A sheriff’s deputy testified Monday that a former student at Rowland High School admitted during an interview that he inappropriately touched a female pupil on campus four years ago.
Deputy Luis Mrad told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury that the boy’s account of the Feb. 23, 2011, incident was similar in most ways to that of his accuser except that he claimed he touched her over her clothing.
The girl’s legal guardian brought a lawsuit against the Rowland Unified School District and the plaintiff’s alleged assailant in November 2012. Monday was the first day of testimony in trial of the lawsuit, which alleges the male student sexually battered the girl and that the district was negligent in its supervision of him.
Both students were sophomore special education pupils at the time. The girl, identified in the suit only as A.C., is now 20 years old.
According to Mrad, A.C. said she and the boy were in a boyfriend- girlfriend relationship for about a week in 2011 until she noticed “strange behavior.” She said he began following her and did not want her talking to other boys, according to Mrad.
A.C. said she broke off the relationship, but later decided to give the boy a second chance, the deputy said. But instead of being respectful of her, the boy picked A.C. up outside class, carried her on this shoulders and took her behind a school building, where he touched her while holding his other hand over her mouth, according to what she told Mrad.
She said the boy told her not to tell anyone or things would “be worse” for her, according to Mrad.
Mrad testified he learned through his investigation of the incident that the boy had a history of harassing female students that included calling some of them “whores.” Mrad said district police officers had told the boy to stay away from A.C.
Cross-examined by Dana McCune, an attorney for the district, Mrad said the boy was not a gang member, that there were no witnesses to the alleged sexual abuse, and that the girl did not tell her mother about the incident until six months later.
Mrad said the girl also alleged the boy hit her in the legs with a lanyard in March 2011.
— City News Service