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Editor's note: This story contains sexually suggestive language that some readers may find offensive.
Exactly three years to the day after her coach was arrested on allegations of child sex abuse, a former Rowan County soccer player settled a civil suit with the school district.
Court records show Rowan County Schools settled the case for $3 million.
The former student's attorneys believe the seven-figure settlement is the largest of a child sex abuse case involving a coach in the state of Kentucky.
According to court record, in the fall of 2022, after months of classmates and community members whispering about an inappropriate relationship between an athlete and coach, two Rowan County high schoolers reported ― to their assistant principal and then their principal ― that then-Rowan County soccer and basketball coach Andrew Zaheri was having an illegal relationship with one of their classmates.
Zaheri began sexually grooming the soccer player, known in court records only as Jane Doe, in 2019 when she was 14 years old. Court records detail how he would buy her jewelry. He sent her photos and videos of himself masturbating. He sexually abused her on school property.
A civil lawsuit, filed by Doe in Rowan Circuit Court in May 2023, alleged the school violated several state laws and was negligent after the Rowan County Board of Education, former superintendent John Maxey and former Rowan County High School principal Jordan Mann turned a blind eye to Zaheri's actions despite receiving reports from students and community members about Zaheri's sexual relationship with Doe ― and then failing to report the concerns to Doe's parents, further investigate the matter or, under state law, mandatorily report the relationship to law enforcement.
Despite multiple reports regarding the inappropriate relationship across several months in 2022, it was an anonymous tip to the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability on Feb. 12, 2023, that spurred an investigation by the Cabinet for Health Family Services, court records show. In less than 24 hours, Zaheri confessed. He was arrested by the Kentucky State Police.
Jonathan B. Hollan and Jonathan Fannin, Doe's attorneys, told The Courier Journal the reports of her classmates, as well as the "explosive" testimony under oath of one of those classmates helped propel the settlement with Rowan County Schools, Maxey, Mann and Zaheri.
Attorneys for the Mann and Maxey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The school district issued the following statement:
"While the settlement agreement provides that the settlement is not an admission of liability by the school district, we thought it appropriate to comment on the situation. ... While Mr. Zaheri is responsible for these acts, we want to take all the steps we can to prevent this conduct from happening again in the future. While all staff receive annual harassment training and their duty to report abuse, neglect, and dependency, our attorneys will conduct training this fall of the duties all school employees have to abstain from this behavior, and the obligation to report any inappropriate behavior to the appropriate authorities.
"We wish Jane Doe every success in her future. Hopefully, this significant settlement will make her financial life less stressful."
The settlement comes a year after the school district claimed Doe's sexual abuse was the fault of her parents for leaving her home alone three consecutive nights when she was 16.
"People have asked me what made me speak up, and I told them all the same thing," Doe said, in part, in a statement provided to The Courier Journal. "It was someone that I trust in my life looking at me and putting into the perspective of another little girl/boy. All I have wanted to do is help other innocent kids. I see this happening in the news so regularly.
"My heart hurts for all of the kids involved, even the ones who have stories that are never heard. If you or anyone you know are going through a situation like mine, speak up and speak loud. I found a life to live on the other side of things. I’m not unhappy with myself anymore. I found a purpose to want to live along with people to live for. Do not live your life in secrecy. It will rip you apart, and it will thrive in secrecy."
The multi-year pattern of sexual grooming by Zaheri of the juvenile female athlete he coached began in 2019, first by giving her excessive attention, then flirting with her, including telling her during a multi-night, out-of-state soccer trip that he "smelled her underwear" and slept with her "soiled soccer jersey," according to the lawsuit.
They began exchanging letters, then text messages, then he bought her two sets of earrings, a necklace and clothes.
By 2022, the grooming turned to sexual abuse — and according to the lawsuit, it took place on school property in classrooms, offices, closets and locker rooms and during school hours where he'd ask colleagues to cover his class.
The coach and athlete began being seen in public, being extremely close to each other on school property, and in photos posted to social media that resulted in "public questioning of the nature of the relationship," according to the lawsuit.
