NEW YORK — Nine more former detainees are accusing an ex-staffer at a Bronx juvenile detention center of sexually abusing them as children, according to an avalanche of lawsuits that city lawyers are trying to shut down by drawing parallels to Sean “Diddy” Combs.

The Daily News reported over the summer that a dozen survivors were suing New York City over allegations of “rapes and forcible oral sex” involving Natalie Medford, a counselor at Horizon Juvenile Center between 2005 and 2015 — bringing the total number of people accusing her of gender-based violence to 21.

“What we know about sexual abuse in an institutional setting is that often perpetrators sexually abuse multiple victims,” said Jerome Block of Levy Konigsberg LLP, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “This is something that’s been seen in the Catholic church cases … and that is something we’re seeing in these cases.”

The News could not reach Medford, who is not a named defendant in the lawsuits, for comment.

The latest filings are part of a blockbuster legal claim seeking to hold the city responsible for the abuse the now-young adults say they experienced as minors in the custody of Horizon and three other sites: Crossroads Juvenile Center, Rikers Island, and the former Spofford Juvenile Detention Center.

As of this week, plaintiffs have brought 540 cases of sexual violence since the spring. That includes upward of 100 new cases that will be announced at a press conference Tuesday in downtown Brooklyn.

The majority of the allegations date back to the early 2000s, according to data from Levy Konigsberg. About 42% of the cases were alleged to have taken place at Spofford, now the site of a 5-acre redevelopment project in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx.

The Adams administration is trying to dismiss the claims. A spokesman for the city’s Law Department did not return a request for comment Monday afternoon.

In court documents, city attorneys argued a local law that survivors are relying on to bring their claims years, even decades, later does not apply to these types of cases.

Their argument relies heavily on a recent federal court decision that blocked one of Combs’ accusers from suing two corporate entities under the same gender-motivated violence law for allegedly enabling a decades-old sexual assault.

The Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law — first passed by the City Council in 2000 — was amended in 2022 to allow plaintiffs to sue over older allegations for a couple of years and hold institutions accountable for enabling violence. Lawyers for the city believe the latter cannot be applied retroactively, pointing to the Combs case.

Block disagrees and says the Council rightfully recognized that it takes time for victims to come forward: “The city went so far as to claim its somehow immune from these lawsuits alleging institutionalized sexual abuse, and that really shows the city’s refusal to accept responsibility and their view they’re above the law.”

A rep for the Administration for Children’s Services, which acquired the juvenile detention centers after most of the allegations, said it will review the new cases when served. Child welfare workers can face discipline up to and including firing for sexual abuse.

ACS also recently updated its policies to align with federal guidance on preventing sexual misconduct in correctional facilities — including the hiring of on-site compliance managers, unannounced inspections, and trainings.

“Sexual abuse and harassment is abhorrent and unacceptable,” spokeswoman Stephanie Gendell said in a statement, “and although many of these incidents predate this administration or ACS’ involvement with juvenile justice, we take these allegations very seriously.”

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