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May 14, 2005
Families of molested boys file suit against Livermore
The families of five young boys molested by their former gymnastics coach have filed suit against the city of Livermore, contending that a police detective was negligent in his investigation of an early molestation claim lodged against the now-imprisoned man.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court in Pleasanton are 10- and 11-year-old boys from Livermore and Tracy, and their parents. The Times is not publishing the plaintiffs' names because the boys are abuse victims.
The suit names the city of Livermore as the defendant, contending that the municipality is liable for the alleged negligence of its police department.
John Pomidor, the Livermore city attorney, said Thursday that he had not yet seen the suit and could not comment.
The civil suit comes a little more than a year after Brandon Sean Roberts, the gymnastics coach in question, was sentenced to state prison.
Roberts, 24, of Tracy, pleaded no contest to 18 counts of child molestation in February 2004 and was sentenced two months later to 12 years in prison.
He was also ordered to pay restitution to the boys and their families, at least $6,000, to cover counseling costs.
Authorities said Roberts molested six boys between December 2001 and May 2003 at Tri-Valley Gymnastics -- where he worked -- and also at his home, in cars and on at least one occasion at a victim's house. Roberts was arrested in June 2003.
Four of the five plaintiffs named in the lawsuit were students in the gymnastics program at Tri-Valley Gymnastics.
The suit states that the police were first alerted by the mother of a "John Doe" in June 2002 that she suspected Roberts of having molested her son. A detective subsequently attended an interview of the victim at a child abuse investigation center in San Leandro, the suit says.
The filing claims that the detective then "inexplicably held the investigation open for many months without any further investigation and no investigation whatsoever of Roberts."
The complaint alleges that over the next year, from July 2002 until Roberts' arrest in June 2003, Roberts continued to work as a gymnastics coach at the gym. He also served as a baby sitter for some of the boys, the suit states.
During that time, Roberts allegedly engaged in "a systematic pattern of sexual abuse of the minor plaintiffs, including acts of oral copulation, sodomy, attempted forcible oral copulation and lewd acts." The suit describes Roberts as a "sexual predator."
Michael Descalso, the plaintiffs' lawyer, could not be reached Thursday. The suit seeks unspecified damages.
Posted by Nealus at May 14, 2005 12:38 PM
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