A Bridgeport Superior Court jury has awarded $1.2 million to a teenage boy's mother, who alleged staff at a mental health facility failed to act upon her claims that an older woman was sexually assaulting her son.

The six-person jury found that a therapist and psychiatrist at the Boys & Girls Village Inc. in Milford failed to relay the mother's concerns to the state Department of Children and Families.

The mother is not identified in court papers to protect her son's identity. She complained that another woman, Kyle Damato-Kushel, whose daughter her son dated, abused the boy for one year beginning when he was 14 years old. The boy, who is now 19 years old, was being treated at the Boys & Girls Village for behavioral issues, according to his attorneys.

The other mother, Damato-Kushel, 49, began serving an 18-month prison term for the abuse in March 2018. She pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child.

The 1 1/2 days of jury deliberation followed a three-week trial during which the boy testified on the stand for about four hours.

“He talked about how his life was essentially derailed by this relationship, which included not only a lot of sexual conduct but also the woman giving him lots of money. It's our opinion that she was trying to keep him happy and involved in her life,” according to Doug Mahoney, who, along with Cindy Robinson of Bridgeport-based Tremont Sheldon Robinson Mahoney, represented the family of the boy.

The sexual abuse occurred from the summer of 2014 to October 2015, Mahoney said. He said the abuse ended after Damato-Kushel's husband woke up and found them together in the couple's house. Damato-Kushel was arrested a short time later.

Robinson told the Connecticut Law Tribune on Wednesday the boy's mother trusted that the therapist and psychiatrist were going to report the abuse to DCF, but they never did.

“She went to the people who were mandated reporters, who were taking care of her son,” Robinson said. “Her son was in therapy and she trusted these people to do the right thing.”

The boy was at the facility, her attorneys said, from July 2014 through January 2015. The boy's mother told staff about the abuse in October 2014, Robinson said. Instead, she said, nothing was done and the sexual misconduct continued for another year, until October 2015.

“The abuse could have been stopped in October 2014,” Robinson said. “Every day it went on past that date was bad. The mother mentioned the relationship on a number of occasions.”

Plaintiff counsel Mahoney said staff at Boys & Girls Village “felt that the mother's concerns were unsubstantiated, and that she was not convinced herself this was going on, and they decided not to report it.”

No matter what the Boys & Girls Village thought about the whether the abuse was actually taking place, the family's attorneys said they had a duty to report.

“They are mandated reporters and do not have discretion not to report,” Robinson said. “They are not investigators; you must leave the investigating to DCF.”

The Boys & Girls Village could appeal to the Connecticut Appellate Court. Representing the facility are attorneys John Adamec, Matthew Welnicki and Mohan Sreenivasan, all with Southbury-based Melick & Porter. None of the attorneys responded to a request for comment Wednesday.

In court papers, Boys & Girls Village wrote they had “no reasonable cause to believe that any improper sexual relationship was taking place or that there was any abuse or neglect or imminent risk of serious harm.”

The defense papers also state: “There was a good faith basis for not reporting any noted suspicions of Jane Doe, including but not limited to, the possibility that the report without any foundation or evidence, and which was denied, might have negatively impacted the services being provided.”

The jury found in favor of two other defendants, also sued for allegedly failing to report the abuse. Those defendants, Bridgeport-based Child Guidance Center and The Children's Center of Hamden, are mental health facilities that treated the boy.