Sexual abuse victim was in second grade when she was sexually abused starting in 2006
The law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard has filed a sexual abuse lawsuit in Butte County Superior Court alleging the Thermalito Union Elementary School District was negligent for failing to protect an eight-year-old second grade student.
The student is identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit. She was abused between 2006-2009 at Poplar Avenue Elementary School in Thermalito, which is near Oroville.
The law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard filed an amended lawsuit this week in Santa Clara County Superior Court (Case No. 22CV401151) on behalf of another sexual abuse victim of Sierramont Middle School teacher Ronald Gardner. The victims in the case allege that the Berryessa Union School District in San Jose was negligent in failing to protect Sierramont Middle School students from sexual abuse.
The new victim is identified as John Doe 3 in the civil lawsuit.
In one of the largest civil jury verdicts in Santa Clara County history, the Union School District in San Jose has been ordered to pay $102.5 million to two young women who were sexually abused by former Dartmouth Middle School band director Samuel Neipp.
The school district has sought to overturn the verdict.
“It’s a high number but we’ve shown the court the verdict is justified,” attorney Lauren Cerri said. Ms. Cerri, from San Jose-based Cerri, Boskovich & Allard, represented one of the two women in the case.
A Marin County jury ruled that the Tamalpais Union High School District was 100 percent negligent for the 2003 sexual abuse of a then-high school student by its then PE teacher and tennis coach Normandie Burgos (Marin County Superior Court, Case# CIV2001133). It awarded the student $10 million.
The student, Alexander Harrison, is now 36 years old.
His lawsuit against the Tamalpais Union High School District was filed in March 2020 by the San Jose-based law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard under the auspices of AB 218, which extends the statute of limitations to allow older child sexual abuse cases to be filed through December 2022.
When Dennis Thomas started teaching at Cinnabar Elementary School in San Jose, it wasn’t long before school officials became aware that he was befriending young boys and taking them to his home or to places like the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz.
One time he even took a student on a Mexican cruise and he often sexually abused students at school – making boys sit on his lap, and inappropriately rubbing and touching them.
A horrific story of sexual abuse is detailed in an amended lawsuit against the Los Gatos Union School District and former fifth grade teacher Joseph Brian Houg.
The amended lawsuit, Case No. 21CV388845, was filed against the school district and Houg in Santa Clara County Superior Court by San Jose-based Cerri, Boskovich and Allard.
Another victim of former Piedmont Hills High School track coach Chioke Robinson is coming forward with her story of sexual abuse.
In a newly filed amended lawsuit, Jane Doe 2 claims that Robinson began sexually grooming her in the 2009-2010 school year and that Robinson sexually abused her starting in the 2010-2011 school year and continuing through the 2011-2012 school year.
The lawsuit states that the abuse escalated from inappropriate massages to sexual intercourse.
The Los Gatos Union School District and a former fifth grade teacher, Joseph Brian Houg, are being sued by the parents of a 10-year-old child who was sexually abused by Houg.
Due to the boy’s age and the sensitive nature of the allegations, the suit was filed anonymously on behalf of “John Doe.”
In 2020, sexual misconduct claims were reported against a former Thacher School headmaster and two teachers. As a result, the school retained Munger, Tolles & Olson, a Los Angeles law firm, to investigate the claims. The investigation included interviews with over 120 current and former students, parents, faculty, and staff.
One victim reportedly described being allegedly raped by a teacher in the 1980s when she was 16 years old. The sexual abuse progressed into more violent encounters.
Another victim reportedly described how a teacher/soccer coach acted inappropriately by creating “an exclusive clique of students with a secret ‘initiation ritual’ that included asking girls embarrassing personal questions about their bodies.” In addition, this same teacher would allegedly give massages to female students while also groping their bodies.
The New Haven Unified School District has agreed to pay $2.25 million to three young girls who were sexually abused by their third-grade teacher, Michael William Howey, when they were eight years old. Two of the girls, who were represented by the San Jose law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard, will share equally in the settlement with the third girl, who was represented by another law firm.
The first complaint about Howey’s inappropriate behavior came during the 2002-2003 school year when he was teaching at Cesar Chavez Middle School but school officials ignored it.
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