Tam Union school district pays $17.5M to settle sexual abuse cases
By David W. Chen
In an unexpected legal twist, the Tamalpais Union School District has paid $17.5 million to four former high school students who accused a predatory tennis coach of sexually abusing them in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The resolution of the cases culminates a lengthy personal and legal odyssey for the first student to make the accusations, Alex Harrison, who was subsequently blackballed by the insular sporting community there.
The district’s decision offers a reminder of how much has changed when it comes to reporting abuse and holding institutions accountable since 2006, when Harrison first told police about the events at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley.
Harrison, now a lawyer in Southern California, had been a star player on the tennis team. But when he first testified against his prominent coach and gym teacher, Normandie Burgos, no one believed him, he said. His teammates, friends and their parents packed the gallery to support the coach.
At one point, according to court papers, they snickered at Harrison so loudly that the judge threatened to remove them. The criminal case ended in a mistrial in 2010, and Burgos was later convicted of molesting two more star tennis players. He was eventually sentenced to 255 years in prison.
Harrison, who had initially testified as John Doe to protect his identity, went public in the New York Times about his trauma. He also filed a lawsuit accusing Burgos’ employer, the Tamalpais Union High School District, of being negligent.
A jury believed Harrison, and awarded him $10 million in 2022. But the district, which contended that it had acted reasonably with limited information, appealed. Four more students, including one who said Burgos had sodomized him at least twice in the school locker room, also sued.
In September, a state appellate court ruled 2-1 against the district. The district elected to pay the judgment at that point and went on to settle, without acknowledging liability or wrongdoing, with three plaintiffs who had been scheduled to go to trial this month.
Last week, the district mailed out checks totaling $11.5 million for Harrison and $4.5 million for the plaintiff who said he was sodomized. The district also paid $750,000 each to two more plaintiffs, said Mark Boskovich, whose law firm represented the four accusers.
“I’m just relieved for it to be over,” said Harrison, 38. He said his experiences had influenced his decision to become a prosecutor, and he worked for several years for the Orange County and Santa Barbara County district attorneys offices. “It’s been over 18 years. I didn’t have control over my life,” he said.
The fifth case, filed by another anonymous plaintiff, is scheduled for trial in February.
“Our client was sexually abused by Mr. Burgos in the same fashion as Mr. Burgos’ numerous other victims,” said Adam Slater, whose firm represented the fifth plaintiff. “We are continuing to fight vigorously to bring justice for our client and commend all others for coming forward.”
Tara Taupier, the district’s superintendent, said the district would not comment on the cases.
Burgos, 61, lost his criminal appeal in California’s state courts. A separate appeal is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said Eric Larson, his court-appointed appellate lawyer.
At the time of Burgos’ mistrial in 2010, the scandals involving Jerry Sandusky, a longtime assistant football coach at Penn State, and Larry Nassar, the former doctor at Michigan State and the USA Gymnastics team, had not yet surfaced.
Only in recent years have some states, like California, New York and New Jersey, temporarily lifted statutes of limitations to allow adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file civil cases.
In the Burgos cases, the plaintiffs were all students at Tamalpais High School between 1998 and 2002, except for the one who received $4.5 million.
According to court documents, one of Tamalpais’ top players introduced that student — a talented player who attended a small private school that did not have a team — to Burgos. Burgos invited him to join the Tamalpais team. In his lawsuit, the student said Burgos eventually lured him into the locker room and warned him that he would be kicked off the team if he not comply.
The lawsuit claimed that at least one school official had witnessed the incident and did nothing.
“Burgos had his hands on John Doe’s naked genitals when the door to the coach’s locker room opened and an adult male exclaimed, ‘Oh, looks like you’re having fun’ and laughed off the situation,” court papers said.
In an interview, the student, now 41, said he has since struggled emotionally and contemplated self-harm.
He said he had set up a shelter for abused children in Peru, where he lived for several years, and said he planned to use some of his settlement money to help others.
“It’s a candle,” he said.
After his civil trial against the school district, Harrison left the district attorney’s office in Santa Barbara and joined a private law firm that specializes in representing sexual abuse victims. In one high-profile case, he helped two women who said they were abused at a well-known horse ranch in the San Diego area win almost $10 million.
But the details of the case, he said, hit too close to home.
“It was very overwhelming,” he said.
For now, he has circled the date July 2037. That is when Burgos will be eligible for parole, and Harrison has set a reminder to notify his fellow survivors.