A judge Tuesday granted a motion by attorneys representing one of two girls who allege they were sexually abused by an imprisoned former Hollywood studio architect to obtain pretrial discovery of the defendant’s financial condition.
The Van Nuys Superior Court suit names as defendants both Jeffrey Cooper and the Calabasas Shul, which Cooper helped found in 1994. The plaintiffs are identified only as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, but the discovery motion was filed only on behalf of Jane Doe 1.
“At trial, the court will follow the law concerning the admissibility of financial condition evidence and all other evidence,” Judge Huey Cotton wrote.
The judge directed that prior to starting Cooper’s financial discovery, the attorneys must meet and draft a mutually agreeable protective order, which the defense sought so that Doe 2 would not have access to information to which she is not entitled.
The lawsuit was filed July 25, 2022, the same day Cooper was sentenced to eight years in state prison by Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Alan Schneider, who also ordered him to register as a sex offender.
Cooper, 71, was convicted in May 2022 of three felony counts of lewd acts on a child involving Jane Doe 1, who was between 12 and 13 years old between 2005 and 2007 when she was abused at his home and later reported what had happened to authorities, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Jurors deadlocked on charges against Cooper that involved a second girl who was 6 years old when Cooper allegedly began grooming her.
Cooper’s criminal conviction conclusively establishes his liability for Jane Doe 1’s causes of action for sexual assault and battery, entitling her to obtain punitive damages against the architect and to know information about his personal worth, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ court papers.
On Oct. 26, Cotton is set to hear a defense motion to put the civil case on hold pending the outcome of the appeal of Cooper’s criminal case conviction. The plaintiffs’ attorneys oppose the stay.
Cooper, who testified in his own defense in the criminal case, denied the allegations and said there were multiple adults around at all times, including parents and, in the case of one of the girls, her grandparents, who were longtime friends of the Coopers.