Consumer Law

The Business of Compensating Abuse Victims

By Joe Consumer

Abuse victims sue to help rebuild their lives.  As we pointed out in one of ThePopTort?s very first posts almost three years ago today, the National Center for Victims of Crime once wrote to us:

"crime victims and their families often suffer significant financial losses in the aftermath of crime.  The criminal justice system does little to address the financial hardship resulting from crime."

Two interesting stories today reflect this theme in somewhat different ways.  One concerns the aftermath of the case against registered nurse Michael Monzel, who ?pleaded guilty in 2009 to possession and distribution of more than 800 images of child pornography.?  A judge has ordered what seems to be a very paltry amount in restitution to a child porn victim, and attorneys are fighting it.

As reported by the National Law Journal,

Last month, Senior U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler in Washington ordered Monzel, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence, to pay $5,000 to a victim identified as "Amy" in court papers. The "nominal" amount, as the judge called it, is a far cry from the more than $3 million that the victim's lawyers have demanded for counseling, lost income, expert witness costs and attorney fees.

District courts across the country are divided over whether ? and to what extent ? defendants in child pornography possession cases should have to pay for the losses a victim has suffered. There's minimal appellate guidance, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has not addressed the issue.

In late January, the 11th Circuit in Atlanta affirmed a restitution order of $12,700, bolstering the plaintiffs' effort in the Washington case in their fight for full restitution. "Like the producers and distributors of child pornography, the possessors of child pornography victimize the children depicted within," the 11th Circuit said. "The end users of child pornography enable and support the continued production of child pornography. They provide the economic incentive for the creation and distribution of the pornography, and the end users violate the child's privacy by possessing their image."

And in Colorado, ?Ten female Colorado prison inmates sued the department last month, claiming repeated acts of sex abuse by male corrections officers ? claiming that the state's Department of Corrections harbors an ?overt culture of sexual abuse? by prison guards, and department leaders have done little to stop it, according to a lawsuit pending in federal court.?

The facility was run by GRW Corp., which, they say, ?continued to employ officers suspected of abuse and failed to improve surveillance systems to reduce blind spots where abuse could occur, the suit says.?

A Corrections Department spokeswoman would not comment due to the pending litigation.  But the case ?comes not two years after a federal judge awarded $1.3 million in damages to another Colorado female inmate who alleged sexual assault by a guard. In making that award in 2009, Judge David M. Ebel said the sexual abuse of inmates in Colorado prisons was ?distressingly common.??

Full post as published by ThePopTort on February 08, 2011 (boomark / email).