A jury granted $ 48 million to six former students from a South El Monte primary school who have been sexually abused by a longtime teacher.
The students, who were aged 8 to 10 at the time of mistreatment, had reported that their teacher, Joseph Baldenebro, touched them, assaulted them or harassing them while they attended the Miramonte primary school. The abuses took place between the early 2000s and 2017.
The Monday verdict intervened after a one -month trial in which students’ lawyers presented evidence that Mountain View School district had warnings of inappropriate behavior by Baldenebro dating from the 1990s but has taken no measure.
Baldenebro, 62, was sentenced in 2018 for obscene or lascivious acts with children and sentenced to 8 years in prison. A second series of criminal accusations linked to sexual abuse of children was deposited against him in 2022 and led to a plea without competition in the summer of 2024 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was eligible for parole in 2031, according to the files of the state prison.
“This school district knew this type – had known this pedophile – for more than 20 years,” said Nick Rowley, one of the lawyers who represented former students in their trial against the school district. “There were so many red flags – warning after warning after warning the directors who simply ignored it, who did nothing, and who really covered it.”
Mountain View school district lawyers did not respond to a request for comments on Tuesday. In a statement, the school district said that it “unequivocally condemns the abuse of any kind and remains deeply saddened by the damage caused to our students and our community”.
The school district had neglected Baldenebro, who taught in the district for more than two decades, negligence, but said it was Baldenebro who caused students to district, not in the district.
The former former students said that she was in the Baldenebro class from 2002 to 2004, in the third and fourth year, and that she was 9 years old at the time of abuse, according to court documents.
She told the nearly the near Baldenebro and said that he suggested that he could become his “godfather”, according to a modified trial filed in the case.
The student said that she knew that Baldenebro was the “godfather” of others, and the court documents describe the advantages that Baldenebro gave to her alleged words: trips to amusement parks, lunches, clothing, CD and parties after school.
Rowley, the lawyer, said on Tuesday that Baldenebro described himself as a sponsor at 24 students over a period of several years.
In court documents, the student said that after entering the fourth year, Baldenebro after school summoned her to sit on her lap, where he would touch it and kiss her. “He would tell her that he loved her and that he was pulling her closely in him,” wrote lawyers from the student in a memory in 2021.
In 2004, the student told at the time the principle of her uncomfortable experiences with Baldenebro. At that time, the student, his parents and Baldenebro met the director. Baldenebro “accused him of reacting excessively and that he did this as an act of love and care”, according to court documents.
The director “convinced his parents that this behavior of Baldenebro was normal because he was his godfather”, according to the preliminary memory.
The jury granted the student $ 9 million on the verdict of $ 48 million, the second amount in greater.
Other former students said that they were subject to unwanted hugs, kisses and patts on their butts, according to a preliminary thesis deposited by their lawyers. A student said that Baldenebro caressed her genitals then raped her in her class; The student, whose name The Times is not disclosed, received $ 16.5 million.
On the total verdict, the jurors held the school district of Mountain View responsible for just over 36 million dollars; Baldenebro is responsible for the rest, but it is unlikely to pay.
A district spokesperson Jocelyn Rios said that she was unable to disclose whether all or part of the verdict would be covered by the school district insurance companies or if other district funds would be used to pay it.
In a statement, the district said that it had instituted “significant stages … in order to prevent future incidents from passing or not reported”.
Among the stages, there is an annual effort “to be seen: to be understood”, describes as a program “a program of sexual assault and awareness and prevention of abuse” on the scale of the district and adapted to age.
Before the trial, the district lawyers had offered a payment of around $ 100,000 per student, said Rowley.
“From the start of this case, the school district and their lawyers devalued what these victims have experienced and minimized what happened to them,” said Michael Carrillo, senior lawyer on the case representing former students. “The jury has seen it all.”
California Daily Newspapers
