A judge has ordered an imprisoned former Hollywood studio architect to pay a $1,500 fine for taking too long to answer discovery questions posed to him in a lawsuit filed by two girls who contend they were sexually abused by the designer.
The Van Nuys Superior Court suit names as defendants both the architect, Jeffrey Cooper, and the Calabasas Shul. The plaintiffs are identified only as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.
On Friday, Judge Huey P. Cotton declined the plaintiffs’ attorneys request for more severe sanctions and settled on $1,500. The plaintiffs’ lawyers maintained Cooper disobeyed a Nov. 15 court order to provide adequate responses to discovery requests.
“This court declines to impose a terminating sanction,” the judge wrote. “However, given that the defendant failed to answer on time after being ordered to do so and waited until two weeks after the motion was filed, the court finds a monetary sanction appropriate to the dereliction. The present motion was undoubtedly the catalyst for defendant finally serving discovery responses.”
Cooper attorney Francis S. Ryu maintained in his court papers that his client has faced many obstacles in prison and was moved often before he was brought to his current housing at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco.
“These transfers occur without any advance notice,” Ryu said in his court papers. “As a result, defendant’s family, lawyers and friends often did not know of his whereabouts and were unable to communicate with him.”
Cooper, 72, also has had periods of solitary confinement and for many months was precluded from using the telephone and from seeing visitors, Ryu states in his court papers.
Cooper was attacked by other inmates in August and October of 2022, leaving him with an ongoing hearing loss as well as headaches and memory impairment, Ryu further maintained in his court papers.
“These factors have contributed to defendant’s inability to timely respond and to participate in this litigation,” Ryu stated in his court papers.
Cooper has experienced and faces possible harm due to his age, Ryu maintains in his court papers.
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 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 his second accuser, who was 6 years old when Cooper allegedly began grooming her.
Cooper testified in the criminal case and denied the allegations. He said there were multiple adults around at all times, including parents and the grandparents of one of the girls, who were longtime friends of the Coopers.