Hope Cheston was 14 when she was raped by a security guard. Several lawyers said it was the largest verdict ever given to a sexual assault survivor.
Hope Cheston was 14 when, outside a friend’s birthday party in October 2012 in Jonesboro, Ga., an armed security guard at an apartment complex raped her on a picnic table.
For years, she thought she’d be forgotten like countless other sexual assault victims.
But on Tuesday, jurors in Clayton County, Ga., awarded her $1 billion in compensatory damages in a civil lawsuit against Crime Prevention Agency Inc., the security company that employed her rapist. Her lawyers believe it is, by far, the largest jury verdict ever awarded in the United States in a sexual assault case.
“My verdict basically shows if you stick with it and do what you need to do to get your justice, there’ll be a brighter end,” Ms. Cheston, now 20, said in an interview on Wednesday.
To be sure, Ms. Cheston — who gave The Times permission to use her name — almost certainly won’t end up a billionaire. The security company isn’t worth a billion dollars, and the amount of such a verdict could still be reduced by the judge.
But she and her lawyer both said the judgment offered a symbolic win for all sexual assault victims.
“A jury, from now on, will know there is no ceiling on the damages that rape causes to a woman,” her lawyer, L. Chris Stewart, said. “They literally thought a billion dollars was the value of a 14-year-old being raped in public.”
The security guard who attacked her, Brandon Lamar Zachary, 28, began serving a 20-year prison sentence for statutory rape in 2016.
The civil lawsuit, filed by Ms. Cheston’s mother in 2015, accused the security company of negligence in their training and performance and of failing to keep a 14-year-old girl safe. A message for the chief executive of Crime Prevention Agency was not responded to on Wednesday.
The judge in the civil suit had already ruled the company was liable for negligence, and the jurors were brought in to determine the amount of the damages. They appeared to be touched by Ms. Cheston’s story; after the verdict was read, several of them came over to hug her, she said.
Her therapist instructed her not to discuss the events of the day she was raped, she said. But she decided to speak publicly about her attack now because, while she’s not “over it,” she now feels she’s “in a comfortable spot,” and hopes her story can bring comfort or guidance to other survivors.
Ms. Cheston’s whole personality changed after the attack, she said. She was “very shut off,” losing friends and straining her relationship with her mother. She stayed inside more. She still distrusts authority figures, especially male ones, and wouldn’t feel comfortable going to the police in an emergency.
“Knowing that just one encounter can change your life forever is terrifying,” she said.
She’s now a sophomore at Fort Valley State University, majoring in social work, and volunteers helping the homeless during the summer, she said. She intends to continue working toward getting her degree.
The Times could not immediately confirm whether it was the largest verdict in United States history, but three lawyers who weren’t involved in the case said they believed it to be true. Most cases are settled for far less, said Brad Edwards, a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who specializes in victims of sexual abuse.
When coming up with a number, jurors consider factors like physical damage and mental anguish — concepts that are difficult to quantify, he said.
“If rape cases got tried and jurors understood the crippling effect that those types of events have on victims, you would see hundred-million-dollar verdicts rather frequently,” he said.
While Ms. Cheston’s case could be celebrated as a victory for sexual assault victims, there remains an enormous amount of obstacles for survivors in obtaining justice.
