South Carolina Judge Awards Sex Abuse Victim $14 Million

A South Carolina Circuit Court judge has awarded a 27-year-old woman more than $14 million in civil damages in a suit brought against a former stepfather who sexually abused her as a child.

The woman, Kelly Waldron Bowles, chose to go public with the case because “she wanted people to know what he did and she didn’t want him to get away with what he had done,” said her attorney, Joseph Griffith of Charleston. “She chose not to go the `Jane Doe’ route.”

Griffith, a former federal prosecutor, said in a telephone interview that he thinks the damages are among the largest ever awarded in such a case in South Carolina.

“We have looked into it, and we can’t find any that are any larger in the state that we know of,” Griffith said.

Circuit Judge Stephanie McDonald ordered Donald Baxter of Moncks Corner to pay $7 million in punitive damages and slightly more than $7 million in actual damages following a trial in Berkeley County’s Court of Common Pleas.

The judge found Baxter had committed sexual assault, sexual battery and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the victim.

Baxter pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and battery in 2003 and was sentenced to six years in prison, but he was allowed to serve two years of probation.

Griffith said Bowles, of the Charleston area, pursued the civil case because she thought the 2003 sentence was too lenient.

Bowles recounted in court how she had been molested repeatedly over a 10-year period, the attorney said.

“It was pretty graphic. It was uncomfortable for her, for her family,” said the attorney. Bowles’ mother and Baxter have divorced, he said.

“She was ahead of her time in being willing to talk about this in public,” the attorney said.

A call to Baxter’s attorney wasn’t immediately returned.

Topics Legislation South Carolina