GREENUP Legal counsel on a lawsuit involving a local school district, administrators and a teacher — convicted of sexually exploiting a former student — didn’t agree on much Thursday, aside from the case being “nowhere near ready for trial.”
The civil suit was filed in the fallout of the 2023 arrest of Rowan County coach and teacher Andrew Zaheri on behalf of a minor victim, naming Zaheri, the Rowan County Board of Education, former superintendent John Maxey and high school principal Jordan Mann as defendants liable for crimes committed against the student.
Per the initial filings, administrators failed to intervene or report Zaheri and the female student’s ongoing “relationship” even after suspicions were brought to their attention, allegedly violating their roles as mandated reporters — which require school personnel to report even suspected abuse to proper authorities.
The victim also seeks to hold the district as a whole accountable for being “deliberately indifferent to sexual grooming, harassment and abuse of which it had direct and actual knowledge.”
The plaintiff argues that indifference or inaction by administrators and the district allowed Zaheri to continue inflicting serious harm against the victim, including crimes such as rape and sodomy, some occurring on the high school’s campus during school hours.
Although the case originates out of Rowan County Circuit Court, after a judge recusal in the originating county, Greenup Circuit Judge Brian McCloud was selected to preside over the pending civil matters.
Zaheri has already been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for the sexual exploitation of the minor.
During a motion hour on Thursday, attorneys battled back and forth over discovery — or evidence — issues, each arguing the other side was withholding valuable information that could be used in trial.
A jury was expected to convene next month, but major housekeeping is in order, including the alleged refusal of the defense counsel to turn over vital evidence, including communications between the defendants, surveillance videos and other electronically stored information — an issue raised by the plaintiffs in December 2023.
Defendants argued the scope of the request is unreasonable and would result in hundreds of thousands of documents to sort through to ensure relevancy and that none of the requested information is considered privileged and private, as to protect student information.
Those problems still haven’t been resolved, apparently, as Judge McCloud said another hearing would be in order to rule out if either side is “not playing nice.”
On behalf of the school district and relevant administration, the defense presented the same issues, stating plaintiffs hadn’t presented as much as a witness list a mere three weeks before trial.
McCloud reassured that there would be “no trial by ambush,” and parties were instructed to reappear Feb. 3 for McCloud to go through each outstanding issue “line by line,” if necessary.
Before adjourning, the defense mentioned a recent filing related to a third-party complaint, which The Daily Independent obtained shortly after.
The defendants’ motion filed last week requests time to add the victim’s parents as defendants in the suit — claiming the parents violated Kentucky laws related to child neglect since Zaheri would “stay the night with” the victim while she was unsupervised in her own home.
“There is no specific age at which a child can legally be left home alone, and the state defines neglect as failing to provide adequate supervision and care based on the child’s age and needs,” attorney Jonathan Shaw penned.
Shaw cited existing case law that allows third-party plaintiffs to assert claims against a party that could be liable, even if they weren’t named in the original suit.
Attorneys for the victim have yet to respond to the recent filing.