A Lake Elsinore woman has won a $2.28 billion default verdict against her stepfather who she claimed had abused her for years, starting when she was 6 years old. The stepfather failed to show up during the third day of trial.
The case also resulted in a Dec. 22 $995,000 settlement that released the co-defending Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from being a defendant in the lawsuit.
The April 25 verdict is split into $836,000 in damages to cover the woman’s pain and suffering, and $1.44 billion in punitive damages against the stepfather.
Follow Our Courts reached out to Gary Dordick of Beverly Hills’ Dordick Law Corp. for comment. Dordick represented the plaintiff along with John Upton and Golnar Monfared of the same firm, and with Mark Flores of Santa Barbara’s Crane Flores, LLP. Follow Our Courts also reached out to Lisa Trepanier of North Hollywood’s Trepanier Tajima, who represented the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Gary Saunders of Newport Beach’s Saunders and Associates, who represented the stepfather.
The abuse began in 1987 and ended in 1997, after the girl told her basketball coach about the abuse, and she alerted the police. The stepfather was alerted that same day, and pleaded guilty to all charges, and was sentenced on 55 counts, her complaint says.
Throughout the abuse, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints supported the stepfather, her complaint says.
She told Bishop Tyler Smithson about the abuse after church in 1994, the complaint said. Instead of contacting law enforcement, he scheduled a meeting between him, the stepfather and the girl’s mother. After the meeting ended, Smithson invited the girl to join them, and told them that God forgives them, the complaint said. He then told the girl to hug her stepfather, tell him she forgave him and then to go home with them.
Smithson’s response encouraged the stepfather to commit more acts of sexual abuse, the woman’s complaint said, and caused her to seriously consider suicide.
She then reached out to Smithson’s wife, and told her she was considering suicide due to the abuse. Smithson deferred to her husband, who told the girl that suicide is a sin.
She then told another member of the church, who was 19 years old, about the abuse, the complaint continues. He deferred to his father, Bishop Rocky Snider, who, she alleges, then intimidated the girl into silence by threatening prison and asking if she was committing the sins of being sexually active or drinking alcohol.
During the stepfather’s sentencing, only the girl’s teacher sat on her side of the courtroom. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sat on the stepfather’s side, the complaint says. The girl’s mother remained married to the stepfather for two years after his sentence, the complaint said.
“Plaintiff still suffers emotionally because of her mother…who knew (the stepfather) was a sexual predator and yet continued to recognize him as Plaintiff’s stepfather,” the complaint says.
Case No. CVRI2100419.
Read Doe’s complaint here.
