One Year Ago Today (December 23, 2023)…Los Angeles Unified attorneys are asking that lawyers for multiple women who say they were sexually abused by a late teacher be prevented during the upcoming trial from comparing the value of a human life to expensive or exotic items,” including a professional athlete’s contract.
The 17 plaintiffs maintain they were abused in 1988-91 by first grade teacher Louis Moreno when the plaintiffs were students at 96th Street Elementary School in South Los Angeles.
Moreno, who died in January 2009, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of sexual battery against minors in 1992 and was sentenced to two years in prison. The plaintiffs are suing for negligence and breach of a mandatory duty to report suspected child abuse.
LAUSD attorneys filed a flurry of pretrial motions on Friday with Judge Valerie Salkin in advance of the scheduled Jan. 17 trial of the case.
“Plaintiffs’ counsel is expected to argue human life is more valuable than a multibillion-dollar military stealth bomber, a painting by a famous artist such as Leonardo da Vinci worth more than $100 million or a professional athlete’s record-breaking contract extension with a major league sports team,” the LAUSD lawyers state in their court papers. “The purpose of this tactic is to establish an exorbitant baseline value of human life to justify a request for a significant award of general damages.”
Such efforts try to subtly convince jurors that expensive and exotic goods with extraordinary value are less valuable than human life and that the plaintiffs’ loss of enjoyment of life or other general damages are worth more than those items, according to the LAUSD attorneys’ court papers.
“It is entirely irrelevant to plaintiffs’ injuries what a stealth bomber costs or what a popular professional athlete received on a record-breaking contract extension with a major league sports team,” the LAUSD attorneys further state. “The purpose of these arguments is to establish an exorbitant baseline value for a general damages award.”
The district’s attorneys also want the judge to disallow evidence of other lawsuits, claims, verdicts, settlements and/or judgments involving the LAUSD, saying such information would “effectively force LAUSD to defend itself not only from plaintiffs’ allegations regarding the subject (lawsuit), but to also defend against vague and incomplete allegations that involve claims unrelated to the current case.”
The introduction of such evidence will inflame jurors, take too much time and may confuse the issues before then, according to the court papers of the LAUSD attorneys, which further ask that the plaintiffs’ lawyers be barred from using the word “rape” during trial.
The alleged sexual abuse of plaintiffs by Moreno consisted of kissing, groping and other inappropriate touching, the district’s attorneys state.
“The substantial prejudice associated with the term `rape’ will clearly outweigh any possible probative value of using the term,” the attorneys maintain in their court papers.