Key facts
- A Louisiana jury awarded $1.1 billion in damages to a woman who sued over childhood sexual molestation.
- The abuse occurred in the 1960s and 1970s by the plaintiff's late stepfather.
- The verdict was enabled by Louisiana's 2021 "lookback law," which eliminated filing deadlines for past child molestation lawsuits.
- The plaintiff's attorney anticipates a settlement rather than collecting the full award from the abuser's estate.
- The jury awarded $500 million for pain and suffering, $600 million in punitive damages, and $585,000 for medical expenses.
A jury in north-west Louisiana has awarded $1.1 billion in damages to a woman who sued over childhood sexual molestation by her late stepfather, which occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. The verdict was made possible by Louisiana's "lookback law," passed in 2021 and upheld in 2024, which temporarily removed filing deadlines for lawsuits involving past child molestation.
Pamela Elaine Lockridge's lead attorney, Ryan Gatti, stated that neither he nor his client expected to collect the full award from the abuser Leroy Edwards's estate, anticipating an undisclosed settlement instead. Gatti suggested the verdict sends a message that abusing children in Louisiana has become too costly.
Lockridge stated the case was about truth, accountability, and being heard, not money. Jurors found Edwards subjected Lockridge to sexual molestation for 14 years, starting when she was four years old in 1962. Edwards had threatened her into silence and later obtained a restraining order against her in 2011, admitting to the abuse at that time.
Due to the statute of limitations at the time of the initial abuse, criminal prosecution was not possible. Lockridge's initial civil suit in 2012 was dismissed based on the expired filing deadline. However, the subsequent passage and constitutional validation of the lookback law provided her with a path to pursue damages from Edwards's estate after his death in 2023.
The two-day trial concluded with jurors deliberating for approximately two hours. They awarded Lockridge $500 million for pain and suffering, $600 million in punitive damages, and $585,000 for past and future medical and psychological treatment expenses.
This case follows a similar one in New Orleans, where a federal jury ordered the Holy Cross Catholic religious order to pay $2.4 million to a man who reported childhood sexual abuse from the late 1960s, also under the lookback law.