Drug center ex-patient accepts $3,000,000 settlement

as seen in this report

A former patient at a defunct drug treatment center in Secaucus has agreed to a $3 million settlement with the center's former owners, the former patient's attorney said.

Antonio Carrera was a patient at KIDS of North Jersey for five years undergoing treatment for drug and alcohol addictions - addictions he said he did not have. He said administrators there refused to allow him to attend school and used other patients to physically abuse him when he refused to attend treatment sessions. He agreed to the settlement during a civil suit he filed against the center's owners, Virgil Newton Miller III and his wife, Ruth Ann Newton.

Before the trial began, Carrera - now 26 and living in Clifton - agreed to a $750,000 settlement with Dr. Zisalo Wancier, a psychiatrist at the center, said Carrera's attorney, Phil Elberg.

The settlement with the Newtons was reached Wednesday, but the amount of the settlement wasn't released until Friday.

Although the settlement ended Carrera's suit, state Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli allowed Carrera to testify about his time at the center. He claimed staff members there forced him to make up stories about being addicted to drugs and alcohol, sexually assaulting his siblings and possessing weapons. He was finally allowed to leave the center when he turned 18.

Elberg said Carrera's settlement brings the total of money recouped from the Newtons by former patients to more than $15 million.

"This has to do with the Newtons taking advantage of people, of preying on parents who are concerned for their children," Elberg said.