Champaign County Jury Awards $535 Million Against Psychiatric Facility for Rape of 13-Year-Old Patient

On December 5, 2020, a 13-year-old girl admitted to the adolescent unit of The Pavilion Behavioral Health System in Champaign, Illinois, was sexually assaulted by a 16-year-old male patient. The attack was not a random breakdown in supervision. According to evidence presented at trial, the male patient and an accomplice deliberately applied toothpaste to the lenses of surveillance cameras roughly 75 minutes before the assault, eliminating the facility's ability to monitor the hallway. A staff member was then lured away to retrieve a towel after water was spilled nearby, and the girl was signaled to enter the boy's room. The assault lasted approximately eight minutes before she left.

The victim's mother filed suit on her daughter's behalf in 2021, alleging that The Pavilion operated its adolescent unit with chronic understaffing, no dedicated hallway monitors, no personnel assigned to watch live surveillance feeds, and mixed-sex housing arrangements that created foreseeable risk. Injuries documented in the case included PTSD, loss of normal life, and ongoing psychological harm.

The Simon Law Firm's trial team -- John G. Simon, Timothy M. Cronin, and Nathan Perlmutter -- presented expert testimony from a pediatric psychiatrist, a hospital security specialist, and a psychologist to establish that the facility's systemic failures, rather than the assault alone, proximately caused the plaintiff's injuries. Defense counsel from Hall Prangle and Schoonveld and Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell contested liability and damages.

On March 28, 2024, the jury returned a verdict of $535 million: $60 million in compensatory damages and $475 million in punitive damages. Judge Jason Bohm presided. Missouri Lawyers Media and the Champaign News-Gazette, both staffed-reporter outlets covering the trial, reported the verdict as the largest known single-plaintiff award in Illinois history at the time of publication. In post-trial proceedings later in 2024, Judge Bohm reduced the punitive award from $475 million to $120 million -- finding wanton disregard but no actual malice -- while leaving the $60 million in compensatory damages intact, for a total judgment of $180 million. The parties subsequently settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.