was intoxicated. The man has never been charged, and Baddour indicated that Brunswick County investigators did not conduct a thorough investigation.

Neither the teenage victim nor the victim's mother is being identified, in line with a News & Observer policy to withhold the names of victims of sex crimes.

The mother's attorney, Monica R. Savidge, with Legal Aid of North Carolina, said the victim faced resistance throughout the ordeal.

"She did all the right things, and at every juncture she was told it doesn't matter," Savidge said.

The mother agreed.

"The state is not there for a victim of a crime," the mother said.

Other states -- including Alaska, California, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota and Pennsylvania -- have laws that say the conduct of a sexual assault victim cannot be held against him or her, Savidge said. In North Carolina, the commission may deny a victim money if he or she was engaged in a nontraffic-related crime at the time of the incident. It can award money whether or not someone is charged in the crime.

The 14-year-old girl went into a deep depression following the incident and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to court records. The family didn't have medical insurance at the time, and bills from doctors and hospitals began arriving at their home.

The victim's mother sought funds from the commission. After she was rejected the first time, she appealed, and an administrative law judge recommended that the commission pay the girl's bills.

But the commission rejected that decision and issued a ruling in March that it would not pay.

The mother filed a lawsuit in Wake County in April, which Baddour ruled on this month. All the money she receives from the crime victims' compensation fund will go directly to medical providers.

It's unclear whether the state will appeal Baddour's decision. Attempts to reach the commission and spokesmen for the Attorney General's Office, which represented the commission in court, were unsuccessful.