{"id":220805,"date":"2026-03-26T03:16:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T03:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/220805\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T03:16:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T03:16:06","slug":"dallas-county-jury-awards-1-1-billion-in-child-abuse-case-against-stepfather-tied-to-early-humble-oil-fortune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/220805\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas County jury awards $1.1 billion in child abuse case against stepfather tied to early Humble Oil fortune"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dallas County jury awarded $1.1 billion to a young child and his family on Wednesday after finding his stepfather responsible for severe abuse<\/a> that left him with life-altering injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, the defendant, Charles Brooks, Jr., the child’s stepfather, assaulted the child, now 7-years-old, causing “catastrophic injuries and putting him in a wheelchair.” Brooks claimed the child’s injuries were an accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lawsuit: man beat child, threatened mom\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit states that in 2021, Madison Ball trusted her then-husband, Brooks, to babysit her son. Ball alleges that Brooks told her he had to visit his grandfather in the hospital in Dallas and took Ball’s then 2-year-old son with him.<\/p>\n

Brooks, an unemployed trust fund beneficiary, is the grandson of the late Virginia and Dr. Jesse Brooks and is the great-grandson of one of the original investors of Humble Oil (the predecessor to Exxon), Tony Buzbee<\/a>, who represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement to CBS News Texas.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit states that Brooks lied and did not go to a hospital, nor did he visit his grandfather; rather, he beat and abused the child, “almost killing him.”<\/p>\n

The lawsuit states that Brooks told Ball her son fell off the kitchen table and was “non-responsive.” Ball then demanded that Brooks FaceTime her, during which she saw that her son was barely breathing, the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

Brooks told Ball that she should not worry, the lawsuit claims, and that the child had already been revived in an ice bath and would “sleep it off.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges that Brooks then refused to call an ambulance when asked by Ball and threatened her, saying he would “snap her neck” and “f***ing kill her” if she called the police or an ambulance. Ball did call an ambulance, the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

Child suffers severe brain injury, requiring lifelong care, lawsuit says<\/p>\n

At the hospital, the child was found to have a severe brain bleed, a traumatic brain injury, adult bite marks on his legs and multiple forms of organ and neurological damage. He spent months in the ICU in a medically induced coma and continued to face ongoing complications, the lawsuit states. It continues that he is bedridden, relies on a breathing machine, lives with permanent, severe brain damage, and will require lifelong, 24-hour medical care. Ball said her son had been a healthy, energetic toddler before the assault. <\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, Brooks told the authorities that the child had fallen down the stairs and told others that he had been in a car accident.<\/p>\n

Brooks was arrested 11 days after the incident. He later went on the run before ultimately being captured. He ultimately pleaded guilty to injury to a child in 2023 and was sentenced to 40 years in prison, according to court documents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit sought compensatory damages to help Ball care for her son and punitive damages because of Brooks’ “egregious, reckless, and sickening conduct.”<\/p>\n

After years of legal proceedings, the verdict included approximately $291 million in compensatory damages and $810 million in punitive damages, according to Buzbee.<\/p>\n

“Children are a precious gift from God our Father. Don’t mess with Texas children. Period,”\u00a0 Buzbee said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dallas County jury awarded $1.1 billion to a young child and his family on Wednesday after finding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2118,102,1932,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-220805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-child-abuse","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-lawsuit","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}