$121.5 Million Verdict Against Moreno Valley Unified for Ignoring Complaints About a Predatory Teacher
After trial: The jury awarded $135 million to two former students and put 90 percent of the fault on the district and 10 percent on the convicted teacher, who was not sued, so the district owes $121.5 million. The jury's separate awards for each student were not published.
Won by Panish Shea Ravipudi LLP.
A Riverside County jury found Moreno Valley Unified School District 90 percent at fault for keeping teacher Thomas Lee West in the classroom for two decades despite molestation complaints, awarding $135 million to two former students he abused.
What happened
For roughly 20 years, beginning in the 1980s, Moreno Valley Unified School District kept Thomas Lee West in front of children. Complaints that West was molesting students reached the district as far back as the late 1980s. He stayed in the classroom anyway, and the warnings went unheeded.
Two of the boys assigned to West's sixth grade class at Vista Heights Middle School during the 1996 to 1997 school year were among those he abused. The abuse did not stop when they left middle school. It continued into their high school years. Both are now adults, and they brought the civil case known as Blair v. Moreno Valley Unified School District. One of them reported the abuse to authorities in 2003. West was criminally convicted in 2006 of lewd or lascivious acts with minors and is serving a sentence of 52 years to life at Mule Creek State Prison.
At trial in Riverside County Superior Court, Panish, Shea & Ravipudi attorneys Spencer Lucas, Brian Panish, and Diana Panish argued that the district had actual notice of the danger and did nothing to remove it. The plaintiffs testified about abuse that, by the time of trial, was 27 years in their past. "For the past 27 years, the school district has failed to accept any responsibility for allowing West to continue teaching, even though they knew multiple complaints of child sexual molestation dating back to the 80s and early 90s," Lucas said. The plaintiffs' lawyers told jurors the two men have carried life long mental and emotional distress.
In October 2023, after the plaintiffs spent years in the criminal and civil process, the jury returned a total verdict of $135 million. It apportioned 90 percent of the fault to the school district and 10 percent to West. Under that split, the district is responsible for $121.5 million of the award. Reporting at the time indicated insurance would cover only a small share of the district's obligation, on the order of 11 percent.
The district called the result unprecedented and said it was weighing its options. Of the $135 million awarded, the institution that employed West for two decades is on the hook for $121.5 million.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.NBC Los Angeles: Jury awards $135M to former students molested by teacher in Moreno Valley·Archived copy
- 2.CBS Los Angeles: Jury delivers $135M molestation verdict involving middle school teacher·Archived copy
- 3.Campus Safety Magazine: Moreno Valley USD hit with $121-million verdict over teacher molestation·Archived copy
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