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The Jersey Journal
Settlement reached in KIDS abuse
case
January 25, 2007
By ALI WINSTON
A settlement has been reached in
the civil suit against the former directors of KIDS of North Jersey,
a now-defunct drug treatment center in Secaucus, brought by Antonio
Carrera, 26, a former patient.
The agreement was reached before
Carrera was to take the stand, but Superior Court Judge Maurice
Gallipoli agreed to allow him testify about his five years at KIDS.
The agreement, which involves an
undisclosed sum of money, is the latest in a string of
multimillion-dollar settlements that Dr. Virgil Miller Newton III,
the former director of KIDS, and his wife, Ruth Ann Newton, a former
assistant director, have paid out to former patients. Rebecca Erlich
won $4.5 million in a 2000 suit and Lulu Corter settled for $6.5
million in 2003.
Newton, who ran drug rehab centers
from North Jersey to California throughout the 1980s and 1990s, has
been heavily criticized for his methods and has been repeatedly
accused of physically abusing, brainwashing and falsely imprisoning
his patients.
Carrera claims he was misdiagnosed
as having drug and alcohol problems - a former staffer at the
facility admitted on the stand that he had badgered Carrera during
his intake interview into admitting that he'd used them - and spent
five years at the facility, leaving only when he turned 18. During
that time, he was prevented from going to high school and lived with
a foster family.
During most of his stay at KIDS,
Carrera was stuck between the first two stages of the five-stage
program, often restricted for months from speaking unless spoken to
and forced to ask permission for every action.
When Carrera refused to participate
in sessions and other activities or was otherwise deemed
"uncooperative," other patients would pin him to the ground,
sometimes for several hours.
"I just had to lay there and stare
at the ceilings. Sometimes I used to wish that I was dead," Carrera
said, before seizing up and holding his face in his hands.
After getting out of KIDS when he
turned 18, Carrera obtained his GED within months and now works as a
driver at a Meadowlands hotel.
He had scathing words for Newton:
"I don't know if he is in his sick head, he thinks he helped people
out. He conned everybody."
The Newtons left the courtroom
before Judge Gallipoli's closing remarks. Stephen Ryan, their
attorney, declined to comment.
The various facilities Newton
opened around the country are now closed, but Phil Elberg, Carrera's
attorney, said similar programs still exist.
"In reality, they're private jails
in which con artists prey on the fears of frightened parents," he
said.
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