LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Los Angeles Unified School District attorneys are seeking dismissal of a lawsuit filed by two women in their 50s who allege they were sexually abused and traumatized in the 1980s by a now-deceased teacher who was profiled while a fugitive on “America’s Most Wanted,” but the LAUSD also has filed a slew of pretrial motions in case the motion is denied.
The plaintiffs are identified only as Jane L.N. Doe, 53, and Jane Y.M. Doe, 54, in the Los Angeles Superior Court negligence suit that seeks unspecified damages stemming from the alleged misconduct of the late Don Ray Moore, who was sentenced in July 1991 to 14 years in prison at age 57 for the abuses of several girls.
In court papers filed Wednesday with Judge Gary D. Roberts, LAUSD lawyers want the judge to bar evidence during trial that the district destroyed Moore’s employee relations file, which the defense expects the plaintiffs’ attorneys would use to argue that the district had notice of Moore’s alleged propensities for sexual abuse.
“Moore’s file was permissibly destroyed pursuant to state law and the district’s controlling records retention and destruction policy and thus does not constitute intentional spoilation of evidence,” the LAUSD lawyers state in their pleadings.
The district’s lawyers also want the judge to prevent the plaintiffs’ attorneys from telling jurors that a the district’s alleged failure to implement policies to protect students contributed to their sexual abuse.
“The district’s obligations are grounded in statute and there is no obligation for the district to have implemented policies that were not required by statute over 40 years ago,” according to the LAUSD lawyers’ court papers.
Trial of the case is scheduled June 1, but the judge will rule first on the LAUSD’s dismissal motion after a hearing set for May 18. In that motion, the LAUSD attorneys contend the plaintiffs’ negligence causes of action are barred because the women cannot prove the district knew or should have known of Moore’s alleged propensity to sexually abuse students. The defense attorneys also maintain that the LAUSD is not liable for any off-campus molestations.
The women additionally cannot show that the district failed to show “ordinary prudence” in its supervision of the plaintiffs, nor can they demonstrate that the LAUSD had actual knowledge of any child abuse and then failed to report the misconduct, according to the LAUSD attorneys’ court papers.
The suit states Moore threatened both Does with punishment if they spoke up about the alleged abuses and the plaintiffs did not fully realize until 2023 the psychological damage they suffered.
Jane Y.M. Doe further alleges she felt vulnerable “given the power dynamic between her and Mr. Moore,” according to the suit.
Moore allegedly stayed in a Ventura River homeless encampment for a year to escape prosecution and was captured in Ventura in 1990 on a tip from an “America’s Most Wanted” viewer.
The lawsuit is unclear on whether the plaintiffs were among the victims in the criminal complaint. Moore died in December 2012.
The plaintiffs were 10 years old and in the sixth grade at 97th Street Elementary School — now known as Charles W. Barrett Elementary School — when they met Moore, the suit states. Moore allegedly began grooming them and other young students in preparation for abusing them.
Moore allegedly regularly touched students in his classroom and attempted to normalize his “inappropriate and sexually abusive behavior by making it commonplace,” according to the suit, which further states the school administration “conducted an improper sham investigation and instead attempted to swipe the incident under the rug” when complaints were received.
Moore was transferred to a non-teaching post, then placed on unpaid leave in February 1987 and fired 14 months later for “immoral and unlawful conduct,” the suit brought in June 2024 states.
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