Sexual Abuse
In Connecticut, sexual abuse continues to manifest itself in many and varied contexts producing grief and significant personal injury to the vicitms. The impact on those affected is well recognized in the medical literature to leave behind life long emotional and psychological scarring, significantly increasing the risk of depression and even suicide. Just last year my office resolved one such case involving a Connecticut licensed psychologist who was actually treating a married female patient for depression when he engaged in sexual relations with her. Due to the well known psychological dependency which necesssarily occurs in the course of mental health theraputic counceling the patient is rendered particularly vulnerable to their therapist and is perhaps the primary reason that a doctor/patient sexual or even social relationship is considered a breach of the physician's fiduciary duty to his or her patient. In this particular case, the patient wound up with a destroyed marriage, a weakened relationship with her children and ultimately tried to commit suicide twice before reaching a point of relative stability and acceptance. The result of the litigation and complaint brought against the health care provider in question is that he lost his license to practice in the State( and now sells insurance). Of course, there was a substantial settlement paid with part of the money coming from the doctor''s liability insurance company and part of it coming from his personal assets.
In the last few years, a number of high profile sexual abuse cases have made the news and gained public awareness of the problem. Members of the Clergy have been made to pay substantial settlements for their past and often remote behavior. Connecticut provides for a very generous statute of limitaions when allegations of sexual abuse are Deinvolved. Sometimes the abuse is perpetrated by family members or those that are in a position of authority and control over others,particularly children. Last year, my office resolved a case brought against the State of Connecticut's Department of Children and Family Services Several children had been placed in Foster care by this State agency and this resulted in a wide variety of abuse and neglect over an extended period of time. While initially denying that this was occuring and refusing to take remedial action such as promptly removing the children involved, the State ultimately did so and proceeded to defend the case brought on behalf of the children with vigor. Prior councel who had brought the case suffered a dismissal at the administrative level. My office corrected that and obtained permission to sue the State which we did. In fostering the substantial settlement obtained on behalf of the children, we were able to establish that connecticut case law would hold the State liable for the errors and neglect of their foster care parents chosen by them on the theory that the foster care parents were mere agents of the State who continued to have custody and control of the minor children placed in their care. That the State was merely delegating its non-delegable duty to care and protect these children . Particularly disturbing was the realization that there was a track record of significant deficiencies that were systemic and subject to a federal consent order which the State had not fully implemented. Therefore, it is important for private litigants to continue to come forward s o both the embarassment and financial cost of tolerating this conduct promotes a higher level of care and oversight by those in the best position to bring this about. Notably, there is a special extended statute of limitations that exists in Connecticut which allows for the pursuit of such civil cases seeking monetary compensation many years after the conduct occured. If you have the basis and courage to proceed I urge you to contact me now.
"The profession of law is not just a business. It transcends a mere occupation. It is a lifelong communal pursuit of justice."
Justice Peter T. Zarella
