BREWSTER (NY)
Journal News - Lohud.com [White Plains NY]
April 3, 2023
By Jonathan Bandler
A jury in Putnam County has awarded a Brewster man $26.5 million for being sexually abused by his stepfather starting in the mid-1970s when he was 8 years old.
The trial last week in state Supreme Court in Carmel featured allegations by the plaintiff that he was physically, sexually and emotionally abused by John “Jack” Lupton at locations in Staten Island where they lived over an eight-year period.
The abuse ended when he was 16. He beat Lupton up and moved in with a friend’s family. It was years before the plaintiff detailed the abuse for relatives, but the friend testified at the trial, confirming the account of his family taking in the plaintiff.
The jury awarded $11 million for past pain and suffering; $2.5 million for future pain and suffering; and $13 million in punitive damages.
The Journal News/lohud is not naming the plaintiff because he was a victim of sexual abuse.
A union carpenter now in his mid-50s, he said he does not expect to see much of the award — Lupton is a retired New York City sanitation worker — but it was gratifying, albeit shocking, to hear the jury’s numbers.
“I was pretty overwhelmed with emotion; I teared up,” he said of hearing the unanimous verdict of the six jurors. “That’s what I wanted. To be vindicated and to be able to hear him called out as the pedophile he is.”
The lawsuit was filed in August 2021 under the state Child Victims’ Act that permitted claims of sexual abuse even decades after the abuse occurred.
Just two months ago, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Francis Young, sought to amend the complaint by adding a request for punitive damages. State Supreme Court Justice Victor Grossman allowed that, finding that the defense was well aware from the outset that the “heinous nature of the allegations” made punitive damages possible so was not prejudiced by their inclusion so late before trial.
Lupton is now 78 and lives in Monroe Township, New Jersey. He could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, Christopher McClure, said last week he was consulting with his client on whether to appeal. He was unavailable since then when reached for further comment.
The plaintiff said the abuse started shortly after Lupton married his mother and that Lupton moved out soon after he did, as if Lupton had been in the relationship simply to have access to him.
He said he struggled with drugs and alcohol and had difficulty interacting with people into his 30s. The trouble gradually faded away, he said, but one element has persisted.
“If I’m sleeping and someone comes into the room, I get startled and jump up, completely, abruptly,” he said.
When he and his wife and kids were living in Staten Island years after the abuse, he said he spotted Lupton on the street and confronted him. Lupton yelled homophobic slurs and taunted him, he recalled, and he was about to physically attack Lupton when his wife intervened and separated them.
He said he wished Lupton had been charged criminally but understood the statute of limitations had long expired for that. The next best thing was the civil lawsuit made possible by the legislation three years ago and he thanked his lawyer, the judge and jury for their handling of the case.
“It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, admitting to a room full of people all the things I kept secret all my life,” he said.