MINNEAPOLIS — A teenager accused in a brutal assault on a state psychiatric hospital staff member was placed in the adult institution in possible violation of a federal court order governing such decisions, according to a newspaper report Thursday.

The 16-year-old, whose identity is protected in court records, may have been ineligible to be put in the secure St. Peter hospital under a 2011 legal settlement, which was crafted to keep patients solely with developmental disabilities out of settings meant for violent or severely mentally ill patients, the Star Tribune reported.