Victor Valley Union High School District has agreed to a $12.5 million settlement in a lawsuit brought by eight victims over child sexual abuse committed by a then-counselor at a Victorville junior high school decades ago, attorneys for the plaintiffs announced Wednesday, Oct. 22.
The litigation stemmed from years-long abuse and harassment committed by former Victor Valley Junior High School counselor Eric Lynn Brown, who was arrested in 2002 and ultimately sentenced to 102 years in prison in 2005, according to court documents and the law office of Manly Stewart & Finaldi, which represented the victims.
Brown, now 62, was convicted of molesting 10 underage victims while working at the school, as well while working in the foster care system and a staff member at an Adelanto probation home known as “Success House,” four roughly a decade leading up to his arrest, records show. Eight of those victims, six of them male and two of them female, joined in the lawsuit.
The crimes took place both on- and off-campus, according to a statement from Manly Stewart & Finaldi.
“The suit also states school officials were aware of Brown locking his office door to be alone with students and did nothing to stop him,” the statement said. “The suit states school officials failed for many years to report Brown’s abuse, as required by their roles as mandatory reporters, which led to Brown abusing multiple children during his employment with the District.”
The settlement “highlights the abject failure of the school administration and the district to protect children from this depraved serial predator,” according to attorney Cristina Nolan, who represented the victims. The District “did everything wrong and ignored Brown’s repeated misconduct. For many years, they failed to report his abuse of children.”
Victor Valley Union High School District officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Victor Valley Junior High eventually became University Preparatory School in 2008 before being abandoned in 2014 and ultimately demolished in 2020.
As part of the long-running abuse, “Brown even arranged to have one young male student placed with him as a foster child while he continued to sexually abuse him,” according to appeals court documents.
The crimes came to light when three of the victims reported the abuse to a school security guard in February 2002, records show.
“In addition to the testimony of each victim at trial, which showed a clear pattern of such misconduct and corroborated the other victims’ testimony, employees at (the school) and Success House testified about warnings given to Brown regarding respective rules violations involving a counselor’s position and his relationship with the young people at each place,” a judge wrote in a 2006 finding affirming the conviction.
Brown showed no remorse during his sentencing, prosecutors reportedly said at the time.
Brown was last up for parole, and denied in 2022, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records. His next parole suitability hearing was scheduled for October 2027.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: VVUHSD settles child sex abuse lawsuit brought by 8 victims for $12.5 million
Reporting by Brian Day, Victorville Daily Press / Victorville Daily Press
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