Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Lindsay Bever.
She was 14. The guard, Brandon Lamar Zachary, was 22.
He was convicted of rape and sentenced to 20 years in prison — but, Cheston said, the security company that hired him never contacted her or apologized for what happened.
So she filed a suit against the security company, Crime Prevention Agency, as well as the apartment complex and a property management company. In her complaint, she said she had emotional distress, pain and suffering, and depression.
The apartment complex, HACC Pointe South, and the property management company, Hammond Residential Group, were dismissed from the lawsuit, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
That left the Crime Prevention Agency as the sole defendant. (The security company — which has since changed its name, according to Cheston’s lawyer — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Then, in an extraordinary move, jurors in Clayton County, Ga., awarded her a “life-changing” and “history-making” sum of money that, she said, represents what a victim’s pain is worth: $1 billion.
“It was a shocking moment; it was a beautiful moment,” she said of hearing the jury’s decision to award her $1 billion in damages in a lawsuit against the security company that hired her rapist. “It showed human kindness in its purest form.”
When it was all over on Tuesday, Cheston said, jurors hugged her and told her: “You’re worth something.”
Want to know what a victim of rape is worth? 1 billion.Record 12 person jury verdict. Juries are saying no to sexual assault and holding companies accountable! My client wants to be a spokesperson against rape. Will we recover all that? No but it’s what it stands for that matters pic.twitter.com/ib9wFWiFOR
— L. Chris Stewart Esq (@chrisstewartesq) May 22, 2018
What $1 billion stands for
Regarding the $1 billion award, Cheston’s attorney, Chris Stewart, told reporters that he didn’t expect his client to collect in full.
“What that number stands for is the most important thing,” he said. “We don’t care what we end up finally recovering from this company. We know they don’t have $1 billion. But it’s what 12 people in the state of Georgia said a victim of rape is worth that echoes louder.”
Cheston said she was glad she stepped forward.
“This $1 billion isn’t just my $1 billion,” she said about the settlement. “This number on this sheet of paper — it’s my case, yes, but it’s all of our case.”
