According to the Ledger Independent, a Fleming County jury awarded a Ewing woman more than $230,000 Friday for an incident at a Little League tournament in 2005.
"I'm happy," said the former Ewing mayor Nellie Ellison, who suffered serious facial trauma requiring reconstructive surgery and permanent nerve damage after the altercation with former Fleming County Little League president Andrew Jones.
Nellie Ellison's trial attorney, Chauncey Hiestand, felt the jury's decision to award his client $60,298.89 in compensation for past medical bills, $20,000 for past and future pain and suffering and $150,000 in punitive damages sent a strong message to Jones and the community.
"I think (the jury) spoke, and they said 'In Fleming County, these types of actions will not stand,'" Hiestand said.
Nellie Ellison's civil suit asked for the $60,298.89 in past medical damages that Jones had already agreed he should pay, as well as up to $110,000 for pain and suffering and up to $1.1 million in punitive damages. Punitive damages may be ordered by a jury in civil trials as a means of punishing the defendant and/or deterring the defendant and others in the community from committing similar acts.
The awards for past medical expenses and pain and suffering were unanimous, but the decision to award punitive damages was endorsed by only nine of the 12 jurors. Civil trials require only nine of 12 jurors to agree on a verdict.
Jones has already pleaded guilty to first degree wanton endangerment in criminal court in relation to the case.
