Ex-Band Director Held Liable for $3 Million in Student Assault, Reduced From $10.5 Million Jury Total

A federal jury in Charlotte returned its verdict on May 8, 2021, after four days of testimony and roughly two hours of deliberation. It found Duncan Gray, a former band director at West Charlotte High School, liable for sexually harassing and assaulting a former student, and awarded $3 million against him. The jury also found Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools liable and awarded $7.5 million against the district, for a combined $10.5 million. Brad Smith and Paul Tharp represented the plaintiff. Eric Montgomery represented Gray.

The plaintiff joined the West Charlotte band as a freshman and came to admire Gray. Testimony described late-night phone calls that lasted for hours, persistent sexual advances during tutoring sessions, and threats when the student rebuffed him. According to the complaint, Gray told the student, 'If you say anything I am going to get you.' In December 2011, during a horn lesson in the school auditorium, Gray touched the student's genitals, and the encounter ended only when someone knocked on the door.

The claims against the school system turned on what it knew. In 2011, Gray was suspended after sexually explicit text conversations with students were found on a cellphone. He received a written reprimand and was later granted tenure by a unanimous school board vote. He stayed on the job until 2016, when he was arrested and resigned. He then pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a student and received 30 months of probation with sex offender provisions.

The plaintiff, then in his early twenties, testified about what the abuse had done to him. He described himself as unstable and said the effects reached into everything, from holding a job to forming friendships. He also described anxiety, depression, anger and thoughts of suicide. The Charlotte Observer called the verdict the largest civil judgment in memory for a sexual misconduct case in Charlotte.

After trial, the school system moved for a new trial or a reduction of the $7.5 million award. The court granted a new trial on damages against the district, finding that the award lacked evidentiary support and rested on an abstract valuation of constitutional rights. Before any retrial, the district settled in March 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The reports reviewed describe no post-trial challenge to the $3 million award against Gray.