The first report — which alerted officials to Zaheri and Doe's relationship, appearances together in public, proximity to each other in school and frequent private conversations in hallways — was made in September 2022 by multiple female students to Rowan County School's director of student services. The director then forwarded the allegations to Mann, according to the lawsuit.
From September to December 2022, Mann received at least eight separate reports regarding the inappropriate relationship, the lawsuit alleges.
By January 2023, according to the suit, Doe told Zaheri repeatedly she wanted to stop seeing him and "to be a normal high school student and have a relationship with another high school student." Zaheri responded with non-stop text messages to her for hours at a time, going past 2 a.m.
According to court records of text message exchanges and photos, Mann was close friends with Zaheri. The two men, along with two other friends, self identified as "The Four Horsemen."
On Feb. 13, 2023, Mann and Maxey received more reports of the inappropriate relationship, but the lawsuit claims neither began investigating the matter.
It was the high school guidance counselor who reported the allegation to the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, one of the state agencies a mandatory reporter can alert with an allegation of educator sexual misconduct.
"The guidance counselor's February 2023 report was the first time that any administrator within the school district reported Zaheri to state authorities," the lawsuit said.
A single loose-leaf paper in Zaheri's personnel file, obtained by The Courier Journal through Kentucky's open records act, is dated Feb. 13 and comes right before other 2023-related memos.
The handwritten note states that Maxey was made aware "by way of anonymous tip that there was a sexual relationship between Zaheri and (Doe). No other details were given. Maxey and Mann met and reported this to Child Protective Service," and from there CPS and KSP took over the investigation.
"This is the first time anything was reported to Mr. Maxey of an inappropriate or sexual nature," the note states.
The next document in his file, a typed letter on Feb. 15 with Rowan County Board of Education's letterhead, suspended Zaheri's employment due to the allegations. The district terminated him in another letter on Feb. 16.
Zaheri is currently in federal prison, serving concurrent federal and state sentences for 22 years, on child pornography and child sex abuse charges tied to the case. His release date is November 2042.
The case was assigned to special investigator Tasha Craft with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
Court records allege Mann failed to mention the reports he received, including the reports he received directly from students, to Craft. He also allegedly failed to disclose "the existence and his possession of a handwritten note from Ginter containing the names of the student witnesses." Mann told Craft that Zaheri was "honest, hardworking, disciplined and straight forward" and that he had "no reason to believe that Andrew Zaheri acted inappropriately at any time."
As Craft began to investigate, per court documents, Mann sent her "conflicting, dishonest and increasingly bizarre communications," including a Feb. 16, 2023 email, that claimed that day he had discovered the identity of two student witnesses because they "came to talk" with Mann about the September reports, despite him telling Craft in a phone call he found the identities of the students in a note on his desk.
During her deposition, cited in court records, Craft concludes that Mann was "dishonest with her during the course of her investigation, concealed important evidence and failed to make mandatory reports to the Cabinet and Law Enforcement in September 2022."
"The most shocking part of this case was just how widespread it was," Hollan told The Courier Journal. "We knew of some reports or what we were told had been reported, but as we got deeper into the case, this was not a secret.
"It may have been a secret that was hidden from our client's family, but throughout this school system — from teachers, to administrators, to other coaches, to students — so many people knew some or a lot of what was going on."
The case actually settled Dec. 18 just as both sides were preparing to deliver oral arguments to Greenup County judge, and special judge on this case, Brian McCloud, according to court administrators.
However, while a settlement amount was agreed upon with the insurance representatives, the "material terms" of the settlement had reached a "stalemate" and Rowan County's attorneys requested a status conference with Judge McCloud.
That meeting was to add a clause into the settlement that Doe could not speak with anyone about the case, but McCloud ruled against it, writing in a court document obtained by The Courier Journal that Doe "shall keep her First Amendment rights to free speech. Clause in question to be stricken."
