California School District Pays $17.5 Million to End Coach’s Sexual Abuse Cases
The New York Times
The settlements culminate a lengthy personal and legal odyssey for the first accuser, Alex Harrison, who was subsequently shunned by teammates and parents.
In an unexpected legal twist, a school district in Marin County, Calif., has paid $17.5 million to four former high school students who accused a predatory tennis coach of sexually abusing them in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The resolution of the cases culminates a lengthy personal and legal odyssey for the first student to make the accusations, Alex Harrison, who was subsequently blackballed by the insular sporting community there.
The district’s decision offers a reminder of how much has changed when it comes to reporting abuse and holding institutions accountable since 2006, when Mr. Harrison first told the police about the events at Tamalpais High School in affluent Mill Valley, Calif., north of San Francisco.
Mr. Harrison, now a lawyer in Southern California, had been a star player on the tennis team. But when he first testified against his prominent coach and gym teacher, Normandie Burgos, no one believed him, he said. His teammates, friends and their parents packed the gallery to support the coach.
At one point, according to court papers, they snickered at Mr. Harrison so loudly that the judge threatened to remove them. The criminal case ended in a mistrial in 2010, and Mr. Burgos was later convicted of molesting two more star tennis players. He was eventually sentenced to 255 years in prison.
Mr. Harrison, who had initially testified as John Doe to protect his identity, went public in The New York Times about his trauma. He also filed a lawsuit accusing Mr. Burgos’s employer, the Tamalpais Union High School District, of being negligent.
