An L.A. jury says Ricky Garcia, from the boy band Endlessly in Your Thoughts, was certainly sexually abused by his former supervisor again when the singer was a youngster … TMZ has realized.
The jury returned the decision Friday, discovering Joby Harte responsible for childhood sexual abuse, gender violence and intentional infliction of emotional misery. The jury additionally hit Harte with an 7-figure judgment — awarding Ricky $5.5 million in compensatory damages, and one other $1 mil in punitive damages.
The decision brings an finish to a prolonged case for Ricky, who was 20 years previous again in 2019 when he filed the lawsuit in opposition to Harte … alleging he had groomed and assaulted him for a number of years, beginning when Ricky was simply 12.
Ricky joined Endlessly in Your Thoughts after auditioning for season 3 of “The X Factor” — he impressed Simon Cowell sufficient to get an invite to affix the group. He was additionally a toddler actor, co-starring in additional than 30 episodes of the Disney Channel present, “Best Friends Whenever.”
However, in his lawsuit, Ricky mentioned present biz took a darkish flip for him when Harte took the band on journeys he described as songwriting classes. The singer says Harte received him drunk and he wakened bare on Harte’s mattress.
On different events, Ricky says Harte pressured him to carry out intercourse acts whereas he was underneath the age of 18. He mentioned he was afraid he’d lose his profession, so he remained silent for years … till he and his mom confronted Harte, after which filed the lawsuit in opposition to him.
In the course of the authorized battle, Ricky was represented by the legislation corporations of Geragos & Geragos and Zumpano Patricios and Popok.
