Articles Posted in Featured Articles

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A lawsuit has been filed against Castilleja School, a private all-girls institution, by three former students alleging sexual abuse. The legal action, brought by the law firms Cerri, Boskovich & Allard and Mary Alexander & Associates, claims that the school concealed a tutor’s predatory behavior and failed to address complaints about his alleged sexual misconduct with minors.

The lawsuit accuses Castilleja School of negligent supervision, negligent misrepresentation, and inadequate training. It alleges that the school did not properly investigate or report prior complaints about the inappropriate behavior of tutor Mark Hodes.

According to the complaint, Castilleja School was aware of Hodes’ inappropriate behavior as early as 1992-1993. The school was reportedly on notice that Hodes engaged in highly inappropriate grooming behavior with minor female students, creating a risk of sexual assault.

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Lawsuit Alleges Negligence in Sexual Abuse Case Involving Autistic Child

A lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court has brought to light serious allegations of negligence against Trumpet Behavioral Health, LLC and its parent company, BlueSprig. The case, filed by the law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard, centers on the alleged sexual abuse of an 11-year-old autistic girl by a behavioral therapist during home-based therapy sessions.

Trumpet Behavioral Health, LLC is a provider of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for children, teens, and young adults with autism and intellectual disabilities. The company offers both home-based and center-based services across multiple states, including California. In late 2023, Trumpet was acquired by BlueSprig, another ABA therapy provider.

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The Tamalpais Union High School District has agreed to a $17.5 million settlement to resolve four sexual abuse lawsuits involving former tennis coach Normandie Burgos. The settlement includes $11.5 million awarded to A.H., a victim who successfully sued the district in Marin County Superior Court (Case No. CIV2001133). This amount also accounts for over $1 million in interest after the district unsuccessfully appealed a $10 million jury verdict from 2022, which found the district liable for failing to protect A.H. from Burgos’ abuse.

The settlement also resolves three additional lawsuits brought by two former Tamalpais High School students and a private tennis player who received lessons from Burgos at the school. One of the victims, identified as John Doe, will receive $4.5 million for abuse that began during the 1999-2000 school year, when Burgos was still a probationary employee without tenure protections. Doe testified that a school administrator witnessed Burgos sexually abusing him but failed to intervene or report the incident, instead making a joke and walking away.

“None of these men should have ever been abused,” said attorney Mark Boskovich, who represented the victims. “The district’s failure to act enabled and emboldened Burgos to continue his predatory behavior.”

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The parents of seven-year-old Bastian Michel, severely injured after wandering away unsupervised from a Kumon Math & Reading Center in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood, are filing a lawsuit against Kumon North America and Systematic Learnings Inc., which operates the Kumon Math & Reading Center of Willow Glen. The lawsuit accuses the defendants of negligent supervision, leading to Bastian being struck by a vehicle and almost losing his life. The driver involved in the accident is also named in the lawsuit.

The suit alleges that Systematic, as a Kumon franchise, was required to adhere to Kumon’s guidelines on the safety and supervision of children. However, it claims that Kumon’s safety standards were inadequate for a business frequently handling child drop-off and pickup.

“Kumon should have recognized the dangers associated with children leaving various franchises, including risks of vehicle-pedestrian collisions,” said the family’s attorney Mark Boskovich.

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District failed to protect eighth-grade student from abuse by former teacher Michelle Solis

Butte County — October 10, 2024 — A lawsuit was filed late yesterday (Butte County Superior Court) against the Gridley Unified School District on behalf of a former middle school student who was sexually abused by his teacher, Michelle Solis, at Sycamore Junior High School during the 2020-2021 academic year. Solis confessed to the sexual activity with the eighth-grade male student and in June of this year was sentenced to four years in state prison.

The lawsuit filed by the San Jose law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard along with the Carrillo Law Firm from South Pasadena alleges that the school district failed to supervise Solis and to protect the student, named as John Doe in the lawsuit, from predators like Solis.

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As students head back to school, the San Jose law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard is reminding parents about the dangers of sexual abuse by educators and urging parents and school officials to be aware of teachers who exhibit predatory “red flag” behavior, which almost always precedes the sexual abuse of a student.

Sexual predators signal their intent to sexually abuse a student by slowly crossing the boundaries established to protect students. The reality is that predators are not caught abusing children, but they can be caught breaking rules and crossing boundaries if parents and educators know what to look for.

According to Professor Charol Shakeshaft, an internationally recognized researcher, 4.5 million students or nearly 1 out of every ten kids are subjected to educator sexual misconduct. The sexual misconduct ranges from inappropriate conduct to criminal sexual behavior.

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The United States Tennis Association (USTA) has been ordered by a jury to pay $9 million in damages to tennis player Kylie McKenzie after a court determined that the organization failed to prevent her from being sexually assaulted by her coach.

Kylie McKenzie, a 25-year-old American tennis player, initiated her lawsuit in March 2022 in the US District Court in Orlando, Florida. She filed against both the USTA and USTA Player Development Incorporated, alleging that her former coach, Anibal Aranda, employed by the organization at the time, had committed sexual assault and battery against her.

Accusations also included the USTA’s gross negligence in employing and inadequately supervising Coach Aranda, despite his known history of sexual predation, which the lawsuit contended constituted a conscious disregard or indifference to McKenzie’s life, safety, or rights.

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Berryessa Union School District has agreed to pay $10.3 million to a group of former Sierramont Middle School students who were groomed and sexually abused in the late 1990s and early 2000s by a teacher who in 2023 was convicted and sentenced to two decades in prison after the victims renewed their allegations against him.

The settlement with the Berryessa Union School District was announced Tuesday by the San Jose-based law firm Cerri, Boskovich & Allard, which secured the payout on behalf of three students. Two of them testified in the prosecution of Ronald Dean Gardner, who was sentenced in December to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a total of four students.

Gardner taught at the school more than two decades ago and was plagued by allegations of inappropriate conduct with students. He was allowed to resign after a police investigation at the time failed to yield any criminal charges against him. In 2021, students came forward again with abuse allegations after Assembly Bill 218, which was in effect from 2020 to 2022, granted a one-time extension of the statute of limitations.

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The law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard has filed a lawsuit against the Campbell Union High School District. The lawsuit alleges that Leigh High School teacher Shawn Thomas impregnated a student in 2003 and forced her to have an abortion. Thomas was arrested last month after the former student disclosed to police that he raped her while she was his student.

Click for a copy of the lawsuit

The lawsuit states that the victim, referred to as Jane Doe, was a freshman at Leigh High in the 2002-2003 school year. Thomas allegedly began grooming her for sexual advances and assaulting her multiple times on school grounds, including in his portable classroom and a storage room in the boys’ locker room. The lawsuit claims that Thomas’s wife Sarah, who was the Dean of Leigh High at the time, discovered the victim with Thomas in his classroom after they had been having sex.

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The law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard has filed a lawsuit alleging that a San Jose Jr. Sharks hockey player suffered sexual abuse as a result of the negligence of Sharks Sports & Entertainment, LLC (SSE) and its subsidiary, Sharks Ice, LLC.

According to the lawsuit, former San Jose Jr. Sharks hockey coach Kevin Whitmer allegedly began grooming John Doe in April 2021 and subsequently subjected him to multiple instances of sexual assault when he was 12 years old. The lawsuit contends that Whitmer would reportedly take the young victim alone into the locker room at Sharks Ice, the ice-skating facility serving as the official training venue for the NHL’s San Jose Sharks.

The Jr. Sharks are an affiliate of USA Hockey, the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the United States.

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