Royal District lawsuit settled after five years

Case involved sexual abuse of middle school student

ROYAL CITY — A lawsuit involving the Royal School District and a former student has been settled just days before it was set to go to trial.

The lawsuit began in 2001, when the parents of a 13-year-old student discovered their daughter had been sexually abused by a teacher working for the district, Steve Diaz. The family alleges the district did not follow proper procedure in reporting the abuse and as a result, the student's civil rights had been violated.

Gary Christensen, the girl's father, said the district and family made a verbal agreement to settle the lawsuit for $550,000 on Aug. 9. The district's attorney, Jerry Moberg, would not confirm or deny the dollar amount. Moberg said on Tuesday he hoped to have the agreement signed within the next two weeks. If an agreement had not been reached, the case would have gone to trial on Aug. 16.

"We're satisfied with (the settlement)," Christensen said. "We accomplished what we set out to do."

The new superintendent for the district, Rose Search, agreed.

"I'm relieved that it was settled, and now we can get onto our business of starting our school year," Search said.

The relationship between Diaz and Christensen's daughter Leslie first came under suspicion in 2001, when a fellow student at Royal Middle School reported Leslie emerging from Diaz's classroom alone.

"It didn't look appropriate," Christensen said. That student reported what she saw to a teacher, who in turn reported the incident to the principal. The principal contacted Leslie's mother and informed her that a report had been made. The Christensens met with the principal, the girl who reported the incident and her family. At the time, Leslie denied anything had been going on between Diaz and her.

Christensen said he and his wife continued pressing Leslie, but she continued to deny everything. The district never made a report to law enforcement after that initial report by the student, Christensen said. Two weeks after the report, Leslie came into her parents' room at 1 a.m. and told them what had been going on.

After the family informed the district of the situation, the superintendent said the FBI and State Superintendent of Public Instruction would be contacted, Christensen said. The principal at the time called the Christensens and said the investigators were waiting. Instead, the family found themselves meeting with the district's risk management company Canfield and Associates, who wanted to speak with Leslie.

"They interrogated her and actually threatened the loss of our family farm, for two days," Christensen alleged.

Christensen said his family wanted to prevent a similar situation from being repeated and wanted to prevent minors from being blamed for abuse. The district attempted to put the blame on his daughter for the abuse, calling it "contributory fault," he alleges. After the argument was made, the Christensens asked the state superior court to determine whether the argument was valid. The supreme court sided with the Christensens, saying a student under 16 years of age cannot be to blame for a sexual relationship between the student and a teacher.

Moberg said the district used the contributory fault argument in one of the pleadings. The district never intended to blame Leslie for what happened.

"We think that the teacher is entirely at fault," he said.

The district did argue that Leslie prevented the district from helping her because she lied about the abuse taking place, Moberg said.

"The district is truly sorry that this happened and that Leslie is involved in this situation," he said.

Christensen also alleged the school "was informed of circumstances that should have prevented them from hiring (Diaz)," but would not elaborate.

Moberg said the district did hear rumors but traced them and found them to be unsubstantiated. It also investigated the reason for Diaz's termination from Highland School District, his previous employer where he worked as a coach, and discovered a number of coaches had been terminated from the district at around the same time. Additionally, the district spoke with the principal and superintendent, who confirmed he was acceptable as a coach, Moberg said. The principal said Diaz deserved to be hired by the district.

"We had good recommendations," he said.

Moberg said he believed the district would have prevailed in the claim that it should not have hired Diaz.

In an official statement from the district, the district said it did settle the case but was not liable for damages.

"The district denied the allegations and maintained that it was not liable for any damages suffered by the Christensens," the statement says. "Recently, the district determined that it was not in the best interests of the school, the community, the Christensen family, and all those involved in the lawsuit to continuing the litigation and agreed to settle the dispute. The settlement was not in any way an admission of guilt."

As a result of the case against him, the state superintendent's office revoked Diaz's license. Criminal charges were also brought against him in Grant County Superior Court. Of his original 365-day jail sentence, 345 of the days were suspended. He traded his remaining 20 days for 160 hours of community service, serving no jail time. He was also to be supervised for 12 months.

Including court fees and restitution, Diaz paid about $5,160 to the courts.

Christensen said Diaz also entered an out of court settlement with his family, but added the details are confidential.

The case has divided the community between those who support his family's case and those who are against it, Christensen said. Some believe Leslie should be blamed for the abuse and that the case was about money, he said. He said his daughter, now 19 and a senior in college, is putting the money toward her higher education.

"Some people in our community still believe our daughter was to be blamed," he said.

Many people, including some clergy, do not understand how sexual abuse continues, he said. Abuse includes grooming the victim and telling the victim not to tell others about the abuse, Christensen said.

He said he would love to be a resource for someone else in the community who wants to protect their child in the event of a similar incident.