Lawsuit Alleges St. Joseph High School Officials Failed to Report Convicted Student's Sexual Misconduct

By David Minsky
Santa Maria Sun
October 15, 2015

http://www.santamariasun.com/news/13769/lawsuit-alleges-st-joseph-high-school-officials-failed-to-report-convicted-students-sexual-misconduct/

The criminal case against Shane Villalpando concluded in 2013, but now officials at St. Joseph High School—Villalpando’s former high school—are the targets of a lawsuit surrounding the former student’s behavior at the time.

Filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in November 2014, the lawsuit alleges that administrators at the high school failed to report Villalpando’s “sexually deviant behavior and dangerous propensities” leading up to the alleged rape of a female St. Joseph student that occurred in June 2011.

Villalpando was convicted of three felony counts of unlawful sex with a minor in July 2013. The jury at the time couldn’t decide whether he was guilty of rape, but he nonetheless served a year in jail, and was required to register as a sex offender during the five-year term of probation he also received.

St. Joseph’s former dean of students John Walker, former principal Joseph Myers, current Principal Joanne Poloni, and the Rev. Ed Jalbert are listed as defendants in the current lawsuit. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles is listed as the principal defendant because St. Joseph falls under the purview of the Catholic Church.

Delaney is listed as the plaintiff in the lawsuit. Jennifer Bandlow, her attorney, asked the Sun to not identify Delaney by last name.

The Sun profiled Delaney and her story in a July 2013 issue. Last year, Delaney grabbed national attention after appearing on an October 2014 episode of 48 Hours.

In the lawsuit, Delaney alleges that Myers, Walker, Poloni, and Jalbert failed to report her alleged rape to police after they became informed of it in September 2011, and at one point they even offered her protection from Villalpando, but she never received it.

Because of their leadership positions in the school, they were mandated reporters and lawfully required to report allegations of abuse, the lawsuit states.

In 2012, Myers and Walker were found guilty for not reporting a 14-year-old student’s allegations of sexual assault. In court, they both testified that they didn’t report a rape to the police because they thought the incident had already been reported. Both are no longer employed with the school.

Even before her alleged rape, Delaney says in the lawsuit, Walker received past reports from “concerned parents” that Villalpando was stalking their daughters, selling drugs to other students, and that he was “warned” for unhooking girls’ brassieres in school.

Despite the allegations, Delaney believes Villalpando remained a student at St. Joseph “because the school didn’t want to risk losing the generous funding from his family,” the lawsuit stated.

According to the school’s website, tuition at St. Joseph costs more than $8,000 for the 2015-2016 school year.

Reached by phone, Delaney told the Sun that after reporting the incident, Villalpando found out and she endured harassment and bullying from him and his friends, who would follow her into class or arrive at school wearing T-shirts printed with “#freeshane” logos.

“I ended up having to go to school with him the entire junior year knowing what he had done,” Delaney said, adding that it seemed Villalpando always figured out ways to manipulate the school in order to not get in trouble. “He’d leave class, joke around with teachers, that kind of thing.”

Fed up, Delaney complained and was told that she could leave school for the day if she couldn’t tolerate the bullying, the lawsuit states. At one point, she attempted suicide. She dropped out of St. Joseph in May 2012 and finished high school in Carpinteria.

Villalpando couldn’t be reached for comment. His attorney, Stephen Wagner of Santa Maria, told the Sun he couldn’t comment on the case without permission from his client. Wagner didn’t return several subsequent phone calls placed by the Sun to his office before press time.

Poloni, St. Joseph’s current principal, deferred all of the Sun’s questions to the archdiocese. Adrian Marquez, public relations manager for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, cited an archdiocese policy of not commenting on ongoing litigation.

Eventually, Villalpando left St. Joseph and attended Righetti High School directly across the street.

After a four-year ordeal, Delaney just wants the case to be over. Now living out of the state, Delaney attends college full time. As an ambassador for Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment (PAVE), a Chicago-based nonprofit, she tours the U.S. as an outspoken advocate for sexual assault survivors.

Delaney is seeking more than $25,000 in damages. Last month, a judge scheduled the case for trial at 10 a.m. on Oct. 25, 2016, in Department 32 at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles, according to court records.

Staff Writer David Minsky can be reached at dminsky@santamariasun.com