A woman has tentatively settled her lawsuit against the Westlake Agoura Girls Softball Association in which she alleged she was sexually abused starting in 2019 by a coach who also was a WAGS board member.
Identified only as Jane Doe, the plaintiff, who was 20 years old when she filed her lawsuit in Van Nuys Superior Court in March 2025, alleged her abuser began grooming her with Instagram messages in 2019 when she was a team member. She further contended that two years later he groped and forcibly kissed her at a hotel while she was serving as an assistant coach for her little sister’s team during an overnight stay for a tournament.
On Wednesday, Doe’s attorneys filed court papers with Judge Lee S. Arian notifying him of a “conditional” resolution in the case with the expectation a request for dismissal will be filed by Sept. 4. No terms were divulged.
In their previous court papers, WAGS attorneys denied Doe’s allegations, said they were barred by the statute of limitations, that any harm Doe suffered was unforeseeable and that the damages she claimed were too speculative.
The coach’s direct messages to Doe, then 14, initially focused on her school outfits and appearance, but slowly progressed to messages in which he tried to obtain her trust and create a divide between the plaintiff and her parents, the suit alleged.
In July 2021, Doe joined her sister and her teammates in a hotel lobby when the alleged abuser suddenly approached, visibly drunk, the suit states. He sat down next to Doe, wrapped his arm around her and tried to kiss her, ultimately doing so because he held her in place so she could not leave, according to the complaint.
Although the then-WAGS commissioner saw at least part of what happened, he never reported what occurred to law enforcement or WAGS, the suit stated.
Doe went to the pool area, but the coach followed her and so she hid in a restroom, blaming herself for what happened and worried about her family’s eventual reaction, the suit stated.
When Doe confronted the coach about the events, he replied, “I just kiss people all the time, that’s how I greet people,” according to the suit.
Doe filed the lawsuit in March 2025. Her allegations included sexual abuse of a minor, sexual battery, sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and various negligence-based claims.