Judge Allows 3 Shooting Victims to Sue Hinckley

John W. Hinckley Jr., the man who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, is liable for damages to three men wounded in the shooting, a federal judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge John Garrett Penn said the fact that Hinckley was found innocent by reason of insanity in Reagan’s shooting does not absolve him of liability for damages to former presidential press secretary James Brady and two security men, Thomas K. Delahanty and Timothy J. McCarthy.

“The question of the defendant’s sanity, at the time of the (shootings), remains a genuine issue of fact to be tried,” Penn ruled.

Hinckley, who has been confined at St. Elizabeth’s mental hospital here since the March 30, 1981, assassination attempt, asked the court to dismiss suits by the three men because he was found insane.

But Penn said the government had the burden of proving beyond a doubt that Hinckley was sane in the criminal case. In a civil trial, Hinckley “bears the burden of proving that he was insane,” the judge said.

In any case, he said, even “an insane person is liable for compensatory damages . . .”

Penn said the amount and whether Hinckley also should pay punitive damages would have to be determined at a trial. If Hinckley was found in the civil case to have been insane at the time of the shooting, he could not be held liable for punitive damages.

“Regardless of whether the jury finds the defendant sane or insane, he will be liable for compensatory damages,” the judge said. “As the compensatory damages, then, the only issue left for trial is the amount that plaintiffs may be awarded.”

Brady, Delahanty and McCarthy brought suit against Hinckley in 1982, seeking both compensatory and punitive damages. They contend Hinckley knew what he was doing when he fired the shots at Reagan that hit them.

McCarthy, a Secret Service agent assigned to protect the President, was shot in the chest; Delahanty, a District of Columbia policeman, was shot in the neck, and Brady, the worst hurt, was shot in the head and left permanently impaired.