Former Spotsylvania student files a rare lawsuit against three students he says bullied him unmercifully during his high school years.

By KEITH EPPS and BILL FREEHLING

Date published: 10/29/2004

Joseph Golden recalls his time at Chancellor High School as the most miserable years of his life.

Now he wants three classmates to pay.

Golden, a 2004 graduate of the Spotsylvania County school, is suing the boys over what he describes as repeated assaults and ridicule during his high school career.

"It was the same thing every day," the 19-year-old Golden said recently at the office of Marcel Jones, one of his attorneys. "The minute I walked through those doors, hell had begun."

The suit names the boys as Golden's primary tormentors. He is seeking $150,000 in compensatory and punitive damages from each, plus attorney fees.

An amended version of the suit was filed last month in Spotsylvania Circuit Court. Only one of the defendants had filed a formal response to the suit as of this week.

That boy's attorney, William Sokol, said Golden's claims don't merit a trial.

"It is a case that should have never been brought," Sokol said. His client is accused of trying to pick fights with Golden, among other things. Sokol said his client denies all of the allegations against him.

The Free Lance-Star is not identifying the defendants because they were juveniles at the time the alleged harassment occurred.

In the suit, Golden's attorneys claim another defendant repeatedly shoved Golden into walls and called him a "faggot."

The suit cites an alleged incident in which that boy forced a plastic bag over Golden's head and stated, "You look good with this on, faggot."

Golden said he is not homosexual.

A second defendant, the suit alleges, also bullied Golden repeatedly. Golden claims that boy hit him in the neck with a pen and used Golden's name as his own when a substitute teacher attempted to discipline him.

When Golden pointed out the discrepancy, according to the suit, the boy attempted to pick a fight.

On another occasion, Golden said, the second defendant called Golden the "Columbine kid" in the presence of others and asked him if he was "going to bring a gun to school and shoot everybody."

Golden, who was in special-education classes at the school, said students and teachers falsely accused him of staring at people on numerous occasions. The third defendant, Sokol's client, is named in the suit as one of the more frequent offenders.

The suit alleges that the boy also tried to pick fights with Golden for no reason.

Neither the school nor any teachers are named as defendants in the suit, but an Aug. 2 letter sent to the Spotsylvania School Board makes it clear that Golden holds several teachers responsible for his torment.

In the letter written by attorney Owaiian Jones, Golden recites incidents listed in the lawsuit and claimed that teachers witnessed many and did nothing.

The letter accuses a male teacher of watching the first defendant push Golden into walls and put the plastic bag over his head, "yet refused to take any protective or disciplinary action."

Read more stories about Spotsylvania
Date published: 10/29/2004