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Suit filed in wake of Blue Ridge sex scandal is settled
By Lynn Hotaling
A civil lawsuit filed in the wake of a sex scandal that rocked Blue Ridge School and sent its athletic director to prison has been settled out of court.
“Congratulations,” said School Board Chairman Ken Henke to Chris Campbell after the Asheville attorney relayed the news during Monday’s meeting of the Jackson County Board of Education, one of five defendants named in the 2002 suit brought by Sybil Smith of Cashiers on behalf of her daughter.
The Smiths ended the lawsuit in exchange for payment of $26,500, according to the terms of the settlement agreement that was made part of the school board’s Sept. 19 minutes.
Of that sum, $4,000 will be paid on behalf of local school officials, but the money will not come from school board coffers, Campbell said.
That sum will be paid by the N.C. School Board Trust, he said.
According to Campbell, the local school board joined the Trust as a way of protecting itself from liablility in such lawsuits. It was the Trust’s decision to settle the case, he said.
“The Trust has decided that for $4,000, it would settle,” Campbell said, adding that the plaintiffs (the Smith family) also desired that the case come to an end.
Campbell directed school officials attention to the agreement’s fourth paragraph, which, he said, “clearly states the settlement shall not be considered an admission of liability.”
No action was required on the part of board members, Campbell said; he was there to advise them of the settlement during a public meeting in order that the agreement could be made part of the board’s minutes as North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law requires.
The Smiths will receive another $4,000 on behalf of former Blue Ridge Principal Lib Balcerek, who was also named as a defendant in the suit, Campbell said.
Though Campbell, who represented the local school board in the suit, did not refer to the other defendants – former Jackson County Sheriff Jim Cruzan, former Blue Ridge Athletic Director Joe Brooks, former Blue Ridge school resource officer (deputy) Robbie Hess, and 2001 Blue Ridge graduate Jeremy Stewart – the settlement agreement indicates the plaintiffs withdrew their claims against all six defendants.
The Smiths will receive $1,000 on behalf of Brooks and $17,500 on behalf of Cruzan and Hess, according to the agreement. No compensation from Stewart, who, like Smith’s daughter was a student at the time, was listed.
The settlement agreement comes six months after the N.C. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that would allow the case to proceed to trial.
Smith’s daughter was a 14-year-old Blue Ridge freshman at the time of the spring 2001 events that resulted in criminal charges against Brooks, Hess and Stewart. Charges against Stewart were dropped, but Brooks is currently serving a five-year prison term. Hess pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and received probation and a suspended sentence.
Brooks pleaded guilty to having sex with a student and facilitating students having sex with each other both at his home and in his office during school hours.
Smith’s suit accused school officials and then-Sheriff Cruzan of negligent supervision of their employees, Brooks and Hess, respectively, and with failing to protect Smith’s daughter from harm while she was at school.
Her lawsuit alleged that Brooks used his position as a teacher and coach to “encourage and promote a sexual relationship between Stewart and (Smith’s) daughter” and that both Brooks and Hess “engaged in sexual or other misconduct involving female students” during office hours.
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