The Moreno Valley Unified School District has settled for more than $1.7 million a lawsuit alleging an autistic high school student was sexually assaulted in 2019 on a school bus by another student with a history of deviant and violent behavior.
Kabateck LLP, one of two Los Angeles law firms that filed the lawsuit in June 2020, announced the settlement last week. But the case was actually settled on Jan. 24, 2023, and signed six months later, said Marina R. Pacheco, one of the attorneys who represented the former student and his grandparents, who are his legal guardians.
Although Kabateck LLP kept a lid on the formal settlement for more than 16 months, the firm ultimately decided it needed to be publicized given the prevalence of sexual abuse in school districts statewide, said Anastasia Mazzella, another attorney who represented the plaintiffs.
“Student-on-student sexual abuse is a problem in school districts across California, and this case was an example of how students with special needs are particularly vulnerable to abuse,” Mazzella said. “We believe the settlement was a great result for our client and should be publicized despite the settlement taking place last year.”
Settlement terms
Under terms of the structured settlement, the money was invested in an annuity that generates monthly payments over the next 40 years, with a guaranteed payment of $1.2 million and a total expected payout of $1.8 million. In addition to the annuity, approximately $397,000 was put into a special needs trust for their client’s future needs, Pacheco said.
“We hope the individuals involved will continue to heal and recover,” said Alex Sponheim, interim director of communication and community engagement for Moreno Valley Unified School District, in an email on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
Sponheim said structured settlements are tailored for anyone who is under the age of 18 or classified as a special education student, and the money is automatically placed into trust for the individual.
District hit hard
The announcement comes a year after a jury awarded $135 million to two former students — the highest award ever in Moreno Valley Unified history — stemming from a lawsuit filed in 2021 alleging they were molested by their teacher. Justin McGregor and Brady Blair alleged Thomas Lee West abused them beginning in 1996, when they were sixth-graders at Vista Heights Middle School, and that it continued through their sophomore years in high school.
McGregor and Blair alleged in their lawsuit the district knew West had been accused of molesting children years before the two were sexually assaulted yet did nothing to stop him. Court records show West was charged with 10 felony counts in 1993 after authorities said he molested a foster child in his care.
West eventually pleaded guilty to a single count of child endangerment and was sentenced to 120 days in jail.
Suprintendent fired
About a month before the unprecedented $135 million jury award, the school board voted 3-2 to fire Superintendent Martinrex Kedziora.
Although the district did not disclose why Kedziora was dismissed, the decision occurred a week after the attorney representing the family of a Landmark Middle School boy killed by two bullies announced that the district and its insurers agreed to a $27 million settlement to resolve a wrongful death lawsuit.
On Sept. 16, 2019, eighth-grader Diego Stolz, 13, was sucker-punched in an on-campus attack captured on video and shared on social media. His head hit a pillar and, after he fell to the ground unconscious, his assailant and another boy continued punching him. Stolz never woke up and died days later in a hospital.
Sued again
In June 2020, Kabateck LLP and Haffner Law PC sued the school district and high school on behalf of the autistic teen and his grandparents, who alleged the district breached its mandatory duty to protect their grandson, who was 17 at the time of the Oct. 19, 2019, incident. The attorneys alleged the boy’s assailant, who was 15, forced him to perform oral sex on him on the bus after taking his cellphone from him and pulling up pornography on the device.
One student on the bus reported hearing the victim say “stop!” multiple times, attorney Brian Kabateck in a 2022 interview with the Southern California News Group. He said the victim’s assailant had 37 documented incidents of discipline from kindergarten through high school, including exposing himself to another student and kicking a student in the groin.
It was unclear if the bus driver was aware of what was happening at the time or was ever disciplined, but Pacheco said the driver was criticized in a prior work performance evaluation for being deficient in “pupil management.”
The assailant also was a special-needs student and was expelled following the incident. He pleaded no contest in juvenile court to one felony count of oral copulation with someone under the age of 18. Yet despite that, the school board voted unanimously in 2020 to allow him to return to the district as a student.
The case first went to mediation in November 2021, but the school district’s offer to settle was so low the plaintiffs’ attorneys pushed forward in the litigation, Pacheco said.
“We litigated right up to the time trial was supposed to take place …,” Pacheco said.
Under the settlement agreement, Mazzella said, the district did not admit any liability for what happened to the former student.
