South Bay sex-abuse lawsuit: Ex-foster child awarded $30 million

South Bay sex-abuse lawsuit: Ex-foster child awarded $30 million

By Mark Gomez
mgomez@mercurynews.com
Posted: 08/05/2010 12:40:51 PM PDT
Updated: 08/05/2010 01:34:25 PM PDT


A former foster care child from Campbell was awarded $30 million in damages by a jury Wednesday for sexual abuse he endured more than a decade ago in a Mountain View foster home.
An attorney for the former foster child said it's the largest award in California this year for a single-person sex abuse case. The former foster child, who is now 25 and living in the South Bay, was the victim of more than 600 acts of sexual abuse from December 1995 to March 1999 when he was removed from the home, according to his attorney, Stephen Estey.
The defendant in the civil case, Giarretto Institute, was licensed by the state to supervise and monitor the Mountain View home of John Hardy Jackson as a foster family agency. The jury found Giarretto 75 percent responsible for the injuries to the former foster care child and Jackson 25 percent responsible. The jury found the Giarretto Institute negligent for failing to properly monitor and investigate Jackson.
Wednesday's verdict in a Santa Clara County civil courtroom brought his client plaintiff to tears, Estey said.
"He's got a little more faith in humanity," Estey said. "He got stuck in that foster care system; he had no choice at 11. He goes through four years of litigation. To have 12 people in the community speak up on his behalf and say that was wrong, he was in shock. ... Everyone in the courtroom was in tears."
In 2006, Jackson was convicted in Santa Clara County of nine counts of lewd or
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lascivious acts on a child by force, violence, duress, menace and fear and seven counts of lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office. The conviction included abuse that occurred when Jackson moved from Santa Clara County to Colorado.
One of the girls was 5 at the time of the abuse, according to a criminal court document.
The 25-year-old male victim who won the award suffers from residual mental distress as a result of the abuse, Estey said. Three other foster children who were also in the Jackson home and suffered similar abuse have lawsuits pending and are being represented by Estey.
The civil lawsuit was filed in 2006, the same year as Jackson's criminal conviction. Before the case went to trial, Estey offered to settle the cases for the insurance policy limits of $4 million for the four victims, which was refused.
Linda Kollar, a Los Angeles attorney who represented the Giarretto Institute, could not immediately be reached for comment.
In 1999, Eastfield Ming Quong Children & Family Services acquired the San Jose-based Giarretto Institute, then considered a pioneering sexual abuse treatment program. At the time, the Giarretto Institute had contracts with 130 families to provide foster care in the greater San Jose area.
Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869.
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