Judge cuts $44 million verdict in sexual misconduct case

A federal magistrate judge has slashed the $44 million jury award to a former female Las Cruces high school student who was the victim of sexual misconduct by her agricultural teacher.

Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Wormuth ruled that the young woman, identified as T.R., can either collect a total of $6.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages or proceed with a new jury trial on compensatory damages only. She has until Thursday to notify the judge.

After a weeklong trial in March, a federal jury decided that T.R., who now lives out of state, should receive $11 million in compensatory damages, and $33 million in punitive damages.

But Wormuth concluded the amount awarded was unconstitutionally excessive, and the compensatory damages were far more than has been awarded in “truly comparable cases,” according to his May 31 ruling.

T.R.’s former teacher, Patrick Howard, pleaded guilty in 2021 to criminal sexual contact of a minor and battery involving two female high school students who reported he had sexually groomed them and touched them inappropriately at school, or while they were asleep on school-related trips. He taught agricultural science at Las Cruces High School and was the advisor for the school’s chapter of Future Farmers of America at the time. He was placed on five years of probation.

The federal civil lawsuit filed by T.R. alleged Howard’s criminal behavior, which occurred during the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years, violated her constitutional right to equal protection. Howard conceded as much just before closing arguments in the trial. That left the jurors to decide only the amount of damages that should be awarded.

The young woman’s Las Cruces attorney, Mollie McGraw, declined to comment on Monday, but released a statement from her client.

“I don’t really have an idea of what I’m going to do because I didn’t think it was possible to be disappointed any further,” stated T.R. who graduated from college and is now attending veterinary school. “I would like to do right by the other girls involved and myself, but I’m having a hard time figuring out how to do that. I would like to thank the jurors for their service and making me feel heard.”

T.R. testified at trial that she faced bullying at school after Howard left his teaching job, and felt alienated and silenced by her community because they did not believe her experience. She still experiences panic attacks, nightmares, and post-traumatic stress, the judge wrote in his ruling.

In granting the motion filed by Howard’s attorney to reduce the $44 million award, Wormuth stated in his ruling, “Given the emotional distress suffered by Plaintiff, there is (no) doubt that Plaintiff is entitled to a substantial award. However, the evidence simply does not support an award of this degree.”

“Although the jury heard evidence that Plaintiff’s mental and emotional distress which occurred as a result of Defendant Howard’s sexual misconduct was and is severe, there is no evidence to support a finding that Plaintiff’s distress should be compensated with $11 million,” stated the 35-page ruling.

Based on the compensatory damages award alone, T.R. would receive about $169,000 per year “between the beginning of Defendant Howard’s misconduct and the end of her life,” the judge wrote. Noting how her “own grit and determination have helped her overcome the damage that Defendant Howard’s actions inflicted upon her,” the judge wrote that he could “reconcile a damage award of $169,000 a year for the rest of her life with the evidence of her systems as well as her behavior and personal successes after the events underlying the lawsuit.”

Wormuth also found that throughout the trial there were potential sources of passion or prejudice which likely led the jury to award the excessive compensatory damages.

He noted that because Howard did not admit liability until the close of evidence, the issue at trial was whether he touched the girl for his own sexual gratification. Because of that, Wormuth allowed several other former students of Howard to testify about his sexual misconduct against them.

In considering the reprehensibility of what occurred, the judge found Howard’s harm to T.R. was physical and emotional. His grooming of her occurred over several years and inappropriately touched her in multiple areas of her body on multiple occasions. He took advantage of his position of power to touch her over two years, but the judge found Howard didn’t undertake more severe sexual misconduct that resulted in injury or that he touched her under her clothes or forced her to engage in sexual acts.

So he set the amount in compensatory damages at $3.25 million, with the same amount in punitive damages. Howard had asked for a compensatory damage award of $1 to $1.5 million and an equal or lesser amount in punitive damages.

Compensatory damages are intended to redress the concrete loss that the plaintiff has suffered because of the wrongful conduct. Punitive damages are intended to punish a defendant and deter future similar conduct by Howard and others.

But Wormuth ruled that $33 million in punitive damages is far more money than is necessary to punish Howard to deter him (or any other teacher) “from engaging in this kind of sexual misconduct again. There’s no evidence he will return to teaching, so a reduced punitive damage award is sufficient to deter him from this behavior,” the ruling stated.

The judge wrote that it was unlikely Howard would pay the $33 million punitive damages award because he was insured. And that would impose “massive costs on the insurer, and ultimately other insured parties who have no stake in this case.”

If T.R. decides to proceed to a second trial on the actual damages, and the jury returns an award of less than $3.25 million, Wormuth wrote, he may reevaluate the constitutionality of a $3.25 million punitive damage award.