LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada jury put the state and a mental hospital administrator on the hook for close to $9 million in class-action damages for sending patients unaccompanied to states including California, Florida and Michigan.
Jurors decided Thursday that every Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital patient who was given a bus ticket to another city and no other arrangements for care after June 2011 should receive $250,000.
Damages could top $22 million, according to attorney Mark Merin. He represents plaintiff James Flavy Coy Brown of Sacramento, where the Sacramento Bee discovered the patient dumping problem in 2013.
Merin said he's spoken with 89 of more than 371 people he thinks were victims of what the lawsuit derides as "Greyhound therapy."
State law could cap damages at $100,000 per plaintiff, or $8.9 million.
It's not immediately clear if the state will appeal.
