OMLO Partner Tania Ochoa and Associate Tyler Rivera secured a significant defense victory on behalf of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in Deborah Ticey v. Doe 1, a Public Entity, when the Los Angeles County Superior Court granted LAUSD’s motion for summary judgment.
The Plaintiff alleged she was sexually abused by a teacher while attending elementary school during the 1979-1980 school year, bringing forward a theory that the District knew or should have known of the teacher’s behaviors and failed to take appropriate action. Plaintiff argued that the destruction of the teacher’s employee relations file, albeit permissible under statutory document retention policies, warranted an inference that the missing records contained information demonstrating the District’s knowledge of prior misconduct.
Ochoa and Rivera, on behalf of LAUSD, countered with evidence of an exhaustive search of its permanent personnel records, presenting records that contained no entries reflecting disciplinary action or other derogatory information concerning the teacher.
The Court found that these permanent records constituted affirmative evidence of a clean disciplinary history and that the plaintiff had not produced direct or circumstantial evidence establishing that a complaint or investigation concerning sexual misconduct had existed. The Court also found no evidence that the file had been destroyed to suppress evidence or that District personnel had received a report of the teacher’s alleged sexual misconduct during the relevant period.
On April 1, 2026, the Court granted LAUSD’s motion for summary judgment, resolving the Plaintiff’s claims in the District’s favor without a trial. This result highlights the importance of rigorous application of the evidentiary requirements governing public-entity liability.