A fifth party, who claims she was assaulted as a youngster while sequestered in the administrator’s office, is suing the former principal of Deep Creek Elementary School for sexually abusing four students almost twenty years ago.
The student, who was not present at the criminal trial, sued Jeffrey Hays and his former employer, the Gresham-Barlow School District, in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Tuesday, requesting $8 million.
Hays, now 70, was found guilty of seven sex crime counts in Clackamas County Circuit Court in 2022 and is currently serving what is effectively a life term at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla.
Monsters exist. Gregory Kafoury, the plaintiff’s lawyer, claimed that many people look for refuge in positions of authority and respect, from which they cause unimaginable devastation. People must be conscious. They must take action.
Kafoury stated that it took about 15 years for the four students from the criminal case to grasp what had been done to them, but he declined to address why the fifth student came forward at this time.
Only the fifth student’s initials are used to identify them in court documents.
According to court documents, from 2007 to 2009, Hays sexually assaulted her while she was a student at the school in the Damascus area. The lawsuit claims that the mistreatment caused irreversible emotional harm.
Gresham-Barlow spokesman Athena Vadnais stated in a statement that before the initial sex abuse claims appeared in 2016, the district had never received a complaint against Hays.
According to Vadnais, the district is committed to providing its pupils with a safe education. Staff and administrators in the district receive yearly required training as well as continuous education on how to avoid, identify, and report abuse.
A request for comment from a civil lawyer who had previously defended Hays in two previous lawsuits involving the four victims from the criminal trial was not answered.
According to documents, the district paid out at least $3.5 million from the litigation.
The four students said during the criminal trial that Hays mistreated them by bringing them into his office when the door was closed and the blinds were drawn, ostensibly to administer multiplication tests or serve lunches to the pupils.
Hays gambled on a bench trial after denying everything on the witness stand. Circuit Judge Katherine Weber accepted the four kids’ heartbreaking evidence and gave him a sentence of over 44 years in prison without the possibility of early release.
Hays filed an appeal, but it was put on hold for years. Defense lawyer Ryan T. O. Connor contends in an appellate brief submitted on Wednesday that prosecutor Scott Healy falsely implied that the principal routinely mistreated more victims than the four listed. According to O’Connor, Hays was not given a fair trial since the argument was flawed.
The appeal is still pending.
For The Oregonian/OregonLive, Zane Sparling reports on court proceedings and breaking news. You may contact him at [email protected], 503-319-7083, or pdxzane.
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