Friday was a busy day inside the Central Civic West Courthouse in Los Angeles as LA Superior Court Judge John Shepard Wiley made decisions on the eve of the civil trial in the Miramonte child sexual abuse case.
Settling a number of pre-trial issues, Wiley set the stage for the trial to begin more than two years after students came forward with allegations of sexual abuse at the South Los Angeles School.
In a big move, the judge pressured both sides to settle the case before spending what is expected to be thousands, if not millions, of dollars on a trial, requiring attorneys for both the Los Angeles Unified School District and the nearly 70 plaintiffs to meet Monday to discuss a possible settlement.
The plaintiffs argued the district knew of incidents of sexual abuse involving a former school teacher at Miramonte Elementary School and failed to protect students.
On the last business day before jury selection is slated to begin, Wiley also rejected LAUSD’s request for a "gag order" on the case, which would have prevented attorneys and witnesses from speaking to the press during the trial.
In his decision, he wrote "LAUSD has failed to advance sufficient evidence to support its position that statements to the media by participants in this litigation are an imminent threat to the jury pool."
Attorneys for LAUSD had argued the district had the constitutional right to a fair trial and had hoped to keep attorneys for the plaintiffs from revealing sensitive case information before it was entered into evidence.
In a statement, one of the district’s attorneys, Sean Andrade, said LAUSD disagrees with the judge’s decision. "Our goal is to ensure that the jury is able to consider all of the facts in the case without undue commentary from the lawyers," he said.
Andrade added that it was not an attempt to keep media access from the case, "but to prevent the additional theatrics and misleading information that often come with arguments made outside of court."
The judge also made it a point to also discuss just how the court would determine hardship for potential jurors in what is expected to be a lengthy trial.
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Court staff is expected to check in 75 potential jurors and hand them each a one-page calendar that reaches into February. The calendar will list the days they will be required to appear for the trial and which days the courthouse will be "dark."
"And I will tell them," Wiley said, "’Members of the jury, good morning. We have an unusual case here, an unusual burden that for many people will be an impossible burden but for other people, this may be quite an amazing opportunity for public service.’"
Wiley said he sees the Miramonte case as unusual and interesting, a selling point he hopes will keep potential jurors interested, too. But he admits many will likely claim the length of the case would cause a hardship.
Attorneys for LAUSD also argued against the judge's decision to allow plaintiffs another attempt to depose Rosa Gianopoulos, a senior office technician in the district’s general counsel’s office, who they have argued has important information about the possible coverup of records.
Plaintiffs' attorney Luis Carrillo argued attorneys for LAUSD blocked Gianopoulos from answering questions he says will prove the District was trying to force her to lie under oath. Wiley granted a motion to compel Gianopoulos to answer only questions that do not hinder the attorney-client privilege.
"Her deposition is important because it appears that LAUSD has hidden or destroyed a certain file and folders containing information that was uploaded to an LAUSD 'secure folder,'" Carrillo said.
In her first deposition, Gianopoulos said when she returned from a medical leave of absence, the file she had been scanning with suspected child abuse reports had been moved from its original location. She testified that only she and LAUSD Assistant General Counsel Greg McNair could open the file. Carrillo said he wants to know if McNair could be hiding evidence.
Attorneys for LAUSD are not happy with the judge's ruling on that issue, either. Andrade said they disagree with Carrillo's assertions but, "We will comply with the court’s decision and make her available. Our hope is that we can move away from spending time and resources on issues that have no real bearing on the trial.”
