Settlement Near In LAUSD Sex Abuse Case Involving 14 Girls

LOS ANGELES — Attorneys are finalizing a settlement involving litigation brought against the Los Angeles Unified School District on behalf of 14 girls who allege they were molested by a former teacher's assistant at a North Hollywood elementary school.

The 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, who was dropped as a defendant on July 25.

Lawyers in the case told Judge Barbara M. Scheper during a hearing Wednesday that a "global" settlement was reached and the details were being finalized. No terms were divulged. The judge will have to approve all of the girls' settlements because each is a minor.

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 allege 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 for life.

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.

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