A Montague County civil jury has returned a $295 million verdict in favor of Hailey Dickerson, now 20, who was sexually abused as a child by Bridgeport resident Max Hahn IV while living on his ranch on Bugscuffle Road outside Bowie.
The verdict is one of the largest in of its kind ever awarded in the United States and believed to be the second largest single-plaintiff sexual abuse verdict ever awarded in the Unite States.
On Oct. 31 the jury, after hearing evidence in a week-long trial, unanimously found Hahn committed assault, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault and injury to a child against Dickerson when she was between 8 and 10 years of age.
At the time, Hahn was dating Hailey’s mother, who lived on Hahn’s ranch with her four children.
Dickerson disclosed the abuse to her mother and later to a sexual assault nurse examiner and a trained forensic interviewer at a child advocacy center. Hahn denied the allegations, and his 2018 criminal trial ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury.
Hahn was later re-indicted and pleaded no contest to the charge of injury to a child, receiving a probated sentence.
Dickerson’s attorney, Brian Butcher of the Noteboom Law Firm in Fort Worth, said the evidence of guilt was overwhelming.
“The details Hailey recounted as a tiny and terrified child remained consistent across time and independent evaluations,” Butcher said.

Read the full story in the Thursday Bowie News.