A San Diego Superior Court jury has awarded $105 million in damages to a woman who says she was sexually harassed at work before being wrongly fired from her job as a counselor for patients with substance-use disorder.
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The nine-figure verdict was reached this past week in a case filed in 2024 by Michelle Giaquinta, a San Diego County woman who sued the Fashion Valley Comprehensive Treatment Center for what she said were a series of employment law violations.
The jury award included $35 million in compensatory damages and another $70 million in punitive damages.
“Suffice to say, (her work experience) caused her significant emotional and psychological harm,” said Justin Walker, one of several of Giaquinta’s lawyers. “She lost all she had worked so hard for, to become a substance abuse counselor helping people in the throes of addiction.
“That was her passion, and they stole it from her in order to hide the fact that they had failed to follow safety protocols,” he said.
The Fashion Valley Comprehensive Treatment Center is owned by Acadia Healthcare, which operates hundreds of clinics in 40 states. In April, the company announced almost $830 million in earnings over the first three months of 2026, a 7.6% increase over the prior quarter.
Attorneys who defended the healthcare giant did not respond to requests for comment. The company’s press office also declined to respond to a request for comment on the claims or jury award.
Giaquinta was hired at the clinic in 2022 to counsel patients addicted to alcohol and opiates. She was told when she was hired that she would treat 60 to 80 patients at a time but was actually assigned some 100 patients, her lawsuit said.
In 2023, one of her patients sexually harassed her, showing her photographs of a man’s genitalia. The patient was initially assigned to another counselor and later discharged, the lawsuit alleged, but the harassment continued.
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“The patient began to loiter on the sidewalk across from the Fashion Valley CTC building,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiff saw him standing there on multiple occasions for hours at a time.”
Giaquinta’s supervisors laughed off the behavior, her lawsuit said. Later, a hidden camera was discovered inside a staff bathroom inside the clinic. According to the lawsuit, the employee who found the camera filed a police report, but the plaintiff was discouraged from speaking to investigators.
The plaintiff also said she was sexually harassed by a coworker who was hired in 2023 and subjected her to repeated unwanted requests for a relationship outside work.
The new employee implied to Giaquinta that he had placed the camera in the staff bathroom, her lawsuit said. She reported the incidents and her suspicion that he had placed it but her bosses did not take any action, she said.
“Plaintiff was devastated by the disregard of her good faith complaint,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiff feared for her job and was extremely anxious that she would need to continue to work with (the new colleague).”
Shortly thereafter, Giaquinta said the coworker was accused of sexual harassment by a patient and suspended from work, her lawyers said. She was fired in October 2023, allegedly for failing to properly document patient interactions.
Walker said evidence showed that the company never investigated his client’s claims and that it fired her to prevent her from speaking to regulatory auditors who were scheduled to visit one day after she was placed on leave.
“None of the company’s witnesses apologized or admitted any wrongdoing, despite clear evidence establishing the company had consistently chosen not to follow the law that required them to report the alleged harassment,” he said.
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It is not yet clear whether Acadia Healthcare plans to appeal the jury award.
