Commonwealth Court reverses civil jury’s decision in AG suit, says district not liable
A panel of Commonwealth Court judges has reversed a Fayette County judge’s decision in a civil case brought by a former Albert Gallatin Area School District student against a former teacher, finding there was not enough evidence to hold the district liable.
In 2012, a jury awarded the former student $100,000 in the case against the district, claiming that school officials should have been aware that former teacher Donald Rosie was preying on students. Rosie, 63, of Uniontown, had sex with the student between March and June 2006 when she was 16 years old. He pleaded no contest to a criminal charge of corruption of minors.
The Herald-Standard does not identify victims of sex crimes.
The school district appealed the civil jury’s verdict, and President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. ordered a new trial in the matter.
Commonwealth Court Judges Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter, P. Kevin Brobson and James Gardner Colins last week reversed Wagner’s decision and determined that the trial court erred in denying the district’s motion for judgment in their favor notwithstanding the jury’s verdict.
Referring to allegations made against Rosie by other students — allegations which the Commonwealth Court said jury erroneously relied upon in rendering their verdict — Brobson wrote in a concurring opinion, “Perhaps some of the responses to each of those incidents, separately and collectively, fell short of what, in hindsight, would have been more appropriate or even would have prevented Rosie from later harming (the victim).”
“Rosie and those like him have taken so much more from us than can be compensated by jury verdicts,” Brobson went on to write. “The days of allowing our children to roam their neighborhoods, to walk to school, or to play on a playground are gone, replaced with concern that a stranger’s single kind word to a child may be the opening salvo to a heinous act.
“‘Grooming’ is a word that we no longer think of as involving personal hygiene. Although we are all importantly more aware than we used to be of the dangers that our children, our most precious assets, face, we and they are also less innocent as a result and, sadly, less free.”
The Commonwealth judges found that although Rosie’s actions were harmful, the jury incorrectly assigned liability under Title IX, which requires proof that the district was aware of Rosie’s predatory actions and deliberately failed to correct the situation.
The court outlined several instances in which witnesses testified regarding encounters they had with Rosie throughout his tenure as both a teacher and softball coach, but concluded that those instances were either too far removed from the time period in which Rosie was in a sexual relationship with the student or they didn’t rise to the level of behavior that school officials were mandated to report to authorities.
The same jury that held the school district liable for $100,000 in damages also held Rosie liable for $200,000, a decision he never appealed. Although the verdict was entered in February 2012, the judgment against Rosie was entered, with the addition of $46,500 in delay damages, in March 2013.
According to attorney Thomas Shaffer, who represents the victim, Rosie has yet to pay any money toward those damages. Late last year, Shaffer successfully secured an injunction against Rosie’s wife Irene, preventing her from selling or transferring property Shaffer claims Donald Rosie put in her name in order to hide the asset.