Doe's case against Zaheri and Rowan County Schools was highlighted in "Silence & Secrets," a Courier Journal investigation released in December 2024 that received national recognition for its discovery of at least 80 Kentucky middle- and high-school coaches alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct in the prior 15 years.
In the year since publishing, the newspaper has covered four sentencings of coaches: Jeremy Dale in Bardstown; Clarence Moore in Jefferson and Oldham counties; Christopher Morris in Jefferson County; and Austin Williams in Jefferson County. Both Dale and Morris also had cases that settled with their school districts.
More: 4 former students settle with Bardstown schools over alleged misconduct by ex-coach
"From day one, it was never about the money on this case," Hollan said. "But it is about the accountability. It is about getting the spotlight on what was hidden from them, exposing those secrets, exposing those betrayals and really, not just getting the accountability for their family, but protecting other families and other children going forward."
No Educational Professional Standards Board investigation was conducted into Mann or Maxey, according to multiple requests for the information by The Courier Journal.
Both of Doe's attorneys said new Rowan County superintendent Michael Rowe was very vocal about the district's desire to get the case done.
"One of the things I'm most proud of about is just it highlights the importance of the civil justice system and the trial courts," Hollan said. "It's not a fast system. It's not always a fair system, but we have ways through this system in Kentucky and America of exposing the darkest of secrets.
"With a special judge that we had on this case that didn't care about the politics, didn't care about how, you know, how his rulings looked or what people thought about him. It led us to be able to really expose the truth."
Fannin, who grew up in Rowan County and still has friends with children who attend the school district, said: "I hope that when there's an administrator in some school in central or western Kentucky that gets a report and when they're thinking about whether or not they should make this report to the Cabinet or to a law enforcement agency, I hope they think about Rowan County.
"I hope they think, 'I don't want to go through that. I'm going to make this report.'"
Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative sports reporter, with a focus on the health and safety of athletes. Reach her at [email protected] or @stephkuzy.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky's Rowan County Schools $3 million coach sex abuse settlement
Continue reading...
Exactly three years to the day after her coach was arrested on allegations of child sex abuse, a former Rowan County soccer player settled a civil suit with the school district.
Court records show Rowan County Schools settled the case for $3 million.
The former student's attorneys believe the seven-figure settlement is the largest of a child sex abuse case involving a coach in the state of Kentucky.
According to court record, in the fall of 2022, after months of classmates and community members whispering about an inappropriate relationship between an athlete and coach, two Rowan County high schoolers reported ― to their assistant principal and then their principal ― that then-Rowan County soccer and basketball coach Andrew Zaheri was having an illegal relationship with one of their classmates.
Zaheri began sexually grooming the soccer player, known in court records only as Jane Doe, in 2019 when she was 14 years old. Court records detail how he would buy her jewelry. He sent her photos and videos of himself masturbating. He sexually abused her on school property.
A civil lawsuit, filed by Doe in Rowan Circuit Court in May 2023, alleged the school violated several state laws and was negligent after the Rowan County Board of Education, former superintendent John Maxey and former Rowan County High School principal Jordan Mann turned a blind eye to Zaheri's actions despite receiving reports from students and community members about Zaheri's sexual relationship with Doe ― and then failing to report the concerns to Doe's parents, further investigate the matter or, under state law, mandatorily report the relationship to law enforcement.
Despite multiple reports regarding the inappropriate relationship across several months in 2022, it was an anonymous tip to the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability on Feb. 12, 2023, that spurred an investigation by the Cabinet for Health Family Services, court records show. In less than 24 hours, Zaheri confessed. He was arrested by the Kentucky State Police.
Jonathan B. Hollan and Jonathan Fannin, Doe's attorneys, told The Courier Journal the reports of her classmates, as well as the "explosive" testimony under oath of one of those classmates helped propel the settlement with Rowan County Schools, Maxey, Mann and Zaheri.
Attorneys for the Mann and Maxey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The school district issued the following statement:
"While the settlement agreement provides that the settlement is not an admission of liability by the school district, we thought it appropriate to comment on the situation. ... While Mr. Zaheri is responsible for these acts, we want to take all the steps we can to prevent this conduct from happening again in the future. While all staff receive annual harassment training and their duty to report abuse, neglect, and dependency, our attorneys will conduct training this fall of the duties all school employees have to abstain from this behavior, and the obligation to report any inappropriate behavior to the appropriate authorities.
"We wish Jane Doe every success in her future. Hopefully, this significant settlement will make her financial life less stressful."
The settlement comes a year after the school district claimed Doe's sexual abuse was the fault of her parents for leaving her home alone three consecutive nights when she was 16.
"People have asked me what made me speak up, and I told them all the same thing," Doe said, in part, in a statement provided to The Courier Journal. "It was someone that I trust in my life looking at me and putting into the perspective of another little girl/boy. All I have wanted to do is help other innocent kids. I see this happening in the news so regularly.
"My heart hurts for all of the kids involved, even the ones who have stories that are never heard. If you or anyone you know are going through a situation like mine, speak up and speak loud. I found a life to live on the other side of things. I’m not unhappy with myself anymore. I found a purpose to want to live along with people to live for. Do not live your life in secrecy. It will rip you apart, and it will thrive in secrecy."
Reports of an inappropriate relationship
The multi-year pattern of sexual grooming by Zaheri of the juvenile female athlete he coached began in 2019, first by giving her excessive attention, then flirting with her, including telling her during a multi-night, out-of-state soccer trip that he "smelled her underwear" and slept with her "soiled soccer jersey," according to the lawsuit.
They began exchanging letters, then text messages, then he bought her two sets of earrings, a necklace and clothes.
By 2022, the grooming turned to sexual abuse — and according to the lawsuit, it took place on school property in classrooms, offices, closets and locker rooms and during school hours where he'd ask colleagues to cover his class.
The coach and athlete began being seen in public, being extremely close to each other on school property, and in photos posted to social media that resulted in "public questioning of the nature of the relationship," according to the lawsuit.
The first report — which alerted officials to Zaheri and Doe's relationship, appearances together in public, proximity to each other in school and frequent private conversations in hallways — was made in September 2022 by multiple female students to Rowan County School's director of student services. The director then forwarded the allegations to Mann, according to the lawsuit.
From September to December 2022, Mann received at least eight separate reports regarding the inappropriate relationship, the lawsuit alleges.
By January 2023, according to the suit, Doe told Zaheri repeatedly she wanted to stop seeing him and "to be a normal high school student and have a relationship with another high school student." Zaheri responded with non-stop text messages to her for hours at a time, going past 2 a.m.
According to court records of text message exchanges and photos, Mann was close friends with Zaheri. The two men, along with two other friends, self identified as "The Four Horsemen."
On Feb. 13, 2023, Mann and Maxey received more reports of the inappropriate relationship, but the lawsuit claims neither began investigating the matter.
It was the high school guidance counselor who reported the allegation to the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, one of the state agencies a mandatory reporter can alert with an allegation of educator sexual misconduct.
"The guidance counselor's February 2023 report was the first time that any administrator within the school district reported Zaheri to state authorities," the lawsuit said.
A single loose-leaf paper in Zaheri's personnel file, obtained by The Courier Journal through Kentucky's open records act, is dated Feb. 13 and comes right before other 2023-related memos.
The handwritten note states that Maxey was made aware "by way of anonymous tip that there was a sexual relationship between Zaheri and (Doe). No other details were given. Maxey and Mann met and reported this to Child Protective Service," and from there CPS and KSP took over the investigation.
"This is the first time anything was reported to Mr. Maxey of an inappropriate or sexual nature," the note states.
The next document in his file, a typed letter on Feb. 15 with Rowan County Board of Education's letterhead, suspended Zaheri's employment due to the allegations. The district terminated him in another letter on Feb. 16.
Zaheri is currently in federal prison, serving concurrent federal and state sentences for 22 years, on child pornography and child sex abuse charges tied to the case. His release date is November 2042.
The case was assigned to special investigator Tasha Craft with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
Court records allege Mann failed to mention the reports he received, including the reports he received directly from students, to Craft. He also allegedly failed to disclose "the existence and his possession of a handwritten note from Ginter containing the names of the student witnesses." Mann told Craft that Zaheri was "honest, hardworking, disciplined and straight forward" and that he had "no reason to believe that Andrew Zaheri acted inappropriately at any time."
As Craft began to investigate, per court documents, Mann sent her "conflicting, dishonest and increasingly bizarre communications," including a Feb. 16, 2023 email, that claimed that day he had discovered the identity of two student witnesses because they "came to talk" with Mann about the September reports, despite him telling Craft in a phone call he found the identities of the students in a note on his desk.
During her deposition, cited in court records, Craft concludes that Mann was "dishonest with her during the course of her investigation, concealed important evidence and failed to make mandatory reports to the Cabinet and Law Enforcement in September 2022."
"The most shocking part of this case was just how widespread it was," Hollan told The Courier Journal. "We knew of some reports or what we were told had been reported, but as we got deeper into the case, this was not a secret.
"It may have been a secret that was hidden from our client's family, but throughout this school system — from teachers, to administrators, to other coaches, to students — so many people knew some or a lot of what was going on."
Largest child sex abuse settlement in state history
The case actually settled Dec. 18 just as both sides were preparing to deliver oral arguments to Greenup County judge, and special judge on this case, Brian McCloud, according to court administrators.
However, while a settlement amount was agreed upon with the insurance representatives, the "material terms" of the settlement had reached a "stalemate" and Rowan County's attorneys requested a status conference with Judge McCloud.
That meeting was to add a clause into the settlement that Doe could not speak with anyone about the case, but McCloud ruled against it, writing in a court document obtained by The Courier Journal that Doe "shall keep her First Amendment rights to free speech. Clause in question to be stricken."
Doe's case against Zaheri and Rowan County Schools was highlighted in "Silence & Secrets," a Courier Journal investigation released in December 2024 that received national recognition for its discovery of at least 80 Kentucky middle- and high-school coaches alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct in the prior 15 years.
In the year since publishing, the newspaper has covered four sentencings of coaches: Jeremy Dale in Bardstown; Clarence Moore in Jefferson and Oldham counties; Christopher Morris in Jefferson County; and Austin Williams in Jefferson County. Both Dale and Morris also had cases that settled with their school districts.
More: 4 former students settle with Bardstown schools over alleged misconduct by ex-coach
"From day one, it was never about the money on this case," Hollan said. "But it is about the accountability. It is about getting the spotlight on what was hidden from them, exposing those secrets, exposing those betrayals and really, not just getting the accountability for their family, but protecting other families and other children going forward."
No Educational Professional Standards Board investigation was conducted into Mann or Maxey, according to multiple requests for the information by The Courier Journal.
Both of Doe's attorneys said new Rowan County superintendent Michael Rowe was very vocal about the district's desire to get the case done.
"One of the things I'm most proud of about is just it highlights the importance of the civil justice system and the trial courts," Hollan said. "It's not a fast system. It's not always a fair system, but we have ways through this system in Kentucky and America of exposing the darkest of secrets.
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"With a special judge that we had on this case that didn't care about the politics, didn't care about how, you know, how his rulings looked or what people thought about him. It led us to be able to really expose the truth."
Fannin, who grew up in Rowan County and still has friends with children who attend the school district, said: "I hope that when there's an administrator in some school in central or western Kentucky that gets a report and when they're thinking about whether or not they should make this report to the Cabinet or to a law enforcement agency, I hope they think about Rowan County.
"I hope they think, 'I don't want to go through that. I'm going to make this report.'"
Stephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative sports reporter, with a focus on the health and safety of athletes. Reach her at [email protected] or @stephkuzy.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky's Rowan County Schools $3 million coach sex abuse settlement
Continue reading...
