Sonoma County Jury Finds Care Agency Negligent in Caregiver Hiring and Supervision, Awards $4.8 Million
After trial: The jury awarded $6 million and assigned the agency 80 percent of fault, so about $4.8 million stands against it; the caregiver's 20 percent share is moot after his Chapter 7 filing. The agency has said it is evaluating appellate review.
Won by Cerri, Boskovich & Allard.
A Sonoma County jury found Becoming Independent, a Santa Rosa care nonprofit, negligent in hiring and supervising an in-home caregiver accused of sexually assaulting a 53-year-old man with the mental capacity of a five-year-old. The jury set total damages at $6 million and assigned 80 percent of fault to the agency, about $4.8 million. The caregiver's 20 percent share is moot because of his bankruptcy. The agency says it is evaluating appellate review.
What happened
After a trial that began in May, a Sonoma County Superior Court jury in Santa Rosa returned a $6 million verdict on June 1, 2026, in a lawsuit brought by the family of a 53-year-old man with the mental capacity of a five-year-old. The jury found Becoming Independent, a Santa Rosa nonprofit that provides in-home and day services to adults with developmental disabilities, negligent in hiring and supervising a caregiver and put 80 percent of the fault on the agency, about $4.8 million.
The suit was filed in February 2024. It alleged that the agency assigned a 20-year-old caregiver to the man from August 2021 to March 2022, after an earlier caregiver was found intoxicated at his home. The plaintiffs said the new hire was a high school dropout without relevant experience, that his resume was inaccurate, and that he was placed under the supervision of his aunt, who also worked at the agency, contrary to the agency's own policy against relatives working together. They also said the caregiver sexually assaulted the man. The man's sister, who is his conservator, saw the caregiver masturbating in the home on an in-home safety camera and called the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, which led to his removal.
Plaintiffs' counsel also argued that the agency failed to train staff on what to report, and the jury found that a separate caregiver, a mandated reporter, did not notify authorities of suspected abuse, in violation of agency policy and state law. According to the plaintiffs' account, the man referred to the caregiver as a bad man and became so fearful that he would use a water bottle rather than walk past the caregiver to reach the bathroom. Attorney Mark Boskovich of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard, who represented the man and his sister, said the jury saw through the corporate denial.
The defense disputed the allegations. A former director of supported living acknowledged the intoxicated caregiver and the camera incident but denied the assault and the hiring claims. The agency's chief executive said trial evidence contradicted the hiring and supervision allegations and that jurors were not told the caregiver was never criminally charged. The caregiver's own attorney argued there was no DNA, medical or eyewitness evidence and that the man's statements had been influenced by a relative. The plaintiffs said the defense tried to blame the man's sister for inventing the account.
The jury found the caregiver responsible for the remaining 20 percent. That share has no practical effect: he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2025 and the plaintiffs asked that he be dismissed just before trial, so the agency's 80 percent share, about $4.8 million, is the amount that stands. The sources do not break the $6 million into economic and noneconomic parts.
After the verdict, the agency said the result did not reflect all the facts and that its counsel had identified issues that may warrant appellate review. The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office, which declined to prosecute in August 2023 for insufficient evidence under the criminal standard, said it was reviewing the trial transcripts to decide whether charges were warranted.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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Related sexual abuse verdicts
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A St. Charles County jury awarded $247.3 million to six women sexually assaulted by an unlicensed massage therapist at Oasis Foot Spa & Massage in St. Peters, finding the spa and its owner liable for hiring him without any background check and ignoring an early complaint. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in full in 2024.