Seymour man gets $900k in abuse claim
Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT)
December 14, 2006
Author: MATTHEW HIGBEE
mhigbee@ctpost.comEstimated printed pages: 2
SEYMOUR - A town man sentenced to 20 years in a psychiatric hospital
for trying to kill his parents by burning down their house has won a
$900,000 judgement against a southern military academy for troubled
teenagers that he said tortured him. Joseph Gabriel Paolillo and his
father, Joseph Peter Paolillo, won the judgement Monday against the
Bethel Boys Academy, of Lucedale, Miss., in Mississippi federal court.
The elder Paolillo was awarded $59,709 in damages.
Routine beatings and mental abuse from a drill instructor with a pit
bull trained to bite in the crotch were alleged by the younger
Paolillo, who was 17 when he went to Bethel in 1998.
"They beat him viscously," his father said. "I feel relieved that some
satisfaction was given to my son, so he can seek professional
treatment and counseling."
Testifying from Whiting Forensic Institute in Middletown, the
25-year-old Paolillo described treatment at Bethel such as being made
to eat breakfast in 45 seconds and then roll around on the ground
until throwing up. A drill instructor, William Knotts, would sic a bit
bull on cadets given a head start to run across a field, Paolillo
testified. "I had bite marks on my groin," Paolillo said in his
testimony. "That's basically where the dog generally bit."
Paolillo was sent to Whiting after breaking into his parent's
residence on Julie Drive in Seymour on Dec. 16, 2003, with a 5-gallon
can of gasoline and setting the dining room floor afire.
Paolillo's attorney, George Yoder, said collecting on the judgement
would be difficult because the Bethel Academy has since closed and
apparently never had insurance.
Section: Local
(c) 2006 The Connecticut Post. All rights reserved. Reproduced with
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