MIRAMONTE SCHOOL SCANDAL LAWSUIT

UPDATE: Case settled for $30 million.

Personal injury law firm Owen, Patterson & Owen were chosen by parents to seek justice for sexually abused Miramonte Elementary Schoolchildren

Pre-adolescent students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are found to be the tragic victims of two criminally deviant teachers—and school administrators are cited for their failure to recognize a serious problem and prevent harm to young students.

Owen, Patterson & Owen, along with another leading law firm, represents nine sexually victimized school children, filing personal injury lawsuits on their behalf with the Los Angeles County Court.

The lawsuits specifically accuse two LAUSD teachers, Mark Henry Berndt and Martin Bernard Springer—both since arrested on criminal charges—of incomprehensibly heinous sexual acts and gross personal injury. It also cites the LAUSD and Miramonte Elementary School’s principal Martin Sandoval, for failing to adequately protect the victimized students.

“Parents are rightly required by law to enroll children in school—but those schools also have an unavoidable duty to ensure the safety of children,” says attorney Gregory James Owen of Owen, Patterson & Owen. “Particularly disturbing in the Miramonte Elementary School case is that supervisors knew – or certainly should have known – of the prior grossly deviant activities of the two arrested teachers.”

“But they inexplicably failed to protect the rights of children and their parents in this case, and the result has been serious and lasting damage.”

All the facts in this troubling sexual abuse case may not even be known. There remains a real concern that other affected children and parents, some of which are undocumented immigrants, may be reluctant to come forward with pertinent information. We therefore want to stress that all in the Miramonte School community share inviolable rights and protections under our nation’s laws, and that in this case the court is wholly concerned only with protecting innocent children. The immigration status of victims or witnesses is not of concern to the court.

As in all legal cases, we are committed to getting results for our clients. Whether your own case involves a settlement or going to trial—we will enlist all necessary outside experts to firmly establish liability and to ensure you receive every penny of compensation the law entitles you to.

Owen, Patterson & Owen has been representing victims of sexual abuse and trauma for nearly 50 years.

Many of our cases involve horrible injuries and emotional trauma.

The cases that emotionally affect our staff the most are cases where the very old or the very young have been sexually abused by the adults they trust.

Below are only a few examples of cases wherein we have represented victims of sex abuse in the past and concurrently:

• 16-year-old boy molested by his baseball coach for 3 years. $3.5 million settlement.
• Boy Scout Troop leader took 12-year-old boy on “special” camping trips where he would “snuggle” in the same sleeping bag. The Boy Scout Troop was sponsored and had their meetings at the local Catholic Church. $780,000 settlement.
• Female stroke victim in residential care facility molested by a maintenance man. $1 million settlement.
• 94-year-old woman living in residential care facility sexually assaulted by cook. $12.5 million jury verdict.

• 2 boys in a California school district were repeatedly sodomized over a 2 semester period.
• Special needs student with mental capacity of a 7-year-old molested on multiple occasions by her assigned school aid

Start With a Free Consultation. Call us at 800-676-5295 or contact us to schedule a meeting to discuss your sexual abuse case with an experienced attorney.