Jury awards $2.25 million to Georgia couple in suit over autopsy images of decapitated baby

ATLANTA (AP) — A jury has awarded a Georgia couple $2.25 million in their lawsuit accusing a pathologist of posting graphic videos of an autopsy of their decapitated baby.

A Fulton County jury returned the verdict against Dr. Jackson Gates on Wednesday. The couple, Jessica Ross and Treveon Isaiah Taylor Sr., hired Gates to perform an autopsy on their son, Treveon Taylor Jr., who was decapitated during delivery in July 2023.

They have separately sued the doctor who delivered the baby and the hospital where the delivery occurred. That case is pending.

In a lawsuit filed in September 2023, the couple said Gates posted several videos of the autopsy on Instagram without their permission. Gates initially removed the videos after receiving a letter from the couple’s attorneys, but then reposted them, according to the couple’s attorneys.

Ira Livnat, an attorney for Gates, said Saturday the jury’s finding that Gates did not intend to cause harm “flies in the face” of the plaintiffs’ “entire case.”

His client generally made posts about autopsies to educate other pathologists and advocate for independent evaluations when people felt a hospital had engaged in wrongdoing, he said.

The couple received a default judgment for intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and fraud after Gates did not immediately respond to their lawsuit.

“Dr. Gates testified that he is deeply sorry for any harm that he unintentionally caused the plaintiffs,” Livnat said. “Had he known for one second that they would see that and that they would know it was their child, he would never have done it.”

Attorneys for the couple said in a statement that the doctor “poured salt into the couple’s already deep wounds.”

“This young couple trusted him with the remains of their precious baby,” they said. “Gates, in turn, repaid this trust by posting horrific images of their child for the world to see.”