Jury Rules Against ESD
The jury has ruled that ESD committed fraud and was grossly negligent. Estimated damages are $8.5 million, pending further testimony. The jury ruled that while ESD is a charity, it’s not subject to the $500,000 charitable immunity cap.
Right now, the punitive portion of the trial is in recess. A few of the charges that ESD was not found liable for include:
- ESD is not liable for failing to prevent to the assault of Jane Doe II.
- ESD’s negligence did not cause the relationship between Nathan Campbell and Jane.
- ESD did not fail to properly monitor Campbell and other employees while on school property.
- ESD did not fail to oversee the safety of its students while on campus.
In other news, the jury found ESD 40 percent responsible for the Doe’s damages, and Campbell was 60 percent responsible. Of course, the only party on trial right now is ESD.
Clarification: The jury did find ESD negligent for failing to properly “hire, train, or retain teachers” and to ensure they understood “limitations on personal interactions with students.” They did not find ESD liable for Jane’s actual, physical sexual assault, but they did find them liable for the conditions that led to it, with respect to proper teacher training.
46 comments to "Jury Rules Against ESD"
2) Play dumb.
3) Sue.
4) Profit!!
The witness list for esd is telling….
Just filed this morning
They have other board members coming down to beg for mercy…and the headmaster of a south dallas school coming to testify…maybe as a character witness…
Unbelievable
FYI, I don’t have a dog in this fight.
AG will do it otherwise.
question for esd people: If the appeal goes against ESD as well, will that mean that they appellate court is biased as well?
where can you find the witness list??
Don’t just get mad, get even. And that is what the Doe family and their legal team have accomplished. They were able to expose the flaws and hypocrisies at ESD by merely asking the right questions and watching the defense stumble and lie their way to an embarrassing defeat.
If I were Mr. or Mrs. Doe, I would shush my critics by personally accepting just the amount of money that was spent educating Jane at ESD. The remainder I’d donate to a charity focused on sexual abuse.
Based on my observation, this was not a result caused by a biased judge (and that’s different than an opinion that all of her rulings were correct — no judge gets every ruling 100% correct). And I find the bias claim amusing . . . ESD clearly brought in one of its lawyers in an attempt to get the judge to act in a biased way in their favor. Otherwise, why would they hire Royce West for this case?
ESD had at least one important witness that did not do well. That, as much as anything made this verdict inevitable.
When the full verdict is released, I think the numbers and the findings will make more sense. Again, I am not involved in this case, but I watched it. The result was predictable if you were in Court. I can only assume many of the posts on here describing this as an unfounded verdict, or a biased verdict, or a verdict that is definitely going to get flipped on appeal are from non-lawyers or people who did not attend the trial or people who are really really really trying to convince themselves that something (ESD) they care about deeply (nothing wrong with that) remains intact and unscathed.
Finally, it was clear that the judge kept out evidence and testimony both sides wanted to get in. That’s how trials go every time.
Here is how it should, and hopefully will be settled:
1. ESD should make a great deal of noise about appealing, not fair, etc.
2. They or someone on their behalf should/will quietly approach the Does with a fair settlement out of the eye of the press. They should then seal the settlement and never go through this public spectacle again.
3. Fr. Swann should be given some type emeritus position and a leader that can lead ESD forward should be brought in to clear out the rest of the mess at the top and to provide clear direction for the school. Also, the board needs turnover and to become stronger.
4. The Does need to address significant family problems and issues and hopefully heal from this episode. It sounds like Jane is doing well; hopefully she can continue to heal
5. Some of the commenter’s on both sides need to get a real life. It seems Jane (The VICTIM) and the ESD community (The other victim) were made the targets of a great deal of misplaced hatred and scorn
5. We, as voyeurs in a very sad and tragic event, should go on with our lives and get back to being productive instead of watching this car wreck.
I seem to recall that there was some evidence that Campbell personally took efforts to conceal the sexual relationship with JDII and that he warned her against letting it be discovered.
I know that many poster believe that the evidence establishes that Campbell was a predator. If that is the evidence then it isn’t that Campbell did not understand that there were limitations, he just didn’t obey the limitations.
Seems to me that a COA is going to have a hard time finding any evidence that Campbell didn’t understand that there were limitations and that this lack of understanding that ESD was obligated to provide was what caused him to enter into the sexual relationship with JDII.
I believe the document you are talking about that was being handed out in the courtroom today was a copy of the jury charge which contained the specific questions for the jury to answer. From what I could see, it appeared to be the document that the judge was reading from. I saw people filling in the answers and numbers as the judge was reading them.
No winners here. Anywhere.
Agreed, except for one point: The winner here is Claire!!
Whatever PHP is paying her, it isn’t enough!
Passing judgment regarding the parents’ failure to miss the sexual abuse seems ridiculous at this point. Especially in light of all of the testimony in this case. It may make you feel better, but look out for that karma…
I guess you missed all those years of lawsuits against the Catholic church. Blaming the parents and victims didn’t bode well there either.