Sexual Abuse

The last statement that any parent wants to hear from their child is that he or she was sexually assaulted at school. Sadly, that is the reality for a majority of children and teenagers. Statistics from the Education Department have shown that reports of sexual assault at schools rose from nearly 9,600 in the 2015…

Oliver O’Grady is one of the numerous priests that the Catholic Church allowed to sexually assault children. While he served as a priest at St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Lodi, California, he was responsible for raping, abusing, and molesting at least 25 children starting from 1973. Similar to many priests and members of the Catholic…

Authorities report that a Rancho Cucamonga football coach was recently arrested after police allege he placed a hidden camera inside a girls’ bathroom at Los Osos High School. After a staff member at the school discovered the camera, they immediately notified police, and an investigation found that assistant coach David Riden was responsible for placing…

On July 1, the Boy Scouts of America agreed to pay $850 million to tens of thousands of men to settle sexual abuse claims going back decades. This amount could be the largest settlement for child sexual abuse claims in United States history, if approved by a judge. Some legal experts are calling this a…

Sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual misconduct, and sexual battery, sexual harassment, and rape all have different meanings. Some of these terms are legal terms. Others are used as catchalls and not correctly. There’s also a difference between how these terms may be used in civil cases and criminal cases. If you are looking to file…

A former Roman Catholic priest from California was arrested at his home in Rhode Island by the Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force on charges of sexual assault. Christopher Cunningham was arrested on a warrant that accuses of him sexually assaulting children in California. At the time of his arrest, Cunningham was working as a…

Uber has become a known name around the world for ride sharing and being at the top often comes with problems that need to be resolved. When they’re left somewhat ignored, regulators feel the pressure to step in and take action to protect the public from coming to harm. In this case, the public leans…

Dave Ring provides legal insight to The Boston Globe An explosive front-page article in the Boston Globe claims that, according to a recently-filed lawsuit, the prestigious Portsmouth Abbey boarding school in Rhode Island failed to protect a young woman from sexual abuse from a teacher. The suit also claims school leaders provided the victim with…

Prior to the pandemic, your kids typically spent 8 hours a day with other children and adults. Even now, whether your kids have landed back in classrooms for face to face learning or they’re getting their education remotely, they’re generally not under your strict supervision while sitting in front of their online classes. Their teachers…

The common perception about sexual crimes and those who commit them are that they are committed by adult men mostly against women and sometimes against children. However, the perpetrators of sexual abuse are sometimes children committing offenses against other children. Almost 1 in 3 perpetrators of child sex abuse are below the age of 18.…

A recently published Vatican manual on how to handle sexual abuse allegations within the Catholic Church instructs bishops to report all of these allegations to law enforcement, even when there is no legal obligation to do so. The manual directs ecclesiastical authorities to produce a report and provide it to relevant civil authorities if it…

On July 27, 2020, former NFL player Dana Stubblefield was convicted of multiple charges, including rape by force, oral copulation by force and false imprisonment. His victim (“Jane Doe”) was 31-year-olds old when Stubblefield raped her in 2015. According to her attorneys, Jane has developmental disabilities. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) estimates…

A recent ruling upholding the constitutionality of New York state’s “look-back law” for sexual abuse lawsuits gives victims of abuse and their attorneys improved ability to bring a lawsuit. Attorneys and plaintiffs across the country praised the decision, saying it sets a precedent for more victims to come forward and prosecute their abusers, even if…

Normandie Burgos, a well-known coach in the Bay Area, was convicted of 60 counts of child molestation in May 2019 and sentenced to 255 years in prison. Despite being arrested for the second time in 2014 for charges of abusing one of his players, Burgos was allowed to continue coaching until 2017. He was arrested…

Millions of Americans have been told to shelter-in-place or stay-at-home since the pandemic reached the United States. Even though many Americans will be safe while staying home, millions are not safe in their own homes due to domestic violence. In fact, more than 10 million Americans experience some form of domestic violence every year. Removing…

A decision in November of last year by the District Court of Massachusetts has helped clear up the issue of employer liability when illegal sex trafficking occurs on an employer’s property. The case – Ricchio v. Bijal – involves Lisa Ricchio, the victim, who was kidnapped by Clark McLean, the defendant. Ricchio was held against…

The University of Southern California (USC) has agreed to make significant changes to the process it follows for reporting sexual misconduct allegations in light of the findings of a federal investigation. The school has agreed to these procedural changes after systematic failures were discovered in the school’s handling of abuse allegations against George Tyndall, former…

The California Healthy Youth Act, which has been in place since 2016, provides “integrated, comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased sexual health and HIV prevention instruction” for public school students. Erin Prangley, associate director of government relations for the American Association of University Women, told EdSource that “Many school cultures trivialize harassment, tolerate language that degrades girls…

Larry Nassar, George Tyndall, James Heaps, Bayard Allmond and countless other physicians have faced the legal and professional consequences of sexual misconduct against patients most of whom were young and vulnerable. A story in the Los Angeles Times reports that since the fall of 2017, complaints against California physicians have increased by 62%. Those numbers…

The Washington Post recently reported that a Boy Scout identified as S.D., was sexually assaulted hundreds of times by a scout leader. The incidents happened in the 1970s in Pennsylvania. A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the plaintiff against the Boy Scouts, the Penn Mountains Council, and the alleged abuser. It is one…

George Tyndall, a former gynecologist for USC, was arrested and charged with 18 counts of sexual assault and 11 counts of sexual battery by fraud. He faces up to 53 years in prison if he is convicted on all charges. At this time, the charges stem from accusations posed by 16 different women. However, the…

A recent NPR article shined a light on overlooked victims of sexual assault – adult survivors of sexual abuse by nuns. Awareness and acknowledgement of the abuse and molestation of girls and boys by priests and clergy is growing, and this validation is helping survivors of abuse by religious sisters come forward with their allegations.…

The Catholic Church has been at the heart of multiple sexual abuse scandals for more than a decade now, with more and more victims. The survivors are generally males (though woman have come forward in record numbers, too) who attended all-boy grade schools and high schools throughout the United States. This type of systemic abuse…

Aimee Palmitessa was charged with 12 felony counts for having sex with one of her students at Brentwood School; the student was a minor at the time. Last August, the student – “John Doe” – sued Brentwood School: “The 33-page complaint documented Palmitessa’s history of suggestive behavior toward students, even before Doe ended up in…

Thousands of credible accusations have been leveled against the Catholic Church over the last few years alone, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is no exception. Having just secured the largest individual settlement for a sex abuse case ever offered by Archdiocese, we know firsthand how important it is that survivors come forward. That is…