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 judgment against a Southern Christian military boot camp where he said he was tortured. Joseph Gabriel Paolillo and his father, Joseph Peter Paolillo, won the judgment in Mississippi federal court Monday against the Bethel Boys Academy of Lucedale, Miss.
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."
The judgment against Bethel and William Knotts, a drill instructor there, was issued by Louis Guirola, a Republican judge appointed by President Bush.
"The judge called the abuse something reminiscent of 'medieval torture,' " said George Yoder, a Jackson, Miss., attorney for the Paolillos. Yoder added that collecting the settlement will be difficult because Bethel has closed, although the facility has reopened under a new name.
"We're going to do the best we can. At the end of the day, I feel vindicated, and my clients feel vindicated," he said.
Joseph Gabriel Paolillo said he is "happy with the judgment," adding that he hoped it would help other former cadets.
The parents of eight former Bethel cadets also have a pending civil case against Bethel and its founder, the Rev. Herman Fountain.
State officials sought to close Bethel in 2003, after investigators contended that boys were struck, denied medical attention for illness or injuries, and shocked with a cattle prod or stun gun. The academy was allowed to stay open after agreeing to a consent decree that forced policy changes and the ouster of Fountain.
The school is now operating as Pine View Academy and run by Fountain's son, John Fountain.
Yoder said Herman Fountain was dropped from the Paolillo lawsuit after it became clear he had no assets to go after. Fountain now operates City of Refuge, a home for men 18 and older who abuse drugs and alcohol. He did not return a message seeking comment Thursday. The younger Paolillo was a troubled teenager who was abused before attending Bethel. While living in Washington State, he was placed in foster care at age 11 after accusing his father of abusing him, a claim he later recanted. Paolillo later claimed he was molested in two group homes. His testimony was used in a criminal case against a counselor, Kenneth Bell, who pleaded guilty last year to two counts of child sexual abuse.
The elder Paolillo said that Bethel was recommended to him as a good place for his son after the ordeal in Washington.
"I was convinced that the Bible Belt was the best place to make a complete turnaround. I was not prepared for such a complete horror story," he said. His son left Bethel shortly before he turned 18 and was unable to hold a job. His parents had moved to Seymour, and he came north, living for a time at the Ansonia YMCA. On Dec. 16, 2003, Paolillo broke into his parents' Julie Drive home and set the dining room floor on fire with gasoline. He confessed to police two days later, saying he originally wanted to shoot his parents with an M-16 assault rifle but resorted to arson when the weapon was unavailable, police said. Found mentally unfit to stand trial, Paolillo was ordered to Whiting Forensic Institute in Middletown for 20 years, where he is in a high security ward. Now 25, Paolillo gave a deposition from Whiting that was critical to the judgment against Bethel, Yoder said. In his testimony, Paolillo said he had confided about the sexual abuse to Fountain, who afterward stared calling him "faggot" in front of others. He described Bethel drill instructors making him eat breakfast in 45 seconds and then forcing him to roll around on the ground until throwing up. He said Knotts would sic a pit 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 also testified that he tried to commit suicide by jumping off a second-floor balcony. After losing consciousness, Paolillo said when he came to, Knotts, Herman Fountain, and other senior cadets were punching him and making fun of him. They made him do push-ups with a broken elbow, he said, and prevented him from going to the hospital for two weeks. Paolillo said any time he talked to his parents on the telephone, a Bethel drill instructor was right next to him to make sure he didn't report any abuse.
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