Irvine, California - Lawyers representing multiple alleged victims of child sexual abuse by former LAUSD wrestling coach Terry Gillard filed a lawsuit on behalf of John SD Doe, another alleged victim.
In May 2019, a jury in the San Fernando Superior Court convicted Gillard on 37 felony and 10 misdemeanor counts, including lewd acts on children under the age of 16, oral copulation with a minor, procuring children to engage in lewd acts, and child molesting. The verdicts were reached after a seven-week trial. Gillard faces a possible sentence of life in prison.
The newly-filed lawsuit alleges that Gillard pressured John SD Doe and other child wrestlers into having sexual activities with Gillard and with each other while Gillard watched, all to satisfy his own deviant interests.
Child sexual abuse survivor advocates at Manly Stewart & Finaldi and The Senators (Ret.) Firm LLP have filed civil lawsuits on behalf of all but two of the victims named in the criminal case, as well as other victims who were not part of the criminal case. The lawsuit names Gillard, Los Angeles Unified School District, and the Boys and Girls Club of San Fernando Valley as defendants.
“This is the ninth alleged child victim of Terry Gilliard that we represent. The sad fact is that LAUSD administrators were aware of multiple reports of alleged sexual misconduct by Gillard and other ‘red flags’ well in advance of his arrest, including allegations that he sexually harassed a female LAUSD employee, for which he was suspended. Yet, LAUSD allowed him to be alone with young children on and off campus. LAUSD must be brought to justice for their failure to protect the children under their supervision and care,” said victim’s attorney Morgan Stewart, a partner in Manly Stewart & Finaldi.
Evidence was presented during the criminal trial that Gillard sexually abused children as far back as 1991 when he directed an 11-year-old to have sex with an adult woman in the backseat of Gillard's Cadillac while he watched from the front seat and then engaged in a “threesome” with the adult woman and the child. Other evidence showed that Gillard directed child wrestlers between 2014 and 2017 to perform sex acts while he watched, including in his vehicles and in a van owned and maintained by the Boys and Girls Club. Video and testimonial evidence also showed that Gillard sexually assaulted at least two female children who were on the wrestling team at LAUSD's John Francis Polytechnic High School.
“LAUSD has a long and brutally destructive history of failing to protect young children under its care from sexual predators that it employs. Worse, LAUSD routinely engages in victim-shaming, claiming, as it does here, that children were sexually abused because of their own "carelessness." LAUSD's administrators and School Board members need to be held accountable by parents and voters for this disgusting conduct,” said victim’s attorney Ronald Labriola, a partner in The Senators (Ret.) Firm.
Manly Stewart & Finaldi is the nation’s leading firm representing athletes in child sexual abuse cases against school districts, Universities, and Olympic Governing Bodies. They recently represented 180 alleged victims of former Olympic Team doctor Larry Nassar, resulting in a $500 million-dollar settlement against Michigan State University. In 2018, the firm settled cases against the Torrance Unified School District for $31 million on behalf of alleged victims of former wrestling coach and convicted child molester Thomas Snider, against Los Angeles Unified School district for $8 million in cases involving former football coach and convicted child molester Jamie Jimenez, and for $14 million in cases involving former Los Angeles Unified District employee Ronnie Lee Roman. The firm has also settled $30 million in claims against Redlands Unified School District.
The Senators (Ret.) Firm, LLP, provides high-quality legal representation to victims of childhood sexual abuse. Over the past 10 years, the Firm has represented sexual abuse victims in cases that settled with LAUSD for over $250 Million. The Firm just recently achieved a $31 Million settlement with the Torrance Unified School District for victims who were sexually abused by their wrestling coach.
