Teacher Paid $5,000 in Libel Case Settlement
A former science teacher at Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, who was accused but never tried on charges that he had sex with a 16-year-old student, has accepted $5,000 to settle a libel suit against the Centinela Valley Union High School District and former school board member Robert Kruse.
Charles Conn accepted the settlement last week shortly after the start of the libel trial against Kruse and the school district in Los Angeles Superior Court.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. May 26, 1989 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Friday May 26, 1989 South Bay Edition Metro Part 2 Page 11 Column 1 Zones Desk 3 inches; 106 words Type of Material: Correction
A story in the April 16 edition of The Times described the settlement of a lawsuit filed in 1983 by a Leuzinger High School teacher against the Centinela Valley Union High School District and school board member Robert Kruse.
The story said the teacher, Charles Conn, had filed a lawsuit claiming he was libeled when Kruse released a copy of a school district memo about the teacher’s alleged sexual liaison with a 16-year-old girl.
The lawsuit settlement did not resolve the question of whether the memorandum was confidential.
Kruse has said throughout the six-year dispute that the memo was a public document because it was part of agenda materials for a public school board meeting.
The school district and Conn have contended that the memo was confidential.
Conn claimed he was libeled in 1983 when Kruse released a copy of a confidential school district memo to the Daily Breeze, which published a story about his alleged sexual liaison with the girl.
Conn sued the school district and Kruse, but not the newspaper.
Kruse, the husband of Lawndale Mayor Sarann Kruse, resigned from the school board in the uproar that followed publication of the story. He later was elected to be a trustee in the Lawndale School District.
Conn still works for the Centinela Valley district as a biology teacher at Hawthorne High School.
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