Court Orders Retrial of O.C. Krishna Case

Nearly a decade after a former Krishna devotee from Orange County and her mother were awarded $32.5 million in an alleged brainwashing case, an appellate court Thursday overturned a key element of the award and ordered a new trial.

The decision means that a county jury may once again hear testimony about a runaway teen-ager and her frantic cross-country plane trips and early morning prayer sessions to decide whether the Hare Krishna sect owes her and her mother money as punishment for their ordeal.

“It’s ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,” said Robin George, now 32, who joined the Krishnas as a 14-year-old in 1974 after attending a meeting at their Laguna Beach temple and setting up a prayer altar in her Cypress bedroom.

George and her mother, Marcia George, successfully argued during a trial in 1983 that the Krishnas had brainwashed the girl and hid her from her parents for months at temples around the United States and Canada.

Her father, Jim George, died of a heart attack a short time after she returned home for good in 1975, and the jury found that his death had been related to the stress of the months-long search for his daughter.

“It would be very difficult--not impossible, but very difficult--to stage a whole new trial,” said Robin George, who still lives in Orange County. “It’s just been a roller coaster ride, up and down emotionally, and this (decision) is a real surprise.”

But for Krishnas in Laguna Beach and elsewhere around the country--who had argued that a multimillion-dollar verdict would ruin their sect financially--the appellate decision was cause for celebration.

The Krishnas have yet to pay any money to the Georges in the 1983 verdict, but nearly a dozen Krishna-owned temples and buildings in California and New York are in receivership because of that award. Thursday’s decision will stave off any immediate losses.

“This is clearly a victory for Hare Krishnas,” said Sudharma Dasi, spokeswoman for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, as the Hare Krishna organization is formally known, in Washington. “The judgment levied against our movement stood in clear violation of our First Amendment rights.”

In a 3-0 ruling, the state 4th District Court of Appeal’s San Diego division left intact compensatory damages for George and her mother that total $900,000 with interest, attorneys said.

But the court set aside punitive damages--the bulk to Marcia George--that amount to nearly $5 million with interest, attorneys said.

Both sides said they plan to appeal parts of the ruling.

The appellate justices--who had slashed the Georges’ award by more than two-thirds in 1989--found that new rules applied retroactively to the case because of a recent state Supreme Court decision on punitive damages. That decision found that the burden is on the plaintiffs to produce evidence on the finances of the defendants before punitive damages can be awarded.

Before trial in 1983, the Krishnas resisted efforts by the Georges’ attorneys to explore their finances; as a result, no testimony on the subject was presented to the jury.

The appellate court said Thursday that “on retrial, the only issue for the jury to determine is the amount of punitive damages necessary to punish and deter defendants without financially destroying them.”

But the justices recognized that this may entail re-offering substantial portions of evidence from the 1983 trial.

That is a prospect that few seemed pleased about Thursday.

“Gee, that’s quite a bring-down,” Marcia George of Long Beach said when told of the ruling. “The trial was in 1983. It’s not fair for us to have to wait so long.”

Since the 1983 trial before an Orange County Superior Court jury, the case has faced myriad appeals, reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. The initial $32.5 million has been whittled down several times to its current $900,000 level after Thursday’s ruling.

Lynde Selden II, a San Diego attorney who represented the Georges, said he is “very, very disturbed” by the latest legal blow.

“There’s something scientifically anti-human the way this case has been picked apart,” he said. “This case has been dissected like a frog on a tray in a biology class.”

The case began in 1974 when Robin George, then a 14-year-old student who did well academically and was editor of her school paper, visited the Laguna Beach Krishna temple with a friend.

By late that year, with the aid of the Krishnas, she had run away and flown under a false name to New Orleans, where she stayed at a temple, sometimes sleeping just four hours a night as she adopted the strict lifestyle of the Krishnas, according to court testimony.

Through police intervention, her parents tracked down their daughter and brought her home.

She ran away again in May, 1975, and returned to the Krishnas. It was only after months of cross-country flights, bogus letters to her parents, disguises and other activities in the sect that the girl finally left the Krishnas for good on her own in late 1975 and returned home.

“I felt that demons that I knew were better than demons that I didn’t know,” she said later in explaining her decision to return home.

Four months later, her father died of a heart attack. She and her mother blamed stress from the family’s search. Mother and daughter became active in an anti-cult group. And in 1977, they sued the Krishnas for damages based on unlawful imprisonment, wrongful death, emotional distress and other allegations.

At trial, the Georges’ attorney, Milton Silverman, urged the jury to make the Krishnas “stop doing the same thing to other children” and to “pop them . . . (for) millions and millions and millions of dollars.”

The jury did just that. On June 17, 1983, as Robin and Marcia beamed at one another, the jury came back with an award of $32.5 million, finding in favor of the Georges on all the allegations.

That set up nearly a decade of appeals and legal maneuverings. But attorneys in the case said Thursday’s decision may not settle much.

“We’re happy,” said David M. Liberman, an attorney for the Krishnas. “We’re still alive. Our temples are still open, but at the same time we realize it’s just a modest victory in the battle. The war is far from over.”

Liberman said the Krishnas are willing to discuss a settlement but in the meantime plan to appeal the appellate court’s affirmation of the compensatory damages to the state Supreme Court.

Attorneys for the Georges said they also plan to appeal the justices’ decision to set aside the punitive damages.

Although disappointed, Marcia George said she is prepared for the thought of prolonged appeals.

“(We) haven’t given up hope. I think we are going to win in the end. And if we don’t win legally, I think we’ll win morally,” she said.

But she predicted that the victory may be long in coming. “Whatever I get, even if it’s $10,000, they’ll keep fighting it and keep this going for another 10 years,” she said.

Krishna Case at a Glance

1983: A Superior Court jury in Santa Ana awards Marcia George and her daughter, Robin, $32.5 million in damages from the Hare Krishna sect, but the trial judge slashes the award to $9.7 million. The two accused the Krishna sect of brainwashing Robin and smuggling her away to San Diego, New Orleans and Canada to hide her from her anguished family. The award includes $75,000 for the wrongful death of the girl’s father, Jim George, whose death experts attributed to stress caused by the Krishnas.

1989: The 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego dismisses claims that the Krishnas intentionally brainwashed Robin George and eliminates most of the award, except for the $75,000 granted in the wrongful-death claim and the $2.9 million awarded for emotional distress suffered by Marcia George.

The California Supreme Court orders the sale of five Krishna temples to fulfill the judgment, plus interest, for a total of $5 million.

1990: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor issues an order temporarily blocking the California Supreme Court’s order to sell the temples until the Supreme Court decides if it will hear the Krishnas’ appeal.

1991: The U.S. Supreme Court issues a brief and inconclusive order that the Krishna case, along with several similar appeals, be sent back for reconsideration at the state appeals court level.

The Hare Krishna sect asks the 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego to set aside the original judgment and order a new trial in the lawsuit.

1992: On Jan. 30, the 4th District Court of Appeal orders a retrial of the punitive damages award against the Krishnas.