'Lack of Supervision' Has Its Cost: Employer of Sexual Abuser Ordered to Pay $450K

A New Jersey city has been ordered to pay $450,000 to a man who claimed he was sexually abused by a firefighter as a child between 1988 and 1994.

A jury entered a verdict for $331,000 against Perth Amboy on Feb. 6, following a two-week trial before Superior Court Judge Christopher Rafano. But the award will rise to $450,000 under a pretrial high-low agreement between the parties.

The verdict is the first case to go to trial under New Jersey’s 2019 law extending the statute of limitations for sexual abuse, and the first time a public entity was held negligent under the law for sexual abuse committed by its employee, said Jay Silvio Mascolo of Rebenack, Aronow & Mascolo in New Brunswick, who represented plaintiff Shay Guiod.

Jay Silvio Mascolo of Rebenack, Aronow & Mascolo/courtesy photo

Mascolo teamed with Matthew Bonanno of his firm and Michael Pfau and Vincent Nappo of Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala in Seattle to represent Guiod.

The lawyer for Perth Amboy, Peter King of King Moench & Collins in Morris Plains, did not respond to a request for comment.

Guiod is now 44 and living in San Jose, California.

The suit claimed Guiod’s abuser, Hugo Fleites, was allowed by the city to use his positions as firefighter, community leader and counselor to sexually abuse Guiod countless times, starting when the plaintiff was 8 years old. Fleites was a friend of Guiod’s family, and Guiod testified that Fleites abused him more than 30 times, Mascolo said. Some of the abuse allegedly took place at city-owned firehouses and some were in conjunction with activities for children that were sponsored by the fire department, the suit claimed.

The jury appeared to struggle with the issue of proximate cause, Mascolo said, because a large part of the abuse did not occur at firehouses.

The jury voted 7-1 to find the city and fire department liable.

The city contested liability, arguing that it did not know about any abuse, and that it properly supervised its staff, Mascolo said.

Under the high-low agreement, Guiod was guaranteed a $450,000 recovery, regardless of the jury verdict, and any award exceeding $4.5 million would be capped at that amount.

Fleites pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Guiod and two other victims in 2019, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, said Mascolo.

In 2020, Fleites was ordered to pay $4.75 million to another abuse victim, who was identified as John Doe in court documents. Fleites did not respond to that suit and was held in default, according to a published account. Guiod did not bring a claim against Fleites.

“We are pleased that the jury found this public entity responsible for a lack of supervision and training that contributed to this horrible story. Hopefully, this verdict reinforces the concept to any organization that it must properly supervise all employees and facilities and train its employees as to risks and signs of child sexual abuse. My client is please to have some form of legal closure in this matter, although the scars will remain with him long after this verdict,” Mascolo said.

The suit said the abuse caused Guiod to experience severe emotional and psychological distress, humiliation, fright, dissociation, anger, depression, anxiety, family turmoil, a severe shock to his nervous system, physical pain and mental anguish, and emotional and psychological damage. Some of the injuries he suffered are permanent and lasting in nature and he will be obligated to spend sums of money for treatment, the suit claimed.

The case was brought pursuant to a 2019 revision of the New Jersey Child Sex Abuse Act, which gives victims of sexual assault seven years to pursue civil litigation against the person who harmed them. Survivors of sexual abuse have until age 55 or seven years from the time that they became aware of their trauma to file a civil suit against a responsible party.