It involves a boy named Jadiel Velesquez. When he was four months old, his father beat Jadiel so savagely that Jadiel, now four, is blind and permanently brain-damaged. He will require round-the-clock care for the rest of his life.
The case was tried last year. Jadiel's attorney noted the many failures of New Jersey's Department of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) to intervene when his maternal grandmother begged repeatedly for help. In one widely reported situation, the grandmother called the youth protection department after Jadiel's mother dropped him off for babysitting. Inside the boy's diaper bag, the grandmother found a crack cocaine pipe.
In fact, Jadiel's father had a distressing and violent history. By the age of 20, two years before Jadiel was born, the family's attorney noted, the man had been arrested 20 times. The father had battered other girlfriends and tossed a dog off an apartment balcony. And, honestly, Jadiel's mother did not use good judgment in having a baby with such a man and failed to protect their child from his rage.
"Come on, what else did they need to know?" Jadiel's attorney, speaking of DYFS, asked the jury. He had Jadiel rolled into the courtroom so jurors could observe the damaged child.
In negotiations before the jury ruling, New Jersey offered a $10 million settlement to take care of the child for life. Jadiel's family said no.
Last year, a jury awarded $166 million to Jadiel. All the money was to be paid by New Jersey's admittedly failed DYFS agency. No financial responsibility was assigned to the boy's father, who was serving six years for aggravated assault.
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This week, the judge in Jadiel's case reduced the $166 million award by $64 million. The judge said the jury had overestimated the cost of caring for Jadiel for the rest of his life by $30 million; the care would cost at most $75 million, the judge decreed. The judge also said the cost assessed to DYFS was too high; he knocked that down by 25 percent. The judge also said the jury erred in not assessing any damages against Jadiel's father, who injured him.
So now Jadiel and his grandmother, the only adult who seems to have cared about him, will collect more than $100 million, somewhat less after their attorney costs, which likely will be calculated as a percentage of the award.
Interestingly, the Star-Ledger of Newark said the judge found the jury "was not influenced by attempts to turn jury sentiment in favor of a defenseless child by playing to juror emotions."
Really? Wheeling a blind, brain-damaged four-year-old into a courtroom was not an attempt to turn jury sentiment?
Here's what I would have done if I were the judge: I would have let the jury's $166 million decision stand. I would have ordered that amount, net of per-hour attorney reimbursement (no John Edwards-style contingent fee), be put in a trust with two trustees, one medical and the other financial. The trustees would be charged with assuring that the damaged child received appropriate care for as long as he lived. I would make sure Jadiel's grandmother was supported as well, and that she would receive a six-figure settlement should she outlive Jadiel. After the boy died, I would have ordered whatever money remained in the trust to be returned to the state.
As I said, this was a ghastly case. But it was not a lottery. The jury was justly outraged, and it voiced its outrage with an enormous award. If the money were to come from Jadiel's father and mother and the pensions of the social workers who did not do their jobs, it would be fine with me. A state agency failed horribly, and now the state of New Jersey must do what it can to mitigate the suffering it allowed to happen. In fact, it can do quite a lot.
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There was another notorious case in New Jersey's Department of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) history, and unlike in the Jadiel case, the state's compensations to the victims strikes me as not enough.
It arose in 2004 when a "little kid," Bruce Jackson, was caught rummaging through a garbage can near his home, looking for food. The "child," four feet tall and weighing 45 pounds -- police estimated his age at 10 -- turned out to be 19 years old. He and his three younger brothers, adopted with DYFS approval, reported they sometimes ate wallboard when they were hungry, which appeared to have been all the time.
The Camden County prosecutor said, "They actually looked like children you'd see from third-world countries on television commercials."
Speaking of the boys' parents, a DYFS spokewoman said at the time, "They had cleared every background check every time they adopted another child. The court reports and adoption studies had lots and lots of positive things said about them, about being loving parents. The kids are described as very bright, friendly."
Great outfit, that DYFS.
Great outfit, that DYFS.
In addition to malnutrition, the boys had not seen a doctor or dentist in five years. Their teeth were rotting, and all had head lice. Their home had not had electricity for five months, and gas service had been cut off at least a month earlier.
Authorities said all four had been home-schooled, whatever that meant.
As in the above-mentioned Jadiel Velesquez case, this outrage went to trial.
Twenty-seven months later, Bruce Jackson faced his adoptive mother in court in 2006. By this point, he had gained 95 pounds and grown 15 inches in height.
He looked at his mother and said this: "You would make us eat pancake batter, dried-up grits and oatmeal, uncooked Cream of Wheat and raw potatoes instead of cooked food. You didn't take us to any doctor's appointments. You wouldn't let us watch TV or play with our toys. You wouldn't let us take a shower when we were dirty. You yelled us, cursed at us, hit us with brooms, rulers, sticks, shoes and belt buckles; I still have the marks to prove it."
As in the Jadiel case, New Jersey offered a settlement before the jury was convened: $5 million for Bruce and $7.5 million for his three younger brothers. They accepted the offer.
After many years of malnourishment and stunted growth, mental and physical, I doubt sincerely that these four brothers, with no parents or relatives to rely on, were ready to take care of themselves in the real world. Their lives will be difficult at best and, likely, tragic. Their legal representatives should have held out for more.
After this case case concluded, New Jersey undertook a $1 billion overhaul of its foster care program. Maybe things are much better now.
All I can say is this: If I knew a child who was in a vulnerable situation, I would abduct him or her and get out of New Jersey, no matter the consequences for me. The results in these two high-profile cases strike me as unsatisfying in many different ways.
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