On February 8th 2024, in Jane Doe v. New York City Board of Education and Mark Waltzer, attorneys S. Michael Musa-Obregon, Karl Ashanti and Sami El Cherif obtained the largest jury verdict in New York State history for a child victim of sexual abuse under the NY Child Victims Act - $160 million in compensatory and punitive damages - against a NY City high school teacher.
Musa-Obregon Law concentrates in representing child and adult survivors of sexual abuse and assaults perpetrated by individuals working in private and public organizations. We represent survivors of abuse perpetrated by individuals employed by schools, police departments, churches, nursing homes, jails, private employers and other organizations and institutions.
Musa-Obregon Law successfully tries civil lawsuits against perpetrators of child sexual abuse and the institutions in which they operate. We prepare these cases with the expectation that the cases will be ultimately decided by a jury in a court of law and categorically reject settlement offers that do not fairly compensate for the grave damages caused by the perpetrators, and the likelihood of obtaining multimillion dollar jury verdicts in certain cases.
In Jane Doe v. New York City Board of Education and Mark Waltzer, the jury found that starting on or about 2000 the teacher, Mark Waltzer, engaged in a pattern of sexually abusing a 15 year-old Mexican immigrant girl at Frances Lewis High School in Queens, NY. Despite the survivor's different memories of the rape, and without any contemporaneous physical or medical evidence due to the passage of time, Musa-Obregon Law PC attorneys systematically corroborated her claims, and ultimately presented powerful psychological evidence at trial. The jury awarded our client $110 million in compensatory and $50 million in punitive damages.
We use preeminent psychological and psychiatric experts to marshal powerful scientific evidence and educate juries about the complexity of unreported sexual abuse and the frequently misunderstood behavior of sex crime survivors.
Headed by lead trial counsel Ashanti and Musa-Obregon, a former NYC sex crimes prosecutor with decades of experience defending sex crimes, our trial team anticipates and strategizes against all potential defenses by the perpetrators in our civil lawsuits. Mr. Ashanti spent over a decade defending New York City in the Special Federal Litigation Unit in police “abuse of power” cases. Mr. Ashanti is intimately familiar with the inner workings of NYC’s Corporation Counsel’s office which defends all city personnel including Teachers, Police and Corrections Officers, Doctors, Nurses and other staff and officials – and uses this unique advantage for our clients.
Learn more about the verdict here: https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2024/03/29/federal-jury-awards-record-nine-figure-verdict-to-child-victims-act-plaintiff/
If you or someone you know is a survivor of sexual abuse, it may not be too late to seek justice.
To schedule a free case evaluation, please contact us at 718-803-1000 and email us at michael@musa-obregon.com