That’s because it’s usually hidden away—behind barred windows and locked doors. We’ve heard it’s happening, we know it’s happening, but we don’t get to see it.
But all that changed when a video of a large female mental health worker torturing a small 13-year-old child, Charlie, shocked a Winchester, Virginia, Circuit Court jury, which watched in horror as she dragged Charlie across the floor by a shirt wrapped around his neck.
It took the seven-person jury just three hours of deliberation to award $20 million against both defendants.
Stunned by the inexcusable violence, the jury voted unanimously for a $20 million verdict against Grafton’s Berryville Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility in Virginia, and Michelle Yates, the worker who abused Charlie.
Grafton intentionally erased a separate video of the aftermath of the incident, preventing it from being produced as evidence.
But Clarke County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Patricia Putnam, who had viewed the “disappeared” camera footage, testified that the footage showed an abandoned Charlie screaming, seeking help and, in desperation, attempting to strangle himself. He was alone in that hallway for at least forty-two seconds before another staff member arrived.
So, already terrified and alone behind a slammed door, little Charlie was left with no one to help him.
It was a recipe for lasting trauma, and his attorneys demonstrated that was exactly what he endured.
“I did not intend to hurt [the plaintiff],” Yates said during the trial. “My number one priority was to keep [the plaintiff] safe.”
And how, exactly, was dragging the young boy across the room by a shirt wrapped around his neck and tossing him in a deserted corridor supposed to keep him “safe”?
It sounds like the only person Charlie needed to be kept safe from was Yates.
The plaintiff’s attorneys sought a $6 million award before trial—the limits of Grafton’s policy—but the insurance company offered just $60,000. The defense increased the offer to $500,000 a week before trial, then dropped it to $250,000 during trial (bad move).
It took the seven-person jury just three hours of deliberation to award $20 million against both defendants.
“We are thrilled,” said Gray Broughton, managing partner of Gray Broughton Injury Law, the firm that represented Charlie and his father. “The jury held the defendants accountable.… We are grateful that justice has been served for our client and his family.”
Charlie’s attorneys issued a haunting warning about psychiatric treatment facilities that brutalize and abuse children and the elderly.
“Every one of us has taken a loved one—be it a child, an elderly parent—and taken them to a school, a treatment center, a nursing home or a hospital. We did our research. We spoke with the people there. We shook their hands. And ultimately, we trusted that when we walked away … that our loved one would be safe.
“The case that you are going to hear over the next couple of days is about an institution that offered that trust and then broke it.”
With the jury’s landmark verdict, the psychiatric industry of abuse was held to rare account—this time.
But how many other facilities are doing the same—and hiding their actions behind deleted videos and closed doors?
