Silence Surrounds Settlement
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Greg Hardesty For a small school district like Ocean View, $6.8 million is a lot of money. But the payout could have been higher if a lawsuit stemming from a sexual molestation case involving a fourth-grade teacher had gone to trial. Because Jason Abhyankar was convicted last year of molesting three boys, defense attorneys for the district that had employed and recommended him to another school could not have disputed his behavior. Wednesday, no one involved in the settlement of the suit was talking about it – at least publicly. Parents of the victims, whom the Register is not identifying, have signed confidentiality agreements that bar them from talking about the settlement. Even the lawyers – David Ring for the plaintiffs, and Gary Gibeaut for Ocean View – weren’t saying anything. The settlement came just as the case was getting ready to go to trial before Judge Michael Brenner in Santa Ana. Insurance likely will pay for the $6.8 million settlement, which tops a $4.9 million jury verdict against the Bonita Unified School District in 1999, according to Trials Digest and Publishing in Oakland. That verdict stemmed from a suit filed by a male student against a male teacher. In 2001, that same district – Bonita Unified – agreed to settle another lawsuit, this time for $2.15 million, said Todd Wolfe, president of Trials Digest. In that case, a female high school student accused a male teacher of sexual abuse. And in 1996, a school district in Monterey County was ordered by a jury to pay $4.2 million in a case involving two female victims of a male teacher, according to Trials Digest. James Tarwater, superintendent of Ocean View, declined to discuss the case. His district – with about 10,000 students – is ranked 16th largest of 27 in the county. He and Kristi Hickman, former principal at Village View, were the focus of much of the ire raised by plaintiffs and also by the prosecutor during Abhyankar’s criminal trial. Hickman, Tarwater and other Ocean View officials knew or should have known about Abhyankar’s inappropriate behavior at Village View when they wrote a “glowing” recommendation for him in 1999 for a teaching job at Portola Hills, according to the lawsuit and testimony at the criminal trial. When Ocean View officials confronted Abhyankar about his behavior, he threatened to sue for defamation of character, and a deal was struck that he would resign and the letter would be written, the suit alleged. The conduct of Ocean View officials in vouching for Abhyankar was “outrageous,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said at the teacher’s criminal trial. Ocean View officials admitted no wrongdoing in settling the suit. Abhyankar testified that his “accusers” were trying to frame him because he assigned too much homework. In sentencing Abhyankar to the maximum penalty, Judge Carla Singer called the native Texan a “parent’s nightmare.” She also called him a “serious danger to society.” |
