An Atlanta doctor and his clinic must pay $2.25 million to a couple after posting to his public Instagram account graphic videos of their decapitated baby during an autopsy, a jury has decided.
Dr. Jackson Gates and his business, Medical Diagnostic Choices, were found liable by default in the lawsuit brought against them by Jessica Ross and Treveon Taylor after the couple discovered the social media posts.
Ross and Taylor said they were horrified and outraged when they learned Gates had published without their knowledge or permission images of their child, who was decapitated during a difficult delivery July 9, 2023. The couple had hired Gates to perform an autopsy.
On Wednesday, an Atlanta jury awarded the couple $2 million in compensation and $250,000 in damages designed to punish Gates and Medical Diagnostic Choices. The jurors found Gates did not intend to cause harm.
“They asked for $30 million and they got just over $2 million,” said Gates’ lawyer, Ira Livnat. “Obviously we were disappointed with the verdict, but the jurors’ finding that he did not act with specific intent to cause harm was very significant.”
Attorneys for Ross and Taylor said they are pleased the jury punished Gates for his “reprehensible” behavior, though nothing can ease the couple’s pain over their son’s “horrific” death.
Credit: The Edmond Firm
Credit: The Edmond Firm
“After the decapitation of their baby, Gates poured salt into the couple’s already deep wounds when he betrayed them,” the couple’s lawyers said in a statement. “This young couple trusted him with the remains of their precious baby. Gates, in turn, repaid this trust by posting horrific images of their child for the world to see.”
Gates and his business were found liable by default in March 2024 for intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and fraud because they failed to respond to Ross and Taylor’s lawsuit. At the time, Gates and his company were not represented by an attorney.
The trial, which started Monday in Fulton County State Court, was limited to the issue of damages.
Livnat said he was hired to represent Gates and Medical Diagnostic Choices about 12 hours before opening statements began. He said all post-trial options are being considered.
“We respect the effort, diligence and patience that the jury had,” he said.
Under Georgia law, $250,000 was the most the jury could award in punitive damages after finding Gates and his business did not intend to cause harm.
In his pretrial summary of the case, Gates said Ross and Taylor had presented “unfounded malicious allegations” against him without producing evidence. He said they failed to meet the legal standards for proving their claims.
Gates also said the couple had shown no evidence he violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. He said federal law allowed him, as a physician, to reveal images and videos of unidentified individuals to educate or inform, even without consent by a patient or their next of kin.
Ross and Taylor’s lawyers said their goal was to ensure Gates was held accountable for “his unconscionable lack of empathy and invasion of our clients’ privacy.”
“We thank the jury for helping us accomplish that objective,” they said. “We believe that the jury sent a powerful message that doctors must always consider the feelings of their patients and in this case their clients.”
Ross and Taylor are separately suing Southern Regional Medical Center, Dr. Tracey St. Julian and others in relation to their son’s death at the Clayton County hospital. They said St. Julian negligently applied excessive force on the baby’s head and neck during delivery, resulting in his decapitation, and that there were attempts to hide the details of the death.
Southern Regional has denied all wrongdoing and sought to dismiss that case, which is pending in Clayton County State Court. St. Julian said in court filings that she met the relevant standard of care at all times when delivering the baby.
The Clayton County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the death a homicide.
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
The baby suffered from a sudden and rare birth complication known as shoulder dystocia — a life-threatening condition in which one or both shoulders become locked in the mother’s pelvis, records show.
The couple were not allowed to hold their child and were only allowed to view the baby through a glass window, their attorneys said during a February 2024 news conference. They said the baby’s body was arranged by hospital staff to make it look like it wasn’t decapitated, and that Ross and Taylor were encouraged to have the baby cremated.
It wasn’t until several days later, through the funeral home handling the infant’s body, that the couple learned he had been decapitated, they said.
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