Seymour man gets $900k in abuse claim
> Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT)
> December 14, 2006
> Author: MATTHEW HIGBEE
[email protected]> Estimated 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
> the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.