Continuing Ordeal

The threat of jail may be gone, but Burbank schools fund-raiser Salle Dumm says her personal ordeal is far from over.

“It’ll take me a long time before all the stress goes away,” Dumm, 51, said in an interview with The Times. “It’ll take me a long time before I get my life back.”

A Superior Court jury this week deadlocked on allegations that Dumm seduced a 17-year-old high school football player last summer, leading a judge to dismiss criminal charges against her. The judge’s order prevents any chance of a retrial.

Dumm testified she and the youth and another adult had socialized at her home the night of July 14, 1995, and that afterward the youth forced himself on her while she was asleep and intoxicated.

She said she told the truth and hoped the outcome would be in her favor.

Indeed, the scandal shook the Burbank Unified School District. Criminal charges of failing to report child abuse were brought against two former Burbank High School football coaches, who later entered pleas to lesser charges, and the president of the school board resigned after acknowledging he was aware of the allegations against Dumm but failed to report the matter to authorities.

Dumm said she is not out of the courtroom yet. She and others still face a civil lawsuit in which the boy’s parents seek unspecified damages, claiming the youth suffered emotional injuries from the encounter.

Also, Dumm, president of the volunteer, nonprofit Burbank Educational Foundation, said she is struggling with the emotional strain and the embarrassment of being known as the woman who was put on trial for allegedly seducing a roughly 300-pound teenage football player.

Her finances, after paying what she described as a “bundle” in legal fees, are uncertain. She said she missed work and lost income because of the case.

And after avoiding media for months, Dumm said she now might embrace it. She talked of the possibility of using her own story to make money from talk shows, movie deals or a book.

Barefoot and wearing casual clothes, Dumm was at times joyful and other times pensive during the interview in her Burbank home. She said relatives, friends and co-workers at a local entertainment industry payroll company, where Dumm is an administrative assistant, have been highly supportive.

Dumm admitted using “poor judgment.”

To begin with, she should not have invited the boy and his adult acquaintance, tutor Maureen Burke, to her house or allowed them to drink liquor, Dumm said.

Dumm said she should have immediately notified the police after the sexual encounter. The teenager testified that Dumm offered financial assistance for the football program and encouraged him to “do this for your team.” Dumm tried to keep the encounter, which her lawyer described as rape by the youth, as quiet as possible, she said.

“I really don’t know what I thought,” she said. “I have a lot of regrets about this . . . second-guessing myself.

“You’re in your own home. You’ve had a few drinks. You go to bed. That’s not illegal,” she said, puffing on a cigarette. “Do I regret letting them in the door? You bet.”

Schools Supt. David Aponik said the trial did not interfere with the new school year. The district teaches 14,000 students from kindergarten through 12th grade, as well as 900 preschoolers and 5,000 adults.

“It didn’t detract from anything we were doing or what the students were doing,” Aponik said. “It’s been a very smooth and successful start.”

As for the educational foundation, its reputation for providing funds for various school programs remains untainted, officials said.

“It’s a group that has good intentions,” said Michael McDonald Jr., president of the school board. “Hopefully, [the scandal] will disappear into history.”

Dumm said she plans to rest and spend more time on volunteer work.

“I want to continue on,” she said. “I’ve obviously not had a lot of time to devote to it.”

For now, Dumm said she will deal with criticism or rejection if and when it arises.

“I’m sure there are people out there who will talk about this every time they see me. I know that there’s going to be people that, in their mind, I did this,” she said. “I suppose it’s one situation at a time. There’s really no place you go to get your reputation back.”