CROWN POINT -- A jury awarded two Dyer teens on Monday $107,000 for an incident at a New Year’s Eve Party sponsored by Living Stones Fellowship Church four years ago.

Cousins Manuel “Lee” Gomez, 17, and Brandon Gomez, 18, were given $8,500 each in compensatory damages and $45,000 apiece in punitive damages from the Crown Point-based church and Cause Youth Foundation, its corresponding youth group; its youth pastor, Pastor Ron Johnson Jr.; and defendants Derrick “DJ” Crofford and Ryan Voyles for their parts in a game played at the party. Brandon Gomez, Manuel “Lee” Gomez, Bryan Gomez, also of Dyer and Tomas Thain sued the church for battery, negligence, intentional infliction, fraud and false imprisonment. The jury did not award Thain anything, and a third defendant, Colin Adams, was not found at fault in the incident.

“I think the jurors reached the verdict because they concluded that Ron and Living Stones put the health and lives of two children in danger,” said Merrillville-based attorney John Bushemi, who represented the plaintiffs. “The defendants, including Pastor Johnson, testified that the event was 'entertaining, fun and humorous,’ but apparently 11 jurors felt no humor.”

Central to the case was a video tape that described the events over which the Gomezes sued. The tape showed Johnson engaging the crowd in a food-eating game, whereby audience members could volunteer to guess, for a $50 gift certificate, a mystery food fed to them. Brandon Gomez and Lee Gomez, then 14 and 13 at the time, volunteered as did two girls.

Once the four children were on stage, Johnson and an assistant unveiled the “Veg-o-matic,” which was church member Ryan Voyles sitting on a stool behind a counter. The assistant took food including eggnog, sardines, cottage cheese, dog food, sauerkraut, salsa and potted meat, and put it in Boyles’ mouth. Johnson then tapped Voyles on the head, and Voyles would chew the food and spit it back into a bowl.

Johnson asked the participants whether they wanted to proceed; the girls stepped down, while Brandon Gomez and Lee Gomez drank the mixture. The next day, the two boys were taken to the doctor, where they were both tested for HIV, Hepatitis B, strep throat, and tuberculosis and put on medicine for several weeks.

The Gomez family was thrilled at the verdict, saying justice was served.

“It’ll make him learn his lesson,” Brandon Gomez said. “He deserves every bit of it.”

A visibly shaken Johnson declined comment.

Jurors in the case said that watching the boys on film, they could see that Brandon was disturbed at drinking the concoction and for that, there was considerable emotional damage inflicted. The jury did not find, however, that the boys were confined in any way by Johnson, Adams or Crofford.

Defense attorney Richard Long, of Highland, said he and his clients feel that the evidence didn’t match up with the charges and will appeal.