New Jersey Court Awards Millions to Sex Abuse Victim.
A New Jersey state Superior Court jury has granted $30 million to a former student who experienced sexual abuse in the 1990s.
The plaintiff was enrolled in an after school recreation program at Newark’s Ann Street School between 1991 and 1995 when the abuse occurred. Program aide John Cantalupo abused the boy multiple times a week beginning when he was in third grade, taking him to secluded locations and swearing him to secrecy.
According to the plaintiff’s lawyers, the child reported the abuse to another teacher at the school, Gene Foti. Still, Foti failed to take any action against Cantalupo or protect the student through the mandated reporting process. In his testimony, Foti testified that he “does have a vague recollection of a child telling him something about Mr. Cantolupo trying to kiss him,”
Even so, Foti “chalked it up to horseplay, and he did not think that Mr. Cantolupo was capable of that.” Before his retirement from Ann Street School in 2020, Gene Foti was promoted to vice principal in 1995.
The plaintiff’s suit was filed during a two-year window in February 2020 that was made possible by the New Jersey Child Victims Act. Under the act, survivors of childhood sexual abuse were able to bring claims to age 55 or until seven years “from the time that an alleged victim became aware of his/her injury, whichever comes later.”
The verdict was delivered by eight jurors after a two-week trial before Judge Jeffrey Beacham, and Matthew Bonanno, one of the survivor’s lawyers, said his client felt validated by the decision.
“This was a long journey for him, a long process for him, talking about everything that happened 30-plus years ago,” said Bonanno. “It’s rare for a child to come forward and that actually happened in this case.”
According to his lawyers, the survivor has experienced lasting emotional impacts from the abuse, including post-traumatic stress disorder. He did not pursue a fixed dollar amount in this suit – instead, jurors calculated the monetary award.
The City of Newark, the Newark Public Schools district, and Cantalupo’s estate were listed as defendants in the case. Both the city and school district oversaw the Ann Street School Afterschool Recreation Program, and John Cantalupo died by suicide in 1995.
Jurors found the school district 70% liable, the City of Newark 20%, and Cantalupo’s estate 10%.
Authors: Andy Goldwasser and Alex Kabat
