$3M SETTLEMENT IN ‘KIDS’ CASE

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

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 agreed to a $750,000 settlement with Dr. Zisalo Wancier, a psychiatrist at the center.

Although the settlement ended the court case Wednesday, 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.

Carrera’s attorney, Phil Elberg, said that Carrera’s settlement brings the total of money recuperated 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.

Carrera, whose family immigrated to New York City in 1993, was admitted to KIDS of North Jersey in July 1994 at the age of 14. He said he was brought to the center by his parents after he was arrested in connection with a groping incident at his high school in Queens.

Although his parents said they saw no signs of drug use in a preliminary interview with Ruth Ann Newton – and even though Carrera twice tested negative for drugs – he was diagnosed with marijuana and alcohol addictions and was admitted to the program with the consent of his parents, said his attorney, Phil Elberg.

“More than 41/2 years of his life were stolen because he was in treatment for problems he did not have,” Elberg said.

Carrera also claimed he was frequently restrained by other patients, often being pinned to the floor by as many as four other teens, until he agreed to participate in drug treatment sessions.