$2.28 Billion Verdict for a Woman Her Stepfather Raped From Age 5 to 14 in a Lake Elsinore Home and at Church Events

The plaintiff was five years old in 1987 when her stepfather began sexually abusing her. She was living with her mother and stepfather in Lake Elsinore, in Riverside County, and both parents were active in the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to the lawsuit, the stepfather used church doctrine to groom her from the start, and the assaults happened both at home and at church events, meetings and property. The abuse continued for roughly nine years, until she was 14.

She did not stay silent. While it was happening she told several members of the church, including a bishop. Instead of calling the police, the bishop gathered the girl, her mother and her stepfather in a joint meeting, talked about repentance, and instructed her to forgive him. She later told a second bishop, and said she was shamed into silence by that bishop and other church counselors, who warned her that disclosing what was happening would send her to prison and harm her family. Her mother, the suit alleged, knew about the abuse and kept sharing a home with the man. The lawsuit said the abuse brought her to the brink of suicide.

In 1997, as a high school student in Lake Elsinore, she noticed her stepfather looking at her basketball teammates in a way that frightened her. She told her coach, the coach told a counselor, and the stepfather was arrested the same day. He pleaded guilty to lewd acts on a child under 14 and spent three years in state prison. Her mother stayed married to him for two more years after the conviction, and church members sat in the courtroom to support him.

California's Assembly Bill 218 opened a three-year window, closing at the end of 2022, for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse to sue no matter how old the claims were. She filed under it as Jane Doe, naming her stepfather, her mother and the church. The church denied wrongdoing and settled its part of the case for $1 million in December 2022. Her mother settled for $200,000 in February 2023.

That left the stepfather. In a sworn deposition he admitted the rape and molestation. Then, on the first day of jury selection, he did not show up. Rather than face a warrant for his arrest, he withdrew his answer to the lawsuit, which meant his attorney could not participate in the trial. The case went to the jury on the plaintiff's evidence alone.

Gary A. Dordick of Dordick Law Corporation tried the case, and he said publicly that it was his first jury trial with his two daughters, Michelle Dordick and Taylor Dordick, at counsel table with him. After three days of deliberation, on April 25, 2023, the Riverside County Superior Court jury returned a verdict of $2.28 billion: $836 million in compensatory damages and $1.44 billion in punitive damages. Dordick described it as the largest award ever for a single victim of childhood sexual assault.

The plaintiff, now about 40, said through her lawyer that what she wanted was for her abuser to be held responsible. The Los Angeles Times noted the obvious: with the stepfather the only remaining defendant, the award is largely symbolic and unlikely ever to be paid in full. No appeal has surfaced in public records, which is consistent with a defendant who withdrew from the case before trial began.