COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Residents of a close-knit, mostly black Ohio neighborhood that went almost 50 years without public water were awarded nearly $11 million Thursday by a federal jury that agreed they were denied service because of their race.
Plaintiff Cynthia Hale Hairston, 47, who spent decades on Coal Run Road near Zanesville with her parents and grandparents wept quietly as U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley read name after name of victorious plaintiff. Families there either paid to have wells dug, hauled water for cisterns or collected rain water so they could drink, cook and bathe.
"As a child, I thought it was normal because everyone done it in my neighborhood," said Hairston, 47. "But I realized as an adult it was wrong."
After a seven-week trial, the jury found the city of Zanesville, Muskingum County and the East Muskingum Water Authority violated state and federal civil rights laws when it failed to provide water services to the residents, who lived about five miles southeast of town. All had denied discrimination.
Each of the 67 plaintiffs was awarded between $15,000 to $300,000, depending on how long they had lived in the neighborhood. The money was intended to cover both their monetary losses and their pain and suffering between 1956, when water lines were first laid in the area, and 2003, when Coal Run got public water.
Plaintiffs' attorney Reed Colfax described the verdict as unique among civil rights cases nationally, both in the nature of the ruling and the size of the award.
Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers said she was pleased: ``This decision speaks firmly about the importance of treating citizens with equal respect, regardless of race,'' she said in a statement.
Zanesville attorney Michael Valentine told U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley he intended to appeal the verdict, which took several hours to read last Thursday. Valentine declined further comment.
Attorney Mark Landes, who represented the county and water district, called the verdict disappointing. He said jurors were not allowed to hear defendants' testimony that neighborhood residents were offered water service years ago and refused it.
"This was a case that was started and fired by out-of-town lawyers who saw an opportunity for a cash settlement," Landes said.
John Relman, a civil rights attorney based in Washington, D.C., who represented the residents, said the jury heard hours of testimony and saw hundreds of pages of documentation over the seven weeks.
"This verdict vindicates that this (treatment) was because of their race," he said. "The jury agreed with that and issued a verdict based on a full airing of the facts."
The case was filed in 2003 after the Ohio Civil Rights Commission concluded that the residents were victims of discrimination. They testified that water lines were installed the following year.
Plaintiff Frederick Martin said the long wait was worth it.
He and his nine siblings shared two tubs of water between them on bath nights when he was growing up. He left Coal Run, built on a former coal mine, in 1970 so his children wouldn't have to endure the same living conditions, he said.
"Today I feel that we are really blessed, to know and to see justice being met," Martin said. "And to see, regardless of who we are, there is a price to pay if you discriminate against people."
The plaintiffs' attorneys successfully argued that the decision not to pipe water to the plaintiffs was racially motivated, painting a picture of a community with a history of segregation where the Ku Klux Klan had rallied as recently as 1999. Black residents of Coal Run Road were denied water over the years while nearby white neighbors were provided it, they said.
Landes countered that about half of Muskingum County residents are not tied into the public water system even today. Among those without it are county commissioners, judges and other prominent officials, he said.
In their complaint, plaintiffs' lawyers detailed a trip to the county commission by resident Jerry Kennedy, whose mother lived on Coal Run for 70 years.
When Kennedy asked for public water service, according to the court filing, Muskingum County Commissioner Dorothy Montgomery said there would be no water on Coal Run ``until President Bush drops spiral bombs in the holler.'' County attorneys were unable to verify the account.
Montgomery's husband, John, said Thursday that the statement about his wife is "absolutely not the truth."
A founding member of the water authority, who served for 11 years, John Montgomery said he was flabbergasted at the verdicts. He said the authority "walked up and down Coal Run Road to get people signed up and nobody would do it."
"It's just not right," he said. "This whole thing is a farce as far as I'm concerned."