Texas jury awards $295 million to abuse survivor in landmark case

MONTAGUE CO. (KFDX/KJTL) — A Montague County civil jury has awarded one survivor of childhood sexual abuse $295 million after she fought to be heard.

Hailey Dickerson, 20, is among the large single-plaintiff sexual abuse awards in U.S. history. Dickerson was reportedly sexually abused by Max Hahn IV of Bridgeport while he was her mother’s live-in boyfriend.

The abuse reportedly occurred when Dickerson was between the ages of 8 and 10. She lived with her mother and siblings on Hahn’s ranch near Bowie.

The jury unanimously found that Hahn repeatedly assaulted Dickerson, crimes including assault, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault and injury to a child.

Dickerson made an outcry to her mother and later to a sexual assault nurse examiner and a trained forensic interviewer at a local child advocacy center, but Hahn denied all allegations.

The case went to trial in 2018, but ended in a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

Hahn was later re-indicted and pleaded no contest to injury of a child, for which he received a probated sentence and no jail time.

Dickerson was left without closure until the civil trial.

The trial lasted a week, in which jurors heard from a number of expert witnesses who had examined and counseled Dickerson.

Dickerson was represented by attorney Brian Butcher from Noteboom Law Firm out of Hurst, Texas.

“The evidence of guilt was overwhelming,” Butcher said. “The desperate truth that the jury heard was not so much about a pedophile who exploited a single mother to gratify his sick desires with her daughter, but about one individual’s life being confiscated by another. Hailey’s childhood and innocence were taken from her. The jury, at least, was able to restore her dignity.”

When the jury’s decision was returned, Butcher said “symbolic justice” was served.

Dickerson was awarded $145 million in compensatory damages and $150 million in punitive damages.

Butcher said the full amount will never be collected, but they will satisfy the judgment to the best of their ability.

“Being able to speak the truth, to have a jury unanimously believe that truth, and to let Hailey know she matters — that is the greatest possible outcome,” Butcher said.

Dickerson had just three words when the final judgment was read, and the courtroom was silent.

“They believed me,” she said, a declaration that was more than the legal outcome; it was the meaning of justice for survivors everywhere.