Hope Cheston was 14 when, outside a friend’s birthday party in October 2012 in Jonesboro, Ga., an armed security guard at an apartment complex raped her on a picnic table.

For years, she thought she’d be forgotten like countless other sexual assault victims.

But on Tuesday, jurors in Clayton County, Ga., awarded her $1 billion in compensatory damages in a civil lawsuit against Crime Prevention Agency Inc., the security company that employed her rapist. Her lawyers believe it is, by far, the largest jury verdict ever awarded in the United States in a sexual assault case.

“My verdict basically shows if you stick with it and do what you need to do to get your justice, there’ll be a brighter end,” Ms. Cheston, now 20, said in an interview on Wednesday.

To be sure, Ms. Cheston — who gave The Times permission to use her name — almost certainly won’t end up a billionaire. The security company isn’t worth a billion dollars, and the amount of such a verdict could still be reduced by the judge.

But she and her lawyer both said the judgment offered a symbolic win for all sexual assault victims.

“A jury, from now on, will know there is no ceiling on the damages that rape causes to a woman,” her lawyer, L. Chris Stewart, said. “They literally thought a billion dollars was the value of a 14-year-old being raped in public.”

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The security guard who attacked her, Brandon Lamar Zachary, 28, began serving a 20-year prison sentence for statutory rape in 2016.

The civil lawsuit, filed by Ms. Cheston’s mother in 2015, accused the security company of negligence in their training and performance and of failing to keep a 14-year-old girl safe. A message for the chief executive of Crime Prevention Agency was not responded to on Wednesday.

The judge in the civil suit had already ruled the company was liable for negligence, and the jurors were brought in to determine the amount of the damages. They appeared to be touched by Ms. Cheston’s story; after the verdict was read, several of them came over to hug her, she said.

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Her therapist instructed her not to discuss the events of the day she was raped, she said. But she decided to speak publicly about her attack now because, while she’s not “over it,” she now feels she’s “in a comfortable spot,” and hopes her story can bring comfort or guidance to other survivors.

Ms. Cheston’s whole personality changed after the attack, she said. She was “very shut off,” losing friends and straining her relationship with her mother. She stayed inside more. She still distrusts authority figures, especially male ones, and wouldn’t feel comfortable going to the police in an emergency.

“Knowing that just one encounter can change your life forever is terrifying,” she said.

She’s now a sophomore at Fort Valley State University, majoring in social work, and volunteers helping the homeless during the summer, she said. She intends to continue working toward getting her degree.

The Times could not immediately confirm whether it was the largest verdict in United States history, but three lawyers who weren’t involved in the case said they believed it to be true. Most cases are settled for far less, said Brad Edwards, a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who specializes in victims of sexual abuse.

When coming up with a number, jurors consider factors like physical damage and mental anguish — concepts that are difficult to quantify, he said.

“If rape cases got tried and jurors understood the crippling effect that those types of events have on victims, you would see hundred-million-dollar verdicts rather frequently,” he said.

While Ms. Cheston’s case could be celebrated as a victory for sexual assault victims, there remains an enormous amount of obstacles for survivors in obtaining justice.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3985480&forum_id=2#36119226)

http://ssfjustice.com/about-us/l-chris-stewart/

L. Chris Stewart is a managing Partner ofStewart, Seay & Felton Trial Attorneys,a personal injury litigation law firm. Chris handles a variety of cases including motor vehicle collisions, wrongful death, civil rights, and shootings or sexual assaults. Some of his notable results include having won over $100 million dollars in settlements and verdicts in his career including a record $5.1 million negligent security settlement, the first $1.5 million jury verdict in rural Camden County, three record civil rights settlements, and Minnesota’s largest trampoline park injury settlement for $3 million dollars. Chris is also recognized worldwide for his civil rights cases including Walter Scott, a South Carolina man shot in the back on video by a police officer that settled for $6.5 million dollars, the highest in South Carolina history and led to a twenty-year prison sentence for the officer.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3985480&forum_id=2#36119241)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3985480&forum_id=2#36119477)

cr age is flame and you can maek it anytime no matter what

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3985480&forum_id=2#36119489)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hope-cheston-rape-victim-wins-1-billion-verdict-against-security-company/

Georgia jurors award $1 billion to rape victim, leave jury box to hug her

AP May 24, 2018, 8:29 AM

Brandon Lamar Zachary

Clayton County PD

ATLANTA -- A Georgia jury has awarded an eye-popping $1 billion verdict against a security company after an apartment complex guard was convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl. Hope Cheston was outside by some picnic tables with her boyfriend during a party in October 2012 when an armed security guard approached, attorney L. Chris Stewart told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The guard told the boyfriend not to move and raped Cheston, Stewart said.

The guard, identified in the lawsuit as Brandon Lamar Zachary, was convicted of statutory rape and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, according to online prison records.

Renatta Cheston-Thornton filed a lawsuit in March 2015 on behalf of her daughter, who was still a minor at the time. The jury on Tuesday handed down the verdict against Crime Prevention Agency, the security company that employed Zachary.

Zachary, who was 22 at the time of the rape, should never have been hired because he wasn't licensed to be an armed guard, Stewart said.

The judge had already determined the security company was liable, so the jury was only determining damages, Stewart said. After reading the verdict, Stewart said, jurors immediately left the jury box - without waiting for the judge's permission - to hug Cheston and her mother.

Attempts by the AP to reach the company for comment were unsuccessful. Online corporate registration information for Crime Prevention Agency shows that it was dissolved in 2016. The phone at a number listed online for Mario Watts, who's named on the corporate registration as the CEO and identified in the lawsuit as the company's registered agent, rang unanswered Wednesday.

The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual assault, but Cheston, who's now 20, said she wanted her name used. A full-time college student who plans to spend her summer working with an organization in downtown Atlanta that helps homeless people, Cheston said she wants her story to provide strength for other sexual assault victims.

A lot of women who suffer sexual assault don't pursue justice, choosing instead to put it behind them, she said in a phone interview Wednesday.

"I feel like my case is just to show that you may not get it immediately, but you will get what you're worth," Cheston said. "This shows that people do care about the worth of a woman."

Stewart, who has tried a lot of sexual assault cases, said he was shocked when he heard the verdict. He said he had asked jurors to really determine the value of the pain caused by the rape.

"I was really proud of the jury because there is no basis in the legal world for how high a rape verdict can be," he said.

Verdicts in the tens of millions of dollars, or even hundreds of millions, are not uncommon, Jeff Dion, director of the National Crime Victim Bar Association said in an email. But he's never heard of a $1 billion verdict in a case with a single victim.

"This jury was clearly trying to send a message about bad conduct on the part of the company," Dion wrote.

It is more than likely that the security company will appeal the verdict, said Georgia State University law professor Jessica Gabel Cino. An appeals court would consider the reasonableness of the verdict and would also compare it to those awarded in similar cases to see if it's proportional, and it will likely be lowered, she said.

Cino agreed that this verdict was highly unusual but said the allegations in the case seemed especially egregious.

"The facts are just so in the plaintiff's favor when you put all of this together," she said. "I mean, it's really kind of serving up the right case on a platter to the jury."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3985480&forum_id=2#36119492)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/us/georgia-assault-billion-dollars.html

Woman Who Was Raped as a Teenager Is Awarded $1 Billion in Damages

May 23, 2018

From right, Hope Cheston, who was 14 when she was raped by a security guard at an apartment complex; her lawyer, L. Chris Stewart; and her mother, Renetta Cheston-Thornton.Stewart, Seay & Felton Trial Attorneys

Hope Cheston was 14 when, outside a friend’s birthday party in October 2012 in Jonesboro, Ga., an armed security guard at an apartment complex raped her on a picnic table.

For years, she thought she’d be forgotten like countless other sexual assault victims.

But on Tuesday, jurors in Clayton County, Ga., awarded her $1 billion in compensatory damages in a civil lawsuit against Crime Prevention Agency Inc., the security company that employed her rapist. Her lawyers believe it is, by far, the largest jury verdict ever awarded in the United States in a sexual assault case.

“My verdict basically shows if you stick with it and do what you need to do to get your justice, there’ll be a brighter end,” Ms. Cheston, now 20, said in an interview on Wednesday.

To be sure, Ms. Cheston — who gave The Times permission to use her name — almost certainly won’t end up a billionaire. The security company isn’t worth a billion dollars, and the amount of such a verdict could still be reduced by the judge.

But she and her lawyer both said the judgment offered a symbolic win for all sexual assault victims.

“A jury, from now on, will know there is no ceiling on the damages that rape causes to a woman,” her lawyer, L. Chris Stewart, said. “They literally thought a billion dollars was the value of a 14-year-old being raped in public.”

The security guard who attacked her, Brandon Lamar Zachary, 28, began serving a 20-year prison sentence for statutory rape in 2016.

The civil lawsuit, filed by Ms. Cheston’s mother in 2015, accused the security company of negligence in their training and performance and of failing to keep a 14-year-old girl safe. A message for the chief executive of Crime Prevention Agency was not responded to on Wednesday.

The judge in the civil suit had already ruled the company was liable for negligence, and the jurors were brought in to determine the amount of the damages. They appeared to be touched by Ms. Cheston’s story; after the verdict was read, several of them came over to hug her, she said.

Her therapist instructed her not to discuss the events of the day she was raped, she said. But she decided to speak publicly about her attack now because, while she’s not “over it,” she now feels she’s “in a comfortable spot,” and hopes her story can bring comfort or guidance to other survivors.

Ms. Cheston’s whole personality changed after the attack, she said. She was “very shut off,” losing friends and straining her relationship with her mother. She stayed inside more. She still distrusts authority figures, especially male ones, and wouldn’t feel comfortable going to the police in an emergency.

“Knowing that just one encounter can change your life forever is terrifying,” she said.

She’s now a sophomore at Fort Valley State University, majoring in social work, and volunteers helping the homeless during the summer, she said. She intends to continue working toward getting her degree.

The Times could not immediately confirm whether it was the largest verdict in United States history, but three lawyers who weren’t involved in the case said they believed it to be true. Most cases are settled for far less, said Brad Edwards, a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who specializes in victims of sexual abuse.

When coming up with a number, jurors consider factors like physical damage and mental anguish — concepts that are difficult to quantify, he said.

“If rape cases got tried and jurors understood the crippling effect that those types of events have on victims, you would see hundred-million-dollar verdicts rather frequently,” he said.

While Ms. Cheston’s case could be celebrated as a victory for sexual assault victims, there remains an enormous amount of obstacles for survivors in obtaining justice.

Doris Burke contributed research.

A version of this article appears in print on May 24, 2018, on Page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Jury in Georgia Returns $1 Billion Judgment for the Victim in a Sexual Assault Case. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3985480&forum_id=2#36119495)

He's handled a lot of big $$$ cases and fuckin' GAPED the other side.

He's doing God's Work.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3985480&forum_id=2#36119606)