A San Diego judge has signed off on a jury award of nearly $10 million to a pair of women who were sexually abused when they were children by Christian Clews, a Carmel Valley horse rancher who is serving a federal prison term for possessing and distributing images depicting child sexual abuse.
A San Diego Superior Court jury sided with the abuse victims following a civil trial earlier this year, finding that the girls were sexually battered and harassed in the 1990s at Clews Horse Ranch, a well-known facility that offered boarding, horse training, private riding lessons and trail rides.
The jury found that Clews, who operated the ranch and later became a longtime member of the Carmel Valley Community Planning Group, sexually battered and harassed one victim beginning when she was 11 years old and the other when she was 13. The jury found that Clews’ ex-wife, Deeana Welch, also sexually battered and harassed one of the girls and was negligent in the abuse of the other victim. And the jury found that Clews’ mother, Barbara “Bunny” Clews, a part owner of the ranch land, was negligent in the abuse of both girls. The jury found that all three defendants intentionally inflicted emotional distress on both victims.
The jury awarded the victims $4.5 million and $5 million, respectively, in past and future emotional damages. The jury also awarded the victims more than $200,000 each in punitive damages.
“All sexual abuse of children is horrific, but the abuse suffered by our clients in this case is incomprehensible,” attorney Cristina Nolan said in a statement. “They were little girls who only wanted a safe place to ride and care for their horses. Instead, they were victimized for years by depraved adults and enablers who can only be described as evil.”
An attorney representing Christian Clews and Welch did not respond to a message seeking comment. Paul Pfingst, one of Bunny Clews’ attorneys, said his client will appeal the verdict and judgment. Pfingst emphasized that his client was never accused of abuse and said the only evidence offered at trial that she knew about the abuse was one victim testifying that Bunny Clews saw the victim in a hot tub with Christian Clews.
The defendants filed a motion this week seeking a new trial. It argued in part that Christian Clews’ criminal conviction should not have been revealed to the jury, even though San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth decided before trial to allow it.
“It infected the entire proceeding — and all defendants — with highly prejudicial evidence that likely affected the verdict unfairly,” Frank Polek, the attorney for Christian Clews and Welch, wrote in a filing on Monday.
Though the jury returned its verdict in May, litigation over the percentage of the damages that each defendant should be ordered to pay had held up the final ruling. Smyth signed off on the final judgment last month.
Nolan told the Union-Tribune that it’s unclear how much of the award the defendants will be able to pay. But she said that for her clients, it was about more than the money.
“It was so empowering for them that they were able to get justice,” Nolan said. “A jury of their peers heard them and acknowledged what they went through. Hearing the verdict was extremely emotional for both of them.”
Nolan also represents two other women who allege they were sexually abused by Clews after meeting him at the horse ranch. Nolan said the judge decided not to try those cases at the same time because they involved alleged incidents that happened about a decade later than the abuse suffered by the other victims. Those cases are expected to go to trial next year.
Clews, 59, came under federal investigation in 2014 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent the first in a series of tips to a local task force that someone with a San Diego County area code had uploaded images of child pornography. Federal authorities raided Clews’ home on the ranch in October 2016, discovering 1,460 photos and videos depicting child sexual abuse, many depicting prepubescent youth in sadism and bestiality.
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Clews pleaded guilty to two federal counts of possession and distribution of child pornography and was initially sentenced to more than 17 years in prison, though the term was later reduced to 14 years. At his sentencing, prosecutors alleged he had a 25-year history of sexually abusing teenage girls, though he never faced criminal charges for the alleged abuse.
But following the publicity of his arrest and sentencing, several of his alleged victims came forward and sued Clews and the others. Those lawsuits detail decades of alleged sexual abuse of women and girls ranging from unwanted lewd comments to rape.
“Clews’ predatory behavior towards females is one of the worst kept secrets in the San Diego ranching community,” Nolan, the attorney for the plaintiffs in the civil cases, wrote in a trial brief earlier this year. “The ranch was often swarming with children … Being a well-known horse rancher gave him access that he most desired: minors who he could mentor, groom and exploit for his own sexual perversions.”
In the trial brief, the plaintiffs and their attorney listed 11 other people who said they had experienced, witnessed or heard first-hand accounts of sexual harassment and abuse.
One plaintiff who is now 42 years old alleged that Clews began sexually abusing her when she started taking riding lessons from Clews and boarding her horse at the ranch when she was 13 years old. She alleged that Clews took photos and filmed videos of her performing sex acts while still a minor. She alleged that Clews’ “inappropriate sexual conduct and behavior … was open and obvious to all those that were on the ranch, including Bunny Clews.”
The other plaintiff, who is now 43, alleged that the abuse by Clews began about six months after she started taking riding lessons at the ranch.
“It was some of the worst abuse I’ve ever heard of, it was really quite heinous … they’re still dealing with it (emotionally and psychologically),” Nolan said.
In pre-trial court filings, Polek, the attorney for Christian Clews and Welch, argued that there was “precious little physical or documentary evidence” and that neither plaintiff had sought psychological treatment until after filing their lawsuits nearly two decades after the abuse. Bunny Clews’ attorneys, Pfingst and Susan Hack, argued she was a minority owner in the ranch and not liable for any abuse that occurred there, arguing she was only included in the lawsuit because “she is the purported ‘deep pocket.’”