Byron Scott is opposing a bid by a private Studio City high school to file under seal its tentative settlement offer with a 54-year-old woman who accuses the former Lakers shooting guard and coach of sexually abusing her during a 1987 team event.
“The assertion that the press may find the amount of the settlement newsworthy does not create an overriding interest to seal the records,” Scott’s attorneys state in their court papers filed Wednesday with Burbank Superior Court Judge Lee S. Arian.
The complaint alleges sexual battery and false imprisonment. Scott, now 65, is named as a defendant along with Campbell Hall School, a K-12 independent Episcopal school. The plaintiff was 15 years old at the time and Scott was 26.
Campbell Hall attorney Eugene Egan recently informed the court that the portion of the woman’s case against the school was resolved and that a request for approval of the accord will be submitted for the judge’s review. Egan’s court papers also ask that the settlement papers be filed under seal pending a judgment in the case after trial of the part of the lawsuit against Scott. The plaintiff supports the sealing motion.
However, on Wednesday, Scott’s attorneys said the tentative accord should not be kept under wraps pending judgment.
“Boiled down to its essence, (Campbell Hall) seeks to hide the amount of its settlement with plaintiff to avoid embarrassment or harm to its reputation,” Scott’s lawyers argue in their pleadings, which further state that the school previously offered the plaintiff $75,000 to resolve its part of the case.
Arian is scheduled to rule on the school’s sealing motion on Monday. No terms have been revealed in the current settlement offer.
According to the plaintiff’s suit filed in December 2022, she was in summer school at Campbell Hall in 1987 when she was sexually assaulted by Scott in a locked janitor’s closet in the school gymnasium. The Lakers were at the school to film an instructional basketball video and meet with students, parents and faculty members, according to the complaint.
But in their court papers, Scott’s attorneys stated that he believed the girl was a member of the production crew and not a student or a minor.