L.A. Unified could pay more to alleged Miramonte victims
Former Miramonte Elementary teacher Mark Berndt, right, shown in 2012, pleaded no contest to sexual misconduct. A group of his alleged victims wants more money from the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The Los Angeles school board on Tuesday is scheduled to discuss in private a possible additional payment to alleged victims of two former teachers at Miramonte Elementary School.
Settlements already total $169 million, the largest the district has ever paid related to sexual misconduct. Former teacher Mark Berndt, who was arrested in 2012, is serving a 25-year sentence for lewd actions with children.
The matter under review Tuesday arises out of the first wave of settlements, which totaled $30 million and provided $470,000 to each alleged victim.
That agreement, dated Feb. 22, 2013, stated that the settlement figure was a “premium” amount because these were the first to resolve their cases.
But a subsequent wave of plaintiffs received more money—about $1.7 million per child, said attorney Luis Carrillo, who represented students who were part of the later settlement.
The result could translate to an additional liability of more than $70 million if the district had to make up the difference to the first settling parties.
Carrillo said he’d been told that attorneys were willing to settle for less, in the neighborhood of $4.5 million. Carrillo does not represent clients involved in the current negotiations, he said.
Attorneys representing the dissatisfied families were not immediately available.
The item on the board’s closed-session agenda is listed in documents only as potential litigation related to 58 claims “regarding interpretation of a settlement agreement.”
Fifty-eight alleged Miramonte victims have asserted that the district is obligated to provide more money than they originally settled for.
They made their case in paperwork filed with the district in February 2015.
In that filing, the group stated its demand for “additional monies due … so that the settlement amounts of their Miramonte claims will be equal to the settlement amounts of the later-settled Miramonte claims.”
The document adds: “The school district has refused to pay those amounts.”
Among the claims, 51 are related to misconduct by Berndt. Seven others concern alleged misconduct by former teacher Martin Springer. The L.A. County district attorney’s office dropped charges against Springer in 2014 after the one alleged victim set to testify — about alleged inappropriate touching — decided not to participate in the prosecution.
The district contended it had persisting concerns about Springer’s conduct and refused to return him to the classroom. He resigned in February while maintaining his innocence.
Twitter: @howardblume
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