Jury awards nearly $9 million to families

Fertility doctor used own sperm to impregnate patients

Maia Emmons-boring couldn’t stop shaking as she waited for the verdict Wednesday evening inside a Grand Junction courtroom.

It had been more than three years since the Texas resident learned through a home DNA test that the man she had called her father her entire life was not, in fact, her genetic relative.

Instead, Emmons-boring — along with 16 other people around the country — discovered through genealogy tests that they actually shared DNA with a Western Slope fertility doctor named Paul B. Jones.

Wednesday evening, as Emmons-boring clenched her parents’ hands, a Mesa County jury awarded her family and two others nearly $9 million, finding Jones and his fertility clinic liable for the doctor using his own sperm to inseminate three mothers when they requested anonymous donors decades ago.

“This gives doctor-conceived people hope that there can be some vindication,” Emmons-boring said Thursday.

The jury’s landmark decision, together with a $5 million judgment against a Vermont doctor last month, will set a significant precedent for fertility fraud cases throughout the country, said Jody Madeira, a University of Indiana law professor and expert on fertility fraud.

“These two verdicts side by side establish that the public rejects this standard,” Madeira said. “They know that was never the standard of care and they find it grotesque.”

The verdict also came just days after Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill — the first of its kind in the United States — to grant greater protections for donor-conceived individuals like Emmonsboring and her half-siblings, including barring anonymous sperm and egg donations.

‘OUR GOAL WAS NEVER THE MONEY’

The Grand Junction case stems from a 2019 lawsuit in which more than a dozen children and parents sued Jones and the Women’s Healthcare of Western Colorado clinic on allegations of fraud, battery, medical negligence, lack of informed consent, breach of contract and extreme and outrageous conduct.

The families claimed that Jones used his sperm instead of sperm from anonymous donors in seven artificial inseminations from 1979 to 1985.

It was only decades later when the children — now adults — found out through services such as Ancestry.com or 23andme that they had half-siblings with one common connection: Paul B. Jones. (The gynecologist surrendered his medical license in 2019, soon after his alleged actions burst into the public sphere.)

Other members of the initial lawsuit settled with Jones before the trial, Emmons-boring said. But her family had no interest.

“Our goal was never the money,” she said. “It was to see him in court.”

Ultimately, the jury sided with the plaintiffs on the 10th day of the trial, said Patrick Fitz-gerald, their attorney. The court has not yet entered the order of judgment into the public record.

Jones declined to comment on the verdict and jury award when reached Thursday, as did a representative of Women’s Healthcare of Western Colorado.

The jury, on the negligence claims, found Jones to be 30% liable, with the clinic liable for the other 70%, Fitz-gerald said. Roughly $3.75 million of the $8.75 total judgment came as punitive damages to Jones, the attorney said.

“Our clients were given justice today after discovering three years ago that Dr. Jones had secretly inseminated their mothers who sought an anonymous donor,” Fitz-gerald said in an email. “This verdict is vindication for all of them and for all victims of fertility fraud in this country.”

After the verdict, Emmons-boring and the other families spilled into the courthouse foyer, hugging one another. Finally, a sigh of relief.

The half-siblings, 17 of them now, have been talking throughout the case on Facebook Messenger. The oldest of them was born in 1976 — 46 years ago.

“Everyone is really happy that Jones has to have some punishment,” Emmons-boring said.

The Jones case is especially significant because most of these cases never reach trial — and many lawyers won’t even take such cases in the first place, Madeira said. A decision like this could have ripple effects, she said, encouraging more attorneys to take interest in an issue long overlooked.

‘OUT OF THE SHADOWS AND INTO THE LIGHT”’

With the verdict still fresh, Colorado could be on the verge of creating unprecedented protections for donor-conceived individuals and their families.

SB22-224, introduced last week by a bipartisan group of sponsors, would make Colorado the first state in the country to bar anonymous sperm and egg donations as well as put limits on the number of families that can be created from one donor.