LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A judge today approved a $2.1 million settlement that Los Angeles Unified reached with a 17-year-old plaintiff who alleges she was sexually abused by her third-grade teacher at a Pacoima elementary school during the 2010-11 school year.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Samantha Jessner's approval was necessary to finalize the case resolution because the plaintiff is a minor.
The teen alleges she was molested by teacher Paul Chapel while she was a student at Telfair Elementary School. The LAUSD previously reached settlements with other plaintiffs who similarly alleged they were abused by Chapel, including 12 who agreed to a collective $30 million settlement in May 2016.
Chapel pleaded no contest plea to committing lewd acts on 13 former students -- seven girls and six boys -- and was sentenced in September 2012 by San Fernando Superior Court Judge Lloyd Nash to 25 years in prison. Prosecutors dropped 15 additional counts that could have sent the former Chatsworth resident, then 51, to prison for life.
The plaintiff in the newly approved settlement is identified in court papers only as Jane RH Doe. She submitted a sworn declaration in support of the settlement in which she gave a detailed account of the abuses she alleges she suffered in Chapel's classroom during the 2010-11 school year, when she was 8 years old.
The LAUSD also reached settlements of $2.1 million each last July with another plaintiff in the suit, Jane JM Doe, who is now 18 years old, as well as with the adult plaintiff in a separate case, John AA Doe, who's now 20 years old.
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