Attorneys defending The Pavilion rest case in trial over the 2020 rape of a patient

Mar. 28—URBANA — Attorneys defending The Pavilion rested their case Wednesday in a lawsuit that accuses the local psychiatric facility of negligence in the 2020 rape of a 13-year-old patient by a 16-year-old patient.

Attorneys for the Champaign facility retained a security consultant — Richard Sem — to review evidence from the case and testify Wednesday.

Sem said he has served as an expert on over 100 legal cases related to workplace violence, many involving health care workers.

At least an hour before the 16-year-old boy raped the 13-year-old girl in his room on Dec. 5, 2020, the boy and his accomplice, another patient, rubbed toothpaste on the lenses of three cameras on the adolescent floor.

Two employees testified earlier in the trial that, while working that night, they noticed something obscuring the view of the cameras.

One notified the facility's house manager, but the cameras were not cleaned or investigated until the following morning.

Sem testified that psychiatric facilities are not required to have cameras inside their in-patient units, nor has he seen it be an industry standard for live camera feeds to be monitored by staff 24 hours a day — thus disagreeing with two expert witnesses retained by attorneys for the plaintiff who testified earlier in the trial that it is industry standard.

An attorney for the plaintiff noted a separate lawsuit in Minnesota in which Sem testified that a rehab facility failed to meet the standard of care, partly because cameras outside the building were not working when a patient eloped from the premises.

Sem clarified that cameras outside a building, unlike the ones in hallways, are "critical."

Sem said he believed it would be ineffective to have staff watch camera feeds in real time, as studies have shown that a person will "zone out" after watching a monitor for more than 30 minutes.

In Sem's opinion, real-time monitoring would not have made much difference in preventing the rape because it was unlikely an employee would have seen the girl go into the boy's room.

Attorneys for The Pavilion retained a psychiatrist — Dr. William Giakas — to review evidence related to the case and testify Wednesday.

In his 34 years treating patients, Giakas said he has experience treating post-traumatic stress disorder. He is board certified in general, forensic and adolescent psychiatry.

In 2023, he conducted a three-hour independent medical examination of the victim in this case. As a result of that assessment, Giakas determined that the girl did not suffer from PTSD and had made "significant progress" in her mental health.

The doctor attributed the challenging symptoms the girl is currently experiencing, like nightmares and social anxiety, to the pre-existing mental illnesses she was hospitalized for and documented having before she was raped at The Pavilion.

Giakas testified that, in his conversation with the girl, she appeared bright and focused. She told him she was no longer suicidal, self-harming, her relationship with her family had improved in the past year, and she was hopeful in her plans to become a cosmetologist.

In reaching his opinion, Giakas disagreed with a doctor retained by attorneys for the plaintiff who evaluated the girl and diagnosed her with PTSD.

Other medical records also showed the girl diagnosed with PTSD, but Giakas said those diagnoses were likely cursory and reached too soon after the rape took place, as criteria requires 30 days after a traumatic event for a PTSD diagnosis to be valid.

Giakas did not dispute that the girl suffered from the rape. He testified that he believed the emotional trauma the girl incurred from the rape had subsided and it was his opinion the stress it caused is not present now.

An attorney for the plaintiff showed the jury a transcript from Giakas's deposition, in which he is recorded to have said: "... in the scheme of traumatic rape, it was actually quite minor. But it still had some impact."

Giakas clarified that the victim was a minor and it was not his intention to describe the rape as "minor."

He affirmed that rape is a violent act, and said there are varying severities to violent acts — like if a victim was beaten and raped at gunpoint, for example.

Attorneys for the plaintiff and The Pavilion are scheduled to present their closing arguments to the jury Thursday before Champaign County Judge Jason Bohm.