A New London Superior Court jury has ordered Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Charles River Analytics Inc. to pay $839,423 plus punitive damages to a small Groton-based research and design and development company in a trade-secrets theft case.

In a case that examines how defendant Charles River Analytics treated, worked and possibly colluded with two former employees of plaintiff LBI Inc., the lead counsel for LBI told the Connecticut Law Tribune on Tuesday he believes the case hinged on the testimony of the presidents of the two companies.

Charles River Analytics president Karen Harper was on the stand for three days of the four-week trial, while LBI founder and president Peter Legnos testified for about five days.

"Peter came across to the jury as utterly sincere, somewhat eccentric and as a very bright victim," according to LBI counsel James Robertson Jr., of Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey. "I think Peter telling his personal story and the LBI story helped sway the jury."

Meanwhile, Robertson said Harper "was very well-prepared and almost robotic."

Representing the defense were Joshua Solomon, Barry Pollack and Phil Rakhunov of Boston-based Pollack Solomon Duffy, and James Craven from Connecticut-based Wiggin and Dana. Craven referred all comment to Solomon, Pollack and Rakhunov. None of the three Boston attorneys responded to a request for comment Tuesday,

The crux of the case—which has been litigated for more than seven years—involved former LBI employees Jared Sparks and Jay Williams, whom the government accused of stealing trade secrets from LBI to the benefit of Charles River Analytics. In July 2018, a jury agreed with prosecutors that Sparks uploaded thousands of LBI's files to his personal account with Dropbox, a cloud-based file-storage application. The government alleged that soon after joining Charles River Analytics, Sparks uploaded the material including accounting and engineering files as well as photographs related to designs and renderings used to fabricate and manufacture LBI's unmanned vehicle and buoys. The jury cleared co-defendant Williams.

Charles River Analytics, the six-person jury found, engaged in tortious interference with regard to the employ of Sparks and Williams and violated the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act.

In reaching its Nov. 8 verdict after 2 1/2 days of deliberations, the jury found on all counts and awarded both compensatory and punitive damages to LBI. Charles River Analytics is expected to appeal the verdict.

Robertson said the jury got it right and that "CRA should not have hired Sparks and Williams in the first place. Karen Harper admitted that she had full knowledge of the non-compete agreements and that the two employees had full non-disclosure agreements. They hired the two men despite the non-compete agreement and they had those two employees move seamlessly into completing the work that CRA had taken from LBI."

The U.S. Navy, Robertson said, was looking into the development of underwater drones "and had made that a top Navy priority. The Navy devoted $70 million into the invention, design and testing of the drones." Charles River Analytics, Robertson said, was to do the computer analytics for the project while LBI was to design, build and test the drones.

"CRA became a competitor of LBI on this project and ended up taking its work. They got a lot of money from the Navy," Robertson said. Charles River Analytics benefited to the tune of "millions of dollars," Robertson said.

Robertson said, "There was deceit by CRA. They were pretending to be a partner, when, in fact, they were a competitor of LBI's."

Robertson said he will be filing a prejudgment remedy application seeking about $5 million in punitive damages before Judge Kim Knox.

Assisting Robertson were his colleagues Sarah Healey and Doug Balko.

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