$2.2 Million Awarded to Woman Molested as Child : Courts: The abuse by the boyfriend of the victim’s mother occurred over five years. He served 5 years in prison.

A Ventura County judge has awarded $2.2 million to a former Ojai woman who was molested as a child by her mother’s live-in boyfriend over a five-year period.

The judgment, entered on May 22, was based on acts that began when the 22-year-old woman was 9 and continued until she was 14, said her attorney, Georgianna C. Pennington of Ventura.

“The role of the civil justice system is an essential element to the healing process of such a victim,” she said Thursday. “The child is left with an enormous sense of guilt and through an award such as this the child’s sense of right is validated.”

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Barbara Lane presided over the five-day, non-jury trial in late April and the judgment was announced last week.

The defendant was Vernon Harmon Sr., 60, a former Caltrans engineer who lived in Ojai, and who now resides in Tennessee. He did not appear at the trial, said Pennington, who is investigating Harmon’s financial ability to pay the award.

Pennington said Harmon was convicted in 1985 of lewd and lascivious conduct, rape and related acts stemming from his actions toward the girl.

Harmon subsequently served five years of a 10-year prison sentence and was released two years ago, she said.

During the civil trial before Lane, evidence was presented that the woman not only suffered severe mental injuries but was infected with herpes.

A Camarillo psychotherapist, Dr. Dree Miller, told the court that the woman, who still lives in Southern California, would require a lifetime of treatment, Pennington said.

The childhood trauma, she said, “has impacted her ability to hold jobs. The trauma of her youth has affected her ability to succeed.”

The judgment consisted of $1.6 million in actual damages for medical and psychiatric treatment, physical and psychological injury and emotional distress, and $600,000 for punitive damages.

“Too often in cases of sexual abuse of children, the offender is punished by the state, but the victim goes uncompensated for the grievous injuries and psychological distress suffered by them,” Pennington said.