Lucia Mar tried to hide records on disgraced wrestling coach. Now it owes Tribune $80,000
A San Luis Obispo judge ordered the Lucia Mar Unified School District to pay more than $80,000 of The Tribune’s legal fees after the news organization successfully sued the district for withholding documents related to a Nipomo High School girls’ wrestling coach who was accused of molesting students.
The judge’s ruling also leaves the district on the hook for the more than $200,000 it said it spent on its own legal fees.
Combined with the severance and leave pay Lucia Mar gave former coach Justin Magdaleno, the district will have spent at least $386,000 to separate from Magdaleno and keep the case quiet.
On Friday, Superior Court Judge Ginger Garrett adopted her tentative ruling first published Feb. 5, in which she wrote that as the prevailing party in the lawsuit, The Tribune was entitled to recoup two-thirds of its legal costs from the district, which ultimately produced roughly 1,500 pages of records to the newspaper.
Some of those records were key to the newspaper’s reporting. Most were not.
Attorneys for the Lucia Mar Unified School District had argued the lawsuit was “clearly frivolous” and filed prematurely, even though public record requests from Tribune reporters were repeatedly denied for almost a year before the civil complaint was filed.
The district began turning over most of the requested records 10 days after the newspaper filed the lawsuit.
As a result of the ruling, the school district will be awarded none of the $209,783 it sought from The Tribune and its parent company, McClatchy, for its supposed 650 hours of work — more than 16 straight weeks of full-time work hours — among its eight attorneys.
Of the $122,142 in legal fees The Tribune sought to recoup for its three attorneys’ roughly 277 hours of work, it will be awarded $82,443, or approximately two-thirds.
“The district and its lawyers flunked their civics lesson in this case,” Karl Olson, attorney for The Tribune and McClatchy, said of the judge’s ruling. “They should have turned the records over promptly and not forced The Tribune to file a lawsuit.”
A spokeswoman for the district did not respond over the weekend to a request for comment Friday on either the ruling or whether the district planned to appeal.
An investigation into an accused coach
The Tribune filed the lawsuit in September 2018 after the school district refused to produce public records of allegations of sexual molestation and harassment against the male girls’ wrestling coach at Nipomo High School.
The newspaper’s investigative reporting exposed complaints against Justin Magdaleno and the district’s slow response. It found, for example, that 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 months afterwards.
The investigation also found there had been accusations of inappropriate touching and providing students alcohol at a past job in Santa Maria that was not followed up on prior to the more recent allegations.
The Tribune exclusively reported that the school district 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 officials from revealing the allegedly criminal behavior to any of Magdaleno’s future potential employers, including other schools.
Karl Olson, attorney for The Tribune and McClatchy, argued in court that newspapers do not have the resources to file lawsuits every time a public agency denies its reporters’ requests for public records.
Christopher Duran, one of Lucia Mar’s attorneys, told Garrett at the Feb. 6 hearing that should The Tribune prevail in its motion for reimbursement, that money would not be covered from the district’s liability insurance, but rather from the district’s general fund — meaning money that could have been spent in the classroom went to defending the district instead.
Lawsuit ‘spurred’ district to act
The lawsuit arose after the district denied three public records requests by former Tribune reporter Travis Gibson: one in October 2017; another, asking for the same records, in April 2018; and a third, which reiterated the first two requests but also sought additional records, in August 2018.
Under Government Code, in such cases where a lawsuit arises out of an alleged violation of the Public Records Act, the court shall award costs and reasonable attorney’s fees to the requester of public records should that requester prevail in the litigation.
The law reads that the court shall award costs and reasonable attorney’s fees to the public agency if the court finds that the requester’s case is “clearly frivolous.”
Attorneys for The Tribune argued that because the district’s voluntary action in not disclosing public records was what induced the lawsuit, it was the lawsuit that “spurred” the district to act or was the “catalyst” motivating the district’s response.
Garrett wrote that she generally “agrees with The Tribune’s authority” in relation to its rights to recoup fees according to the law.
“It is clear the district did not produce documents responsive to the first request until the lawsuit was filed,” Garrett wrote. “That alone entitles The Tribune to some of its attorney’s fees under the (Public Records) Act.”
However, Garrett disagreed with the newspaper’s attorneys when she determined that the third public records request differed from the first two in that it was “broader and (covered) a greater time period and subject matter.” Garrett agreed with the district’s argument that The Tribune “jumped the gun” in filing a lawsuit in relation to the third request.
As such, Garrett reduced the newspaper’s attorney’s fees award by a third.
“The district contends it is the prevailing party because the requester’s case was ‘clearly frivolous,’ and thus entitled to its reasonable attorney’s fees,” Garrett wrote. “However, there can be no dispute that the court ordered the district to turn over certain documents as a result of The Tribune’s lawsuit.”
She wrote: “This court does not agree that The Tribune’s case is ‘clearly frivolous’ and will deny the district’s motion (for fees) in its entirety.”
‘Uncovering the truth’
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.
In 2018, after the bulk of The Tribune’s investigation was published, 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. Those cases are ongoing.
Allred wrote in an email to The Tribune in December that the newspaper’s coverage of the allegations against Magdaleno and Lucia Mar Unified School District “has been instrumental in uncovering the truth about what LMUSD knew regarding Magdaleno’s alleged misconduct.”
“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,” Allred wrote.
Records obtained by The Tribune in response to the lawsuit showed:
- Students, parents, and district staff members had made complaints about Justin Magdaleno’s behavior as early as Oct. 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.
Timeline of Magdaleno case
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 released to The Tribune its internal investigative report on Magdaleno.
- Feb. 5, 2020: After the newspaper received roughly 1,500 pages of records from the district, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Ginger Garrett publishes a tentative ruling awarding The Tribune $82,443, or two-thirds of its legal fees, while rejecting the district’s motion for legal fees.
- March 27, 2020: Garrett adopts her tentative ruling.
This story was originally published March 30, 2020 at 12:51 PM.
