Jury awards $25 million to sexual abuse victim of Santa Barbara Unified high school coach

Jurors have awarded $25 million to a former Santa Barbara Unified School District student who was abused by an assistant coach later convicted of felony sex crimes involving other boys.

The Santa Barbara County Superior Court jury reached the verdict after a three-week trial in which attorneys for the victim, now a young man, presented evidence that the school district had repeatedly ignored warnings about the abuser, Justin Sell, who worked as a coach and security guard at Goleta’s Dos Pueblos High School.

A booking photo of Justin Sell, former Santa Barbara Unified coach and security guard whose alleged acts of sexual abuse led to a $25-million jury verdict against the district.

(Santa Barbara Police Department)

Sell was convicted in 2014 of sexually abusing students and is now a registered sex offender.

Jurors heard about a series of incidents involving Sell that alerted school officials to his behavior before and during the time of the boy’s abuse between 2008 and 2011.

Last Friday, the jury found that the school district was liable for 80% of the damages suffered by the boy, whose abuse began when he was 15 and Sell was in his late 20s. To shield the identity of the now 30-year-old victim, he was referred to in the case as John Doe 2.

“The school district and its employees had multiple missed opportunities to get rid of a person they acknowledged was a problematic employee,” said John Taylor of Taylor & Ring, a law firm known for bringing some of the largest abuse cases in California. “They repeatedly chose to protect the employee over the safety of the kids.”

Sell was also accused of grooming and sexually abusing two other Dos Pueblos students, who were identified in litigation as John Doe 1 and John Doe 3. In June 2013, Sell was arrested and charged with multiple felonies involving two boys, including stalking and sexual abuse. He agreed to a plea deal and sentenced to one year in jail and five years’ probation. Those two accusers are also suing the district.

In response to the jury verdict, the school district issued a statement noting that the abuse happened years ago.

“There is never an excuse for abhorrent behavior from an employee regarding a minor student,” the district said. “The school district deeply empathizes with any student who finds themselves in a vulnerable position in a school environment where children should feel safe. Although the conduct in this matter occurred more than a decade ago, the school district has an ongoing commitment to strict standards of professional conduct, proper supervision of employees, and a variety of methods of reporting inappropriate behavior.“

Sell is currently living and working in Santa Barbara.

“The jury recognized the lifelong harm that childhood sexual abuse inflicts on its victims,” said attorney Natalie Weatherford. “The verdict represents a step forward in the young life of the plaintiff and validation that the abuse was not his fault.”

Even before Sell began to groom the boy, school administrators had warned Sell about eating lunch with freshman boys rather than doing his job.

Then in the 2007/2008 school year, according to court documents, Sell punched a student in the face on campus. Multiple school employees were aware of the incident, yet it was not reported to law enforcement as was required by law, the lawsuit stated.

In 2008, the lawsuit says, Sell began giving food and gifts to the boy identified only as John Doe 2. Their interaction would evolve after the boy was injured during wrestling and Sell claimed to be able to treat him, according to the lawsuit,

Sell then began giving the boy massages, as well as sexually touching him in front of other boys, according to the evidence presented at trial. He also got the boy alone outside of school and coerced him into a sex act, according to the lawsuit.

During that period, the school district promoted Sell to a permanent employee as a campus safety assistant. In the same year Sell was promoted, though, the head football coach reported Sell’s inappropriate behavior to the athletic director and school principal at least three times, according to the litigation.

In the fall of 2010, the head football coach terminated Sell as an assistant due to Sell’s insubordination and refusal to stop spending time with one of the two other boys who are now suing. Sell nonetheless kept his job as a campus security guard with full access to the campus and students.

In 2010, John Doe 1’s parents made a formal complaint to the school, but school officials did not inform the police despite their legal obligation to do so, according to the lawsuit.

In the spring of 2011, the district transferred Sell to Santa Barbara High School and, a few months later, entered into a confidential resignation agreement with him, allowing him to resign his security guard position instead of being fired. As part of that deal, the district agreed to provide a “neutral” recommendation about Sell to his potential future employers, according to court documents.

But in the spring of 2013, a classmate of John Doe 2 told authorities that Sell stalked and sexually abused the boy, and not long after, a second boy also alleged abuse.

Sell was accused of creating a fictitious Facebook account that Santa Barbara Police said he used to post demeaning comments about the boy and to befriend the boy’s contacts.

When Santa Barbara police arrested Sell, a news release by the department alleged that Sell admitted to nearly all of the acts described by John Doe 1. According to the police, Sell told a detective that he stalked John Doe 1 because he perceived that his friendship with John Doe 1 was failing.

Santa Barbara County’s District Attorney charged Sell with multiple counts of stalking and sex crimes with two minors. In a plea deal, Sell pleaded no contest to oral copulation with a minor, contact with a minor with the intent to commit a sexual offense, and stalking.