A Putnam County jury has found Green Chimneys in Patterson liable for failing to protect a young girl from repeated sexual assaults by the school’s barn manager in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
On Thursday, the six-person jury of three men and three women found that the Green Chimneys administration was negligent in its oversight of its boarding school, and its negligence was a substantial factor in the injuries suffered by the student, known in the case as MK. The school also showed reckless disregard for the safety of others.
On Monday, the jury will reconvene to hear testimony on compensatory and punitive damages.
The verdict capped a four-day trial before state Supreme Court Justice Victor Grossman. It’s the first of 20 such cases of former Green Chimney students, all brought by the Herman Law Firm, filed in state Supreme Court in Carmel.
Jury selection for the second case is scheduled for Dec. 2.
Child Victims Act made cases against Green Chimneys possible
The cases were filed under the state’s Child Victims Act of 2019, which suspended the statute of limitations to allow victims of sexual abuse to address to trauma they suffered as children at the hands of adult predators.
Green Chimneys Children’s Service is a well-know private boarding school with campuses in Brewster and Carmel for special needs students. It combines nature-based programs with animal-assisted activities and therapies.
Green Chimneys’ attorney did not dispute the allegations of sexual abuse against Robert Doig, now deceased, a rough-hewn former horse barn manager and dorm parent who spoke with a thick Scottish brogue. He assaulted young girls, ages 8 to 12, over several years, according to court papers and testimony at MK’s trial.
He molested them in their beds in the bunk rooms of the girls residence, where he and his wife served as dorm parents. He forced himself on them in a hayloft or cornered them in the barn’s tack room. He threated to harm them if they told anyone of the abuse.
Green Chimneys lawyer said Doig acted in secrecy
Green Chimneys did not call a witness in the trial. The school’s attorney, David Rutherford, argued that Doig operated in secrecy for years. Once the school learned of Doig’s sexual assaults, Headmaster Samuel “Rollo” Ross, who founded the school in 1947, fired him, Rutherford said.
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“He had no idea this predator was molesting the girls,” Rutherford said. “When he was notified, Green Chimneys acted, and Doig was removed.”
Said Rutherford: “Mr. Doig was the one who did it. He’s the guy who is the responsible one. Green Chimneys was not negligent.”
On Thursday, Green Chimneys entered into evidence a stipulation noting that Ross’ children, Laura, and Don, grew up on the campus and attended Green Chimneys during the years under question when Doig worked there.
The Ross children are roughly the same age of the women seeking recompense for the trauma they endured, and continue to experience, more than 50 years later.
Rutherford said it didn’t seem plausible that Headmaster Ross would have allowed Doig to remain on campus if the young girls had gone to him with complaints about Doig molesting them.
“His own daughter was on the campus,” Rutherford said. “Does it make any sense that he would put her in danger from a person who specifically wanted to molest people her same age? That makes no sense whatsoever.”
Witnesses said Green Chimneys was warned about sexual abuse
MK’s attorney, Gary Glazer, countered Rutherford’s assertions that Green Chimneys remained in the dark until 1971 about Doig’s predation. He referred to the testimony of several former students who corroborated MK’s recollections of what happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
More: Woman sexually abused as child at Green Chimneys in 1970s seeks justice at trial
“They wouldn’t take responsibility for the protection and care of the kids back then, and they’re still sitting here 50 years later, telling you, ‘Don’t hold us accountable,’” said Glazer. “They are still pointing a finger at somebody else.”
He recounted testimony from former students about a 1970 meeting at which several girls told of their abuse. One man told of a meeting he had with the administration where he accused Ross himself of molesting him when he was a boy.
Glazer also recounted the beating of a student after she made a complaint of sexual abuse in 1970.
Doig was dismissed from Green Chimneys in the spring of 1971.
In another meeting, Glazer said, two girls met with Ross and his wife, Myra, who asked the girls if Doig had touched them.
“One girl testified that she looked Headmaster Ross in the eye, and forcibly said, ‘He was touching me,’” said Glazer. “And what did Headmaster Ross do? He laughed. He didn’t want to believe the kids. We know that because no action was taken.”
Witnesses at the trial mentioned another meeting in the fall of 1970 where Ross asked them if Doig had touched them. Multiple girls raised their hands.
“And what did he tell them?” said Glazer. “He told them not to talk about this with anybody. That was the response from the school.”
Ross and his wife are both deceased.
Glazer said there was no evidence that Green Chimneys ever investigated the allegations. He said the school, even after being alerted to the abuse, left Doig on the payroll, with access to the girls in their dorm rooms and the horse barn, for as long as a year.
MK testifies Headmaster Ross ignored her pleas for help
MK offered testimony on what happened after she mustered up the courage to tell Ross of the abuse. At one point in her deposition, she said she never returned to the horse barn after her horse was killed in a Green Chimney’s field the night after she led a group of girls to Ross’ residence to complain about Doig’s sexual assaults. She also said that Doig continued to molest her in the dorm room after she complained about the abuse.
“They knew about a pedophile at the school,” said Glazer. “They knew about a pedophile at a captive institution where children were living, and sleeping and going to classes. And they made a conscious decision to leave him there and to let the children continue to be abused.”
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David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Jury finds Green Chimneys liable for student sexual abuse in 1970s
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