School district says Tribune owes it $200,000 for lawsuit over coach accused of molestation
The Lucia Mar Unified School District says it has spent more than $200,000 in legal fees fighting a Tribune lawsuit related to the former Nipomo girls wrestling coach accused of sexual misconduct — and it wants the news organization to cover its costs.
The Tribune’s public records requests and investigative reporting over more than a year exposed complaints against Justin Magdaleno — who was accused of sexually harassing and inappropriately touching his athletes — and the district’s slow response.
Despite ultimately turning over approximately 1,500 pages of documents since the newspaper filed the lawsuit in San Luis Obispo Superior Court in September 2018, the school district is asking the court to award more than $209,783 in legal fees for its attorneys’ time and litigation costs, calling the lawsuit “frivolous.”
Lucia Mar’s legal fees are a fraction of the ultimate costs the district could face in the case. It also paid Magdaleno almost $100,000 in wages and severance, and The Tribune is requesting more than $120,000 in reimbursement for its legal fees. Meanwhile, it’s facing three lawsuits from five student athletes, shepherded by celebrity attorney Gloria Allred.
The Tribune lawsuit was filed after lawyers for McClatchy, the newspaper’s parent company, notified the school district it was in violation of the California Public Records Act after the district repeatedly delayed the production of public records related to its handling of Magdaleno’s discipline and eventual separation.
An investigation by the Sheriff’s Office concluded in April 2018 that Magdaleno should be charged with lewd acts against a child and child molestation but the district kept him on staff for at least two more months.
The school district in June 2018 entered into a separation agreement that gave Magdaleno roughly $32,000 in severance — after paying him roughly $63,000 while he was out on leave for nine months — as well as a non-disclosure agreement that prevented the district from revealing the allegedly criminal behavior to any of Magdaleno’s future potential employers, including other schools.
Lucia Mar’s attorney Christopher Duran of Fresno-based Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo, argued in court filings that his firm logged more than 650 hours of work — more than 16 weeks of work hours — between Duran and seven other attorneys.
The Tribune’s attorney, Karl Olson of San Francisco-based Cannata, O’Toole, Fickes, & Olson, is seeking roughly $122,142 to recoup fees and costs for approximately 277 hours of work for he and two other attorneys in the case.
According to district spokeswoman Amy Jacobs, should the newspaper be awarded its fees, that money would not be covered from the district’s liability insurance, but instead from the district’s general fund, meaning money that could have been spent in the classroom went to defending the district instead.
Should The Tribune prevail in its effort, the district by its own calculation will have spent at least $426,000 on pay to Magdaleno and attorneys working on the lawsuit since the coach was placed on leave in November 2017, assuming it has paid its attorneys at the hourly rates that they are seeking in the district’s fee motion.
“The school district denied, delayed and stonewalled The Tribune for almost a year to try and avoid revealing documents about this story,” Olson wrote in a statement. “California law is clear that when someone has to fight and go to court to get public records, they should be awarded their fees, and The Tribune should be awarded its fees here.”
He added: “The California Legislature has said that access to public records is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state. That’s what we’re fighting for here.”
Months of delays
In a court motion filed Dec. 3, Olson wrote that it wasn’t until The Tribune filed a lawsuit that the district turned over records the newspaper had requested nearly a year earlier.
In response to tips about the allegations against Magdaleno, then-Tribune reporter Travis Gibson made a public records request Oct. 26, 2017, for disciplinary records related to Magdaleno. The district responded Nov. 3, 2017, that it was investigating the complaints of misconduct and would provide records when the investigation was completed and if the allegations were “substantial and well-founded.”
“We didn’t hear anything further from LMUSD for six months, even though we later learned that LMUSD had already completed a report in December 2017 which basically concluded that the complaints against Magdaleno were well-founded, and that the sheriff’s department had recommended that he be criminally prosecuted,” Tribune Editor Joe Tarica wrote in a Dec. 3 declaration. “Having not heard anything, Mr. Gibson wrote another Public Records Act request to LMUSD on April 5, 2018, asking for communications among district officials regarding Magdaleno. Once again, LMUSD stonewalled us.”
The district responded May 21, 2018, with the release of a large number of internal emails, but saying it was still investigating, refused to release records related to complaints against Magdaleno. Gibson responded May 26, 2018, protesting the continued refusal, and the district again reiterated its denial.
The Tribune then retained legal counsel, which sent a demand to the district Aug. 24, 2018, and filed the lawsuit Sept. 14, 2018.
The district turned over its investigative report and Magdaleno’s disciplinary records on Sept. 24, 2018, and over the course of a year eventually provided a total of roughly 1,500 pages of records and email communications.
To date, records provided to The Tribune since the filing of the lawsuit show:
- Students, parents, and district staff members had made complaints about Magdaleno’s behavior as early as October 12, 2017.
- Despite the mounting complaints, district officials allowed Magdaleno to chaperone an overnight field trip in Los Angeles with members of the wrestling team, including at least one of his accusers, on Oct. 23, 2017. Once the district learned the Sheriff’s Office was investigating Magdaleno, another staff member drove to Los Angeles to relieve him of his chaperoning duties, and he was placed on leave.
- Witnesses described Magdaleno making death threats toward his accusers when told of the situation on the trip, according to the district investigative report.
- At least one parent came forward with complaints after The Tribune’s first story on Magdaleno.
- During the investigation, district staff became aware of accusations of inappropriate behavior against Magdaleno from his previous job at Pioneer Valley High School. This information led Tribune reporters to discover a Santa Maria Police Department report that showed two former Santa Maria Joint Union High School District students came forward in 2014 with allegations that Magdaleno supplied the teens with alcohol and may have inappropriately touched one of the female students during a camping trip at Lake Nacimiento in 2008. The Santa Maria Police Department says it forwarded that report to the SLO County Sheriff’s Office, but the Sheriff’s Office told The Tribune it has no record of such a report.
- Staff members also accused Magdaleno of verbal and physical harassment.
- The district didn’t suspend Magdaleno’s access to school emails and its computer system until January 2018.
- A district employee whose name is redacted filed a formal Suspected Child Abuse Report to San Luis Obispo County regarding Magdaleno.
“This lawsuit was and remains essential to informing our readers and our community about, among other things, what LMUSD knew about Magdaleno and when it knew it, whether LMUSD responded correctly, and whether the administrative leave and resignation and payment to Magdaleno of $95,000 for a year in which he didn’t work was an appropriate or adequate response by LMUSD to what he did,” Tarica wrote in his declaration.
“We do not, and cannot, given our our financial limitations, bring lawsuits every time one of our journalists’ Public Records Act requests is denied, even if the denial is unlawful,” he continued. “We reserve litigation for particularly important cases that we believe involve critical matters of public interest that our readers and the public deserve to know about.”
The Tribune’s coverage of the Magdaleno case was honored last year with a California Newspaper Publisher’s Association investigative reporting award, as well as a James Madison Freedom of Information Award from the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists.
District calls lawsuit ‘frivolous’
For the judge to award the school district its desired attorneys fees, the district’s lead attorney, Christopher Duran, wrote in a Dec. 3 court filing, the court must find that The Tribune’s lawsuit was frivolous.
Duran essentially argued that the district was working on providing the records, but that The Tribune “demanded immediate compliance and sprinted to the courthouse” to file the lawsuit rather than wait.
Duran wrote in a Dec. 3, 2019, court filing that because the majority of records The Tribune obtained through its lawsuit did not result in further coverage, and because most of the records are “so minimal and insignificant,” The Tribune cannot be considered a prevailing party.
Duran argued that the district ultimately was only compelled by the court to release 89 of the roughly 1,500 records and reveal three paragraphs of previously redacted records.
“Nothing contained in these documents is newsworthy, which is best demonstrated by (The Tribune’s) failure to publish any news stories regarding these records after their production,” Duran wrote.
District ‘failed to keep students safe’
Superior Court Judge Ginger Garrett is scheduled to hear arguments over attorneys fees on Jan. 15.
Regardless, the district’s handling of the Magdaleno case may end up costing it far more than The Tribune’s attorney fees.
In August 2018, high-profile women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred filed a lawsuit against Lucia Mar on behalf of one of Magdaleno’s former wrestlers, alleging negligent supervision and training, sexual harassment, sexual battery, battery and assault.
Since that first lawsuit, four other former members of the team have also filed similar lawsuits seeking unspecified amounts of damages. Each of those cases are ongoing.
In response to a request for comment from The Tribune, Allred emailed a statement Dec. 5 calling the district’s continued pushback against The Tribune’s news gathering “outrageous.”
“The Tribune’s coverage of the allegations against Justin Magdaleno and Lucia Mar Unified School District has been instrumental in uncovering the truth about what LMUSD knew regarding Magdaleno’s alleged misconduct,” Allred wrote. “It is my belief that the Tribune’s tenacity in pursuing this story, publishing numerous articles on this topic, and suing to obtain thousands of pages of documents prevented LMUSD from sweeping these troubling allegations under the rug.”
Not only did The Tribune’s coverage ”encourage victims to come forward,” Allred wrote, it also forced the district “to finally act in the best interests of the students.”
“It is outrageous that LMUSD continues to fight to obscure the truth regarding what it knew about Magdaleno and how it failed to keep students safe,” Allred wrote.
Aside from litigation related to Magdaleno, Lucia Mar is also currently fighting another lawsuit from a former student who was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a district bus driver after her parents complained about the employee to the district.
The lawsuit also alleges that the district didn’t act on those complaints, allowing the abuse of the student to continue. The driver was sentenced to 16 years in state prison for the crimes in April.
That lawsuit, which also seeks an unspecified amount of damages that could reach into the millions of dollars, is ongoing.
Timeline of events
Here’s a look at how events in the Magdaleno case have unfolded over the last decade:
- August 2007: Justin Magdaleno begins work with the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District as a long-term substitute teacher.
- Summer 2008: Magdaleno attends a camping trip at Lake Nacimiento, where he allegedly provided teenage students alcohol and “inappropriately touched” one child.
- June 2009: Magdaleno leaves Santa Maria Joint Union High School District because it “was not a proper fit for me.”
- September 2009: Magdaleno is hired at Nipomo High School as the wrestling coach and science and government teacher.
- Fall 2013: Magdaleno forms the school’s first girls wrestling team.
- February 2014: Student reports the alleged 2008 camp incident to Santa Maria police. Though a memo drafted by the department says the case was referred to the SLO County Sheriff’s Office, that agency says it was never told about the case.
- October 2017: New allegations of sexual harassment and assault are made against Magdaleno by as many as 10 members of the girls wrestling team.
- October 13, 2017: Nipomo High School Assistant Vice Principal Matt David sends Magdaleno a “written warning” to stop physically sparring with students, have a female coach present at all practices, and keep the door to the girls wrestling room open at all times. The letter is to be kept from Magdaleno’s personnel file.
- Oct. 13-20, 2017: District continues to receive additional complaints against Magdaleno.
- Oct. 18, 2017: Magdaleno resigns from his position as wrestling coach.
- Oct. 20, 2017: The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office receives a complaint against Magdaleno and begins a criminal investigation.
- Oct. 23, 2017: Magdaleno is relieved of his duties during a school-related field trip and placed on paid administrative leave.
- Oct. 25, 2017: Lucia Mar School District initiates a Title IX investigation. Two dozen students and staff members are interviewed through Nov. 6.
- Dec. 15, 2017: Lucia Mar investigation is completed. District concludes that Magdaleno violated several district policies related to sexual harassment and physical contact.
- April 5, 2018: The Sheriff’s Office completes its investigation and forwards its findings to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office, recommending prosecutors charge Magdaleno with child molestation.
- June 30, 2018: Magdaleno quietly resigns from the Lucia Mar Unified School District, receiving roughly $63,000 in wages and benefits for his time on leave, as well as a $32,000 severance package, and an agreement that the district would not disclose allegations against Magdaleno to future potential employers.
- July 9, 2018: The District Attorney’s Office declines to file charges against Magdaleno, citing doubt that it could prove the allegations.
- Aug. 16, 2018: Women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred files a lawsuit against Magdaleno and Lucia Mar in San Luis Obispo Superior Court, seeking damages for one of Magdaleno’s alleged victims, a former student athlete. A court hearing is scheduled for December.
- Aug. 31, 2018: In response to a Tribune public records request filed in October 2017, Lucia Mar publicly releases Magadaleno’s separation agreement, as well as a message to parents of students saying the district is committed to student safety.
- Sept. 17, 2018: The Tribune files a lawsuit against Lucia Mar for the district’s refusal to disclose records of complaints against Magdaleno as well as the district’s response to allegations. A court hearing is scheduled for December.
- Sept. 24, 2018: Lucia Mar Unified School District releases its internal investigative report on Magdaleno.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
