ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis family has filed a lawsuit against the Mayor of Florissant and the Florissant Police Department claiming a sexual assault case involving a Lusher Elementary School employee was ignored for more than three years.
The lawsuit, filed by John Doe and his mother Jane Doe against the former Chief of Police and current Mayor of Florissant, Missouri, and others, alleges that the defendants' delayed and negligent handling of a sexual assault case against a school employee resulted in severe emotional distress, financial hardship, and safety concerns for the plaintiffs, and they claim that racial discrimination played a role in the mishandling of the case.
John Doe, a minor, and his mother, Jane Doe, filed a federal lawsuit against Timothy J. Lowery, the former Chief of Police and current Mayor of Florissant, Missouri; Missouri Public Entity Risk Management (MoPerm); Joseph Monahan, a detective for the City of Florissant Police Department; Daniel Biermann, a lieutenant for the Florissant Police Department; David Rohlfing, a sergeant for the City of Florissant; and the City of Florissant.
According to court documents, Deonte Taylor, a teacher assistant employed at Lusher Elementary School, sexually assaulted the seven-year-old boy on three separate occasions during the 2014-2015 school year. On November 13, 2015, the mother learned of the incidents and reported Taylor to the Florissant Police Department. She claims her allegations were met with indifference and disbelief, but a rape kit later confirmed the presence of male DNA on the child.
The mother says Monahan was the designated primary officer on the investigation and the rape kit sat dormant for the next three years despite her regularly calling for updates on the case. She claims her son had to transfer to a new school because Taylor allegedly threatened to kill him and