Jane Doe v. Rialto Unified School District

Case Synopsis

Arias Sanguinetti obtained a $9 million verdict on behalf of a woman identified as Jane Doe against Rialto Unified School District for the abuse she suffered at the hands of former Eisenhower High School music instructor Andres “Andy” Luna. The jury found the district 60% liable.

Luna used his position as a trusted teacher to groom and sexually assault our client multiple times during her senior year of high school. He lured her to his private residence under the false pretense of modeling lingerie he claimed to have purchased for a fiancée – herself a former student.

The abuse happened in 1994. Jane Doe filed suit three decades later. For survivors of sexual abuse, that gap is common. Research shows that it takes years, sometimes a lifetime, for survivors to name what happened and decide to act on it. Building a case across that kind of distance meant locating witnesses who had moved on, pulling yearbooks from storage, and piecing together a pattern of conduct that the school district had every incentive to keep buried. Several others came forward with stories after we filed our client’s claims.

Students reported Luna’s behavior to school officials for years before our client was assaulted. The district investigated nothing and disciplined no one. Students who tried to report were told their names would go back to Luna if they filed a formal complaint.

Multiple witnesses testified to the pattern: inappropriate touching, explicit comments, time alone with female students in his office, transporting students in his personal vehicle, sexually explicit messages written in yearbooks.

The jury held the district accountable for what it knew and ignored. We were proud to deliver that result.