Post by WaTcHeR on May 26, 2006 14:43:49 GMT -5
05.26.2006 - A Westmoreland County jury has awarded $502,820 in damages to a woman who claimed she was maliciously prosecuted by a county deputy.
In a verdict handed down Wednesday, the jury said sheriff's Deputy Michael S. Hayden must pay Jillian Sullivan Cates $102,820 in compensatory damages and $400,000 in punitive damages.
Cates charged that Hayden and two other defendants "acted with actual malice and in bad faith with intent to harm [Cates] by having her charged, arrested, indicted and tried for misdemeanor and felony crimes which could have resulted in long terms and prison."
Cates filed her civil suit last year against Hayden, Deputy C. Merrill Jones and former Westmoreland County Commonwealth's Attorney Peggy Evans Garland. Garland and Jones were eventually dropped as defendants in the case.
The motive of the defendants, Cates alleged, was "to extract revenge against [Cates] for suing members of the Westmoreland General District Court Clerk's office and/or their sheer personal dislike of [Cates]."
According to suit papers, Cates sued General District Court Clerk Jane Branson in 2001 alleging that Branson made disparaging remarks about her to Cates' boyfriend, a Virginia state trooper.
At the time, Cates was named Belinda Breeden. She later changed her name. Her suit against Branson was settled for $5,000, court papers said.
In November 2002, Cates reported the theft of her ATV to the Sheriff's Office. But Hayden and Jones charged Cates with defrauding her insurance company and filing a false police report.
Those charges were dismissed in General District Court in July 2003, but nine days later Hayden appeared before a grand jury, which indicted Cates on a similar insurance-fraud charge.
Cates said she never filed a claim for her stolen ATV. The grand jury also indicted her for perjury in October 2003. The next month, Richard Stuart unseated Garland as commonwealth's attorney.
In March 2004, Stuart dismissed both indictments against Cates.
Cates said in her suit that the prosecutions cost her employment, income and "significant attorney's fees."
The legal actions against her, she said, caused "emotional and physical mental stress, humiliation and embarrassment" and forced her to change her name and move outside the county.
Westmoreland circuit judges recused themselves from the case, which was heard by Fairfax Circuit Judge Jonathan C. Thacher.
The trial ran Monday and Tuesday. The jury began its deliberations Wednesday morning and returned its verdict about 4 p.m., Circuit Court Clerk Gwynne J. Chatham said.
In a verdict handed down Wednesday, the jury said sheriff's Deputy Michael S. Hayden must pay Jillian Sullivan Cates $102,820 in compensatory damages and $400,000 in punitive damages.
Cates charged that Hayden and two other defendants "acted with actual malice and in bad faith with intent to harm [Cates] by having her charged, arrested, indicted and tried for misdemeanor and felony crimes which could have resulted in long terms and prison."
Cates filed her civil suit last year against Hayden, Deputy C. Merrill Jones and former Westmoreland County Commonwealth's Attorney Peggy Evans Garland. Garland and Jones were eventually dropped as defendants in the case.
The motive of the defendants, Cates alleged, was "to extract revenge against [Cates] for suing members of the Westmoreland General District Court Clerk's office and/or their sheer personal dislike of [Cates]."
According to suit papers, Cates sued General District Court Clerk Jane Branson in 2001 alleging that Branson made disparaging remarks about her to Cates' boyfriend, a Virginia state trooper.
At the time, Cates was named Belinda Breeden. She later changed her name. Her suit against Branson was settled for $5,000, court papers said.
In November 2002, Cates reported the theft of her ATV to the Sheriff's Office. But Hayden and Jones charged Cates with defrauding her insurance company and filing a false police report.
Those charges were dismissed in General District Court in July 2003, but nine days later Hayden appeared before a grand jury, which indicted Cates on a similar insurance-fraud charge.
Cates said she never filed a claim for her stolen ATV. The grand jury also indicted her for perjury in October 2003. The next month, Richard Stuart unseated Garland as commonwealth's attorney.
In March 2004, Stuart dismissed both indictments against Cates.
Cates said in her suit that the prosecutions cost her employment, income and "significant attorney's fees."
The legal actions against her, she said, caused "emotional and physical mental stress, humiliation and embarrassment" and forced her to change her name and move outside the county.
Westmoreland circuit judges recused themselves from the case, which was heard by Fairfax Circuit Judge Jonathan C. Thacher.
The trial ran Monday and Tuesday. The jury began its deliberations Wednesday morning and returned its verdict about 4 p.m., Circuit Court Clerk Gwynne J. Chatham said.