The Warrenton Volunteer Fire Company and several of its members and former members have agreed with the victim of a 2018 criminal sexual misconduct incident to begin out-of-court negotiations in a $2 million lawsuit she filed against the organization last year.
The motion was filed Sept. 16, agreed on by both the plaintiff and the defendants. It asks the court to pause the legal case “for the purpose of providing the parties with time to conduct mediation.” Putting the court proceedings on hold would mean the “chances of a successful mediation will be enhanced if the parties are able to avoid incurring significant litigation expenses in the interim,” the motion says. A judge must grant the motion before the litigation is paused formally.
Neither the attorneys for the fire company nor the plaintiff responded to a request for comment from the Fauquier Times.
The victim, who was 16 years old at the time of the criminal incident, was a fire company volunteer participating in the fire company’s “junior first responder program.” An adult firefighter later pleaded guilty to having illegal sexual contact with her at the fire station.
The victim subsequently sued the organization and several of its current and former members in October 2020 for what she calls a “culture of adult men pursuing minor female volunteers” that she alleges was pervasive at the fire company. The lawsuit also alleges that the organization and its leaders did nothing to protect her despite clear warnings that she was in danger of being sexually assaulted.
The Fauquier Times is choosing not to name the plaintiff in the suit at this time because of her age at the time of the incident.
The fire company has yet to deny any of the specific allegations in the suit. Instead, the organization’s attorneys tried to have the case dismissed entirely before any facts could be adjudicated. In dozens of pages of arguments and in a July 19 court hearing, the fire company’s attorneys claimed the organization could not be sued because it was subject to “sovereign immunity” and “charitable immunity.” The fire company is a private nonprofit but receives most of its operating budget from public tax dollars.
But a judge rejected their arguments, clearing the way for the case to go to trial. During the July 19 hearing, 20th Circuit Court Judge James Plowman disagreed with the defendants’ legal claims in almost every instance and ruled that the legal basis of the lawsuit is legitimate. He did not rule on the merits of the facts presented by the plaintiff.
At one point, for instance, one of the fire company’s attorneys argued that allowing the case to proceed “would greatly deter employers hiring people under the age of 18.” Plowman responded: “Or encourage them to supervise them better.” It was one of several instances in which Plowman pressed the fire company’s attorneys to back up their legal claims.
Erick Lemus, the now-former volunteer firefighter who was convicted of criminal sexual misconduct with a child after the 2018 incident, filed a separate motion Sept. 10 claiming the contact with the underage girl was “consensual,” the same thing he told Warrenton Police Department detectives during the criminal investigation, according to police records. Lemus was sentenced in February 2019 to 3 months behind bars but was not required to register as a sex offender or pay any restitution. He was 22 years old at the time of the offense and is no longer a member of the fire company.
Separate from the Sept. 16 joint motion, Lemus claimed in a Sept. 10 court filing that the victim’s “conduct and statements before and after the encounter — to be presented at trial — demonstrate plaintiff not only consented, she initiated contact.”
Under Virginia law, children 15 years old and older can “consent” to sexual contact. It is unlawful for adults to have sexual contact with children of any age, however, and Lemus was convicted criminally under a statute that covers an adult having “consensual” sexual contact with a child 15 years old or older.
According to the criminal complaint filed by a Warrenton police officer with his arrest, however, Lemus pressured the girl, who was alone in a separate bunkroom, repeatedly forcibly touching her and eventually having a sexual encounter with her in the early morning hours of July 8, 2018. These events occurred despite repeated verbal and physical protests from the victim, the complaint says, mirroring the allegations listed in the lawsuit.
The civil case names Lemus, then-Fire Chief Jason Golden, Jimmy Daugherty and Brandon Rohwer – the two highest-ranking members present at the station during the incident – and Chris Sager, the head of the junior first responder program at the time of the incident, who was not at the station that night.
“Reading the complaint in the light most favorable to plaintiff, it should be inferred that defendants Rohwer, Daugherty and Sager all knew that plaintiff faced a serious risk of sexual assault if left unsupervised and that their failure to use reasonable care in watching over the minor in their custody was a proximate cause of her sexual assault by defendant Lemus,” a pleading filed June 21 on behalf of the victim states.
The one victory for the defense at the July 19 hearing came when Plowman ruled that the plaintiff had not presented evidence that Sager was present at the station during Lemus’ offense – and therefore Sager could not be vicariously liable for failing to protect Lemus’ victim based on the allegations in the complaint. The victim’s attorneys did not appeal that decision.
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September 22, 2021 at 06:00PM
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Warrenton Volunteer Fire Company, sexual misconduct victim agree to start out-of-court negotiations - Fauquier Times
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