SLO County district settles sexual harassment cases involving former coach for $1.25 million
Court cases alleging that former Lucia Mar Unified School District wrestling coach Justin Magdaleno sexually harassed and assaulted several young girls during his employment at Nipomo High School have come to an end after more than two years of civil litigation.
The San Luis Obispo County school district will pay a total of $1.25 million — or $250,000 each — to the five unnamed defendants, all girls who were minors when the cases were filed, in monthly installments over 10 years beginning in 2021, according to court documents.
All claims against Magdaleno and the Lucia Mar school district were dismissed in accordance to the settlement terms, and there was no admission of liability from either party, according to Amy Jacobs, a district spokeswoman.
The attorneys for the girls — Christina Cheung, Byron Lau and well-known women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, who all work at a Los Angeles-based law firm — deemed that it was best to settle the case due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the risk of “further emotional distress, pain, suffering and anxiety” should the girls testify in a jury trial about the alleged molestation they experienced.
“Our five clients sought to hold the school district and Magdaleno accountable for their actions and did so by filing and pursuing these lawsuits for years,” Allred wrote in an email to The Tribune. “My partner, Christina Cheung, my associate, Byron Lau, and I are proud to have represented our brave clients in their fight for justice and hope that the meaningful settlements that they received will help them move forward to a bright future.”
Magdaleno, who no longer works at the school district, served no jail time for any of the accusations against him, and he will not pay any of the settlement costs.
Should a school district or other employer wish to hire Magdaleno, Lucia Mar will only send records of his salary, position and the dates he held that position — but nothing that mentions the allegations of sexual battery and sexual harassment against him by young girls, according to documents obtained by The Tribune.
Former Nipomo wrestling coach accused of sexual harassment, assault
The accusations against Magdaleno began in summer 2008, when he allegedly touched a female Pioneer Valley High School student inappropriately during a school camping trip at Lake Nacimiento, provided alcohol to underage girls, displayed his buttocks and offered to flash his genitals to young girls in exchange for beer, according to case documents.
Magdaleno resigned from his position at that school in 2009 as a result of the incident, court documents say.
Three years later, without knowing of the earlier allegations, Nipomo High School hired Magdaleno as a math teacher and later as the head coach of the girls’ wrestling team. Magdaleno was the school’s first girls’ wrestling coach, and he established its first team.
During his time as Nipomo High’s wrestling coach, Nipomo High School and Lucia Mar Unified School District officials received a total of nearly a dozen allegations of sexual misconduct from young girls regarding Magdaleno, according to court documents, which alleged that the complaints were ignored by school and district officials.
Those accusations included complaints of Magdaleno touching girls’ breasts, vaginas and upper leg areas and making derogatory comments about the students, court documents say.
After initial complaints to school officials were filed in October 2017, Magdaleno apparently threatened one female student and said, “If I had a baseball bat, I’d kill that kid and her mom,” according to documents exclusively obtained by The Tribune.
At the end of October 2017, Magdaleno was placed on paid administrative leave — during which time he received about $63,000.
A subsequent investigation by the Lucia Mar school district confirmed many of the complaints by the girls against Magdaleno, and concluded that his behavior “violated LMUSD’s policies and procedures prohibiting sexual harassment ... (and) prohibiting retaliation against those who make complaints of harassment,” according to court documents.
Magdaleno was paid a $32,000 severance from Nipomo High School, and he resigned in June 2018.
Girls suffered emotional trauma, bullying at school as result
A psychological evaluation of one of the girls involved in the court cases found that she suffered from trauma, depression, anxiety, a loss of safety and self-worth, and symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, among other things, court documents say.
Additionally, the girls in the civil court cases against Magdaleno said they suffered bullying at school from other students regarding their complaints. The girls were called “liars” and blamed for “ruining” the wrestling program at Nipomo High School, according to court documents.
The school district allegedly did nothing to investigate or take remedial steps to stop the bullying, documents said.
In total, three civil court cases alleged that Lucia Mar Unified School District was negligent in the hiring, supervision and retention of Magdaleno, and that Magdaleno breached his duty as a coach and teacher, while accusing him of sexual harassment, sexual harassment in an educational setting, intentional infliction of emotional distress, sexual battery, battery and assault.
The Lucia Mar school district denied all of the claims against it and Magdaleno.
Investigative reporting by The Tribune found that the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office concluded in April 2018 that Magdaleno should be charged with lewd acts against a child and child molestation, but charges were never filed by the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office.
While the civil court cases were ongoing, The Tribune successfully sued Lucia Mar for withholding public documents that outlined Magdaleno’s alleged sexual harassment and molestation. A judge ordered the district to turn over the requested documents and pay more than $80,000 of The Tribune’s legal fees.
According to Jacobs, the school district spokeswoman, “The district has appropriately addressed the issues. The matter has now been resolved in its entirety.”
Lucia Mar faces abuse case involving bus driver, special needs student
The Lucia Mar school district is also fighting a court case involving a former bus driver who is accused of sexually abusing a special needs student in 2017.
According to a lawsuit against driver David Lamb, Lucia Mar, the county of San Luis Obispo and the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education, Lamb reportedly sexually abused the student, then 9, on multiple occasions and showed her videos with “naked people.”
Lamb allegedly threatened the girl that if she told anyone of the abuse, he would “do something bad” to her, according to court documents.
The girl’s guardians asked a transportation official at Lucia Mar to review the bus tape. That official apparently said that they did not see Lamb “engage in any inappropriate behavior and thus, he would remain her bus driver,” according to court documents.
The girl’s parents told school, district and county officials about the abuse, court documents say, but no action against Lamb was taken.
In June 2017, Lamb was arrested and charged with criminal counts stemming from the abuse. After pleading no contest to two felony charges of committing lewd acts on a child, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison on April 24, 2019.
The ongoing civil case alleges, along with the sexual abuse, that the Lucia Mar school district, San Luis Obispo County and the county Office of Education were negligent.
“Despite receiving multiple complaints and warnings that (Lamb) was engaging in serious misconduct, including sexual abuse,” those entities allowed Lamb to continuing driving the same bus and therefore failed “to protect (the girl) from being sexually abused,” according to court documents.
The civil case is set to go to jury trial in September 2021.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 10:36 AM.
