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Boy left on bus awarded $27,500 By Mike Linn Montgomery Advertiser A Montgomery Circuit Court jury Friday returned a $27,500 award to a blind and mute boy who was abandoned on a Montgomery Parks and Recreation bus in April -- an amount lawyers on both sides said was reasonable. Christian Moore, 13, who has cerebral palsy, experienced emotional injuries after being left on the locked bus for about an hour, the jury found after more than two hours of deliberation. The decision came despite no medical record of injury, either psychiatric or physical. "We're ecstatic," said Antonio Spurling, who represented Christian and his mother, Thelma Richardson, who declined comment. "This is a landmark case in the sense that there was no (supporting) medical records, psychiatric reports or doctor testimony," Spurling said. "It shows that people are reasonable enough to grant damages based on common sense." The city will pay the award for the negligence of Therapeutic Recreation Center employee Jennifer Huffel, the bus driver, and Jeannie Russell and Brad Ellis, recreation center aides. All were suspended without pay after the incident. Charles Anderson, who represented Ellis, said if Richardson had been on time to pick up her son April 20 the boy likely would not have been taken accidentally to Oak Park, where he stayed for about 50 minutes. Anderson said testimony showed Richardson arrived at the Therapeutic Recreation Center about 5:20 p.m. Richardson testified she was there by 5 p.m. Anderson also argued that a nurse's report said Christian's vital signs were normal following the incident. Had they not been normal, he argued, Spurling would have sued Jackson Hospital, where Christian and his mother waited for more than four hours without seeing a doctor. Jurors declined comment following the verdict but could be heard in heated debate for several minutes within the thin walls of the courtroom. Kim Fehl, a city attorney who represented the city of Montgomery and Russell, defended the jury's decision. "We asked them to be reasonable, and that's what they did," she said. Anderson said the city invited the Moore family to mediate the dispute before trial, but they declined. Before testimony began Wednesday, the three recreation center employees admitted negligence and abandoning Christian on the bus, leaving a jury only to decide damages. Following the verdict, Richardson put her head on the table and began to cry. Spurling said the jury award was much more than the city offered before trial. He didn't disclose the offer, but said it was enough "to go to Atlanta and have a good weekend."
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