Liability claims may parallel legal actions in a criminal court, but no charges of wrongdoing or convictions are necessary for a Woodland Park civil lawsuit to be filed or pursued. The courts work independently of one another. However, evidence from a criminal case can be used to support a plaintiff in a civil complaint.
A Belmar high school junior committed suicide by leaping in front of a train in 2008. The 18-year-old was one of a dozen other students preparing to testify against a school baseball coach accused of sexual wrongdoing. The 50-year-old coach later was convicted of child endangerment and sentenced to prison for 18 years.
An appeals court overturned the conviction over apparent mistakes in jury instructions. A retrial is planned. As the criminal case played out, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the teen’s estate against the ex-coach, St. Rose High School and the Diocese of Trenton; the civil case recently settled out of court for $900,000.
During the criminal trial, prosecutors said the baseball coach engaged in explicit sexual discussions with student athletes. The defendant reportedly told team members to send him descriptions and videos of themselves masturbating. The coach also formed a club of traveling athletes who took school trips to Alaska and Hawaii, where the sexual conversations and communications continued.
The suicidal teen transferred to another high school after the coach’s 2007 arrest. The junior stopped at a friend’s house for a graduation party, drank alcohol and then headed to the railroad tracks in Spring Lake. A year after the teen died, his father also committed suicide.
St. Rose was responsible for $475,000 and the former baseball coach paid $275,000 in compensation. Accident injury and wrongful death settlements do not require defendants to admit fault. A plaintiff may reject a settlement offer and push for trial, depending upon personal objectives and the advice of legal counsel.
Source: Asbury Park Press, “Wrongful death case against St. Rose HS, former coach settled for $900K” Margaret F. Bonafide, May. 08, 2014
