$32 Million Verdict for Woman Sexually Assaulted at 14 by Two Hebron High School Football Players
Won by Aldous Law.
A Denton County jury awarded $32 million in February 2019 to a woman who was sexually assaulted at age 14 after two Hebron High School football players spiked her drink at a 2012 party, neither of whom had ever faced criminal charges.
What happened
On the night of September 28, 2012, a 14-year-old ninth-grader attending Hebron High School in Carrollton went to a party at a fellow student's home. Two older football players spiked her drink. She was then sexually assaulted by both of them outside the house. She reported the assault, but a grand jury returned a no-bill in the criminal case, and neither defendant was ever arrested or charged with a crime.
Seven years passed. The civil courts offered a different path. Dallas attorney Charla Aldous and her co-counsel Caleb Miller filed suit against both former players in the 462nd Judicial District Court in Denton County. The case went to trial in February 2019 before Judge Lee Ann Breading.
At trial, one defendant took the stand and told the jury that what happened was consensual. His only regret, he testified, was 'losing his virginity in that way.' The second defendant declined to answer questions, asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in a video deposition played to the jury.
The jury rejected both defenses. On February 28, 2019, jurors returned a unanimous verdict finding both men liable for aggravated sexual assault. They awarded $7 million in actual damages and $25 million in punitive damages, for a total of $32 million.
Aldous called her client 'a brave young woman who stood for what was right against all odds.' KRLD Dallas, which covered the verdict, described the award as one of the largest sexual assault verdicts ever. The Denton Record-Chronicle reported the full breakdown of the damages and noted that neither defendant had faced any prior criminal accountability for the 2012 assault.
The victim had first sued Lewisville ISD in federal court, alleging the district failed to protect her from harassment and bullying after she reported the assault. That case went to trial in federal court in Sherman in 2017, and the jury declined to find the school district liable, two years before the Denton County jury delivered its verdict against the two former players.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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