Accord Finalized In LAUSD Sexual Abuse Suit Involving Multiple Girls

LOS ANGELES — Attorneys have finalized a settlement involving litigation brought against the Los Angeles Unified School District that, if approved by a judge, will pay millions of dollars to multiple girls who allege they were molested by a former teacher's assistant at a North Hollywood elementary school.

he plaintiffs are identified only as Jane Does in the Los Angeles Superior Court consolidated negligence suits that originally named as defendants the LAUSD and their alleged assailant, Lino Cabrera. He was dropped as a party on July 25.

"The court is apprised that the settlement agreement has been signed and notices of settlement will be filed," a clerk for Judge Barbara M. Scheper wrote in a Sept. 20 minute order that is attached to court papers filed Tuesday by attorneys for some of the girls.

The judge will have to approve all of the girls' settlements because each is a minor and the district will collectively deposit just under $20 million into the settlement fund if Scheper gives her nod to the accords.

Hearings are scheduled Nov. 6 and 7.

Most of the alleged abuses took place in 2019. Cabrera worked in a computer lab at Oxnard Street Elementary School.

"While Cabrera sexually abused, sexually molested and sexually harassed ... (the) LAUSD ... had knowledge or reason to know that Cabrera took an unusual interest and spent an inordinate amount of time with each plaintiff," the court papers of the original three plaintiffs alleged in their suit filed in March 2020.

Those plaintiffs further alleged that the LAUSD "failed to report and did hide and conceal from students, parents, teachers, law enforcement authorities, civil authorities and/or others the true facts and relevant information necessary to bring Cabrera to justice."

Cabrera's practice of isolating minors at the school was also known to many teachers and administrators at Oxnard Elementary who, despite knowing his conduct violated the school and district's policies for the protection of minors, took either ineffective or no action to prevent his alleged sexual abuses of the girls, according to the court papers filed in June 2020 on behalf of the two girls in the case.

In his court papers, an LAUSD attorney denied any liability on the district's part.

"Because Cabrera's abusive acts were outside the scope of his employment the plaintiffs may not recover damages for those acts from the LAUSD unless they have evidence that LAUSD employees knew or should have known that Cabrera posed a risk to students," the defense attorney's court papers stated. "There is no such evidence."

Cabrera, then 28, of San Fernando, was sentenced in February 2020 in Van Nuys Superior Court to eight years in prison for sexually abusing six female students. He pleaded no contest in January of that year to one felony count each of continuous sexual abuse and committing a lewd act on a child under 14, along with four misdemeanor counts of child molestation, in exchange for the negotiated sentence. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.

Allegations of inappropriate behavior by Cabrera arose May 16, 2019, and an investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department's Sexually Exploited Child Unit determined there were at least six victims, ages 10 and 11, according to the LAPD.

— By City News Service, Inc.