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Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) => Topic started by: Watchaduen on January 30, 2007, 10:31:20 AM
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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.
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Boot camp ordered to pay Seymour men $900G
Elizabeth Benton, Register Staff
12/16/2006
A Mississippi military boot camp has been ordered to pay $900,000 in a case involving a Seymour man who said he was tortured at the camp.
Joseph Peter Paolillo and his son, Joseph Gabriel Paolillo, 25, sued the Bethel Baptist Church boot camp of Lucedale, Miss., in 2002 claiming the younger Paolillo was tortured while at the boot camp in 1998.
The claim states Paolillo was denied medical treatment for two weeks for a broken bone that was protruding through his flesh.
While injured, Paolillo was beaten, rolled through the dirt and interrogated until he could not remember who he was, the claim states.
During Paolillo?s time at Bethel, the claim states his Italian heritage and sexuality were repeatedly insulted, and that school leaders encouraged the abusive behavior. School leaders owned a pit bull trained to attack students by biting them in their crotch area, the claim states, if they could not outrun the dog. The dog was also allowed to urinate and defecate in the student barracks, the claim states.
A school leader would regularly bite students? ears, bragging "how he could see sunlight through the open wound," the claim states.
The claim states Paolillo was told by school leaders if he told anyone about the beatings "they would find him and seek retribution no matter where he went in the country."
Bethel staff members could not be reached for comment.
While the boot camp was billed as a Christian organization, the suit claims Paolillo was mocked for his faith in God. According to the claim, the program leader preached "his respect for the money and power of the Mafia, Mafia gunfights, and the manner in which the Mafia dressed."
A jury in Mississippi awarded $900,000 to the Paolillos this month ? $14,855 to the elder Paolillo in actual damages, $15,000 in consequential damages, $28,855 in exemplary damages, and $150,000 for his son in actual damages in $750,000 in exemplary damages.
A class action suit in Mississippi federal court, which alleges similar abuses, is pending against Bethel. The boot camp is still in operation under the name Pine View Academy, said Paolillo?s Mississippi-based attorney, George Yoder. No criminal charges relating to Paolillo?s treatment have ever been brought against Bethel?s operators, Yoder said.
The elder Paolillo said he enrolled his son at Bethel while living in Washington state. He said his son made false charges of child abuse and was placed in foster care. Paolillo said he son was repeatedly sexually abused by a therapist at a children?s home in Washington.
"Being a Christian, I thought a Christian academy would be most appropriate, because of all the bizarre and dirty circumstances," the elder Paolillo said. "To start a child in a good Christian academy with the good book on one side and good academics on the other. ... I was never prepared for anything like this. Who in God?s name wishes something like this on a child?"
The younger Paolillo was sentenced to 20 years in a maximum-security psychiatric hospital in 2005 after setting his parents? Seymour home on fire. According to police, Paolillo had planned to kill his parents and himself Dec. 16, 2003, but couldn?t find a gun. No one was injured.
His father said he hopes to use money from the judgment to provide private therapy for Paolillo.
©New Haven Register 2007
http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm ... 7514&rfi=6 (http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17598867&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517514&rfi=6)
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Who in God?s name wishes something like this on a child?
I could answer this with a long list of programmies, but I think the question stands on its own...