A federal Justice of the Peace decide agreed final month that Peter McCarthy of Dorchester acted fully reprehensibly in demanding intercourse and nude photographs from ladies who moved into one in all his “sober homes” to attempt to get clear, however to not the extent of the $3.8 million in penalties a jury had awarded earlier within the 12 months to a number of of the ladies, and one man, as damages for violating the federal Honest Housing Act.
In his ruling, US District Court docket Justice of the Peace Decide Donald Cabell lowered the overall quantity McCarthy must pay the ladies in compensatory and punitive damages to $1.42 million.
Within the case of 1 lady, who fled one in all McCarthy’s Steps to Options homes after simply someday, Cabell acknowledged that the way in which McCarthy “demanded oral intercourse as cost and threatened to name her probation officer if she refused” was “was undoubtedly egregious and impactful, significantly the place it contributed to [her] relapse,” however mentioned that simply someday in one in all his homes was “in context remarkably transient and concerned no bodily contact” and so he lowered the jury’s whole award to her from $1.2 million to $150,000.
In a followup ruling at this time, Cabell gave the US Lawyer’s workplace in Boston – which sued McCarthy in 2021 on behalf of seven of Cabell’s former tenants – ten days to resolve whether or not to just accept his discount or to hunt a brand new trial to attempt to uphold the unique jury quantities.
Cabell additionally rejected the federal government’s request that he order McCarthy to rent an impartial firm to run his sober homes going ahead, however did conform to grant an injunction beneath which McCarthy has to swear he’ll cease “discriminating in opposition to others primarily based on intercourse, which incorporates coercing, intimidating, threatening, or interfering with housing rights” in violation of the Honest Housing Act.
The federal government had sued on behalf of six ladies residents of McCarthy’s sober homes – and one male tenant who testified his girlfriend would have intercourse with McCarthy to maintain the person from turning within the tenant every time he relapsed – charging that federal housing legislation makes it unlawful to discriminate in opposition to tenants on the idea of gender, or to demand sexual favors in return for housing.
Not like midway homes for individuals making an attempt to get better from substance abuse, sober houses have little authorities regulation. McCarthy ran sober houses in Dorchester, Roxbury and Lynn.
A jury present in favor of the tenants in Might and awarded them various quantities of compensation primarily based on their testimony.
McCarthy appealed the decision and the quantities – and mentioned he shouldn’t be requested to pay greater than $450,000 in damages.
In his ruling lowering the quantities, Cabell detailed his reasoning for every of the seven former tenants.
One of many ladies testified she stayed at one in all McCarthy’s homes for 3 days in 2009 after which two months in 2013:
She testified that McCarthy in 2019 [sic] required her to carry out oral intercourse in change for the transient time she was there, and in 2013 negotiated an association involving at the least one encounter of sexual activity every month in lieu of paying lease. [The woman] testified that they’d intercourse based on this association a number of occasions, which brought about her emotional misery. She additionally said that she relapsed after she left in 2013, though she was abusing substances earlier than she entered the house. The jury awarded [the woman] $300,000 in compensatory damages and $875,000 in punitive damages.
The courtroom leaves the compensatory damages award as it’s however will cut back the punitive damages award. Viewing the statutory damages scheme as instructive (however not controlling), and viewing the conduct right here as evincing repeated violations of the FHA, McCarthy fairly was on discover that his conduct may end in penalties of as much as $150,000. Given the reprehensibility of his conduct – extorting intercourse on a number of events – an award double that quantity, and equal to the quantity of compensatory damages, is justified. In sum, the courtroom declines to switch the $300,000 award of compensatory damages however reduces the punitive damages award to $300,000 as nicely, for a complete of $600,000.
The “statutory damages scheme” the decide referenced refers back to the $50,000 most penalty courts can levy as compensatory harm for a primary violation of the housing legislation, and as much as $100,000 for subsequent violations.
One other lady lived in one in all McCarthy’s homes between Might and September, 2021:
She testified that McCarthy incessantly made feedback about her physique and made her uncomfortable. He positioned his hand on her thigh and her buttocks on two totally different events and solicited sexually express footage (which she by no means despatched).
[She] left the house in response to this conduct and by no means retrieved or was returned her private belongings. The jury awarded her $115,000 in compensatory damages and $125,000 in punitive damages.
The courtroom leaves the compensatory damages untouched. The award arguably is excessive however doesn’t “exceed any rational appraisal or estimate of the damages that might be primarily based upon the proof earlier than it.” Gardner, 963 F.Supp.second at 87. Together with testimony evincing emotional misery, the jury may have thought-about the financial loss [she] suffered on account of her unreturned belongings.
The punitive damages award of $125,000, nonetheless, might be lowered to $60,000. McCarthy’s conduct was, to make sure, reprehensible the place the proof confirmed he subjected [the woman] to unwelcome bodily contact and solicited sexually express footage. That mentioned, there was no proof that [the woman] was financially susceptible, or that McCarthy demanded these favors in change for [her] continued tenancy, or that his conduct evinced “intentional malice, trickery, or deceit.” Additional, an award of $60,000 is extra according to the quantity of damages that may be imposed for a violation of the statute. For these causes, the courtroom leaves untouched the compensatory damages award of $115,000 however reduces the punitive damages award to $60,000, for a complete of $175,000.
