A South Bay high school student has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, alleging that an assistant coach on her basketball team sexually abused her.
The Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets student, who is not identified in court records, alleges that Juan “John” Colón began abusing her when she was 15 years old. Neither school nor district officials did anything to intervene and actively worked to cover up Colon's conduct, the lawsuit alleges. .
A spokesperson for Los Angeles Unified said the district “typically does not comment on each and every pending or ongoing litigation matter.”
Colon was arrested in early January and charged with two counts of felony unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, dating back to alleged crimes committed on July 1. He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of molesting/sexually abusing a minor that allegedly took place on June 1.
He posted bail shortly after being taken into custody, records show, and is due back in court on Feb. 20. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
Colon, 50, “intentionally, recklessly and wantonly” committed unwanted sexual acts, including “touching, contact and sexual conduct with Plaintiff,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit also alleges that Colon harassed the girl, “grooming” her for abuse by providing her with financial assistance and then demanding the money back, isolating and speaking to her on social media, and trusting her with his personal life.
“This has been a very difficult time for my client, going through the initial trauma and reliving this,” said his attorney, Morgan A. Stewart, a partner at the Irvine-based firm Manly, Stewart & Finaldi. “She is now suffering as she recognizes that she was taken advantage of and should never have been on campus. It is difficult at any age, but worse in adolescence.”
At one point, the teenager lived with Colón for an undisclosed amount of time and listed him as her emergency contact, her lawyers said.
The girl's family learned of the alleged abuse on Jan. 4, according to the lawsuit, and the Los Angeles Police Department arrested Colon the next day.
“This whole lawsuit is what I would call a ball of errors with one thing after another,” Stewart said. “But it all started with this: If you followed LAUSD's hiring practices, he never would have made it to a campus.”
Colón allegedly worked as a coach and tutor in Westchester, although no record was found through Transparent California, which compiles compensation data for a variety of public sector employees in a searchable database. The plaintiff's attorneys also allege that Colón was hired without a background check, which would have conflicted with Los Angeles Unified Policy.
“While we don't know his exact employment status, he was clearly there at practices and in games,” Stewart said. “We don't know if he was a chaperone or he had a contract or the exact arrangements.”
The district did not comment on his employment status.
The lawsuit also alleges that the students informed school administrators of “the sexual nature of the behavior” that Colón was engaging in “while alone with minors.”
Colon was questioned about his actions but not reported to authorities, the lawsuit states. He was told to “stop engaging in sexual conduct with the students, but he did not do so,” according to the lawsuit.
The women's basketball team will open the quarterfinal round of the Los Angeles City CIF Section playoffs on Saturday, hosting El Camino Real.
