A New Jersey appeals court has overturned what had been a $166 million jury verdict against the state Division of Youth and Family Services in the case of a child who was severely abused by his father after the agency investigated allegations of abuse.
The verdict was awarded in 2013 in the case of Jadiel Velesquez, who, at the age of 4 months, was left blind and cognitively disabled when his father shook him with great force to stop him from crying. The child’s maternal grandmother, Neomi Escobar, who filed the suit, claimed that DYFS was negligent for failing to remove the infant from his parents. A judge later reduced the total recovery to $102 million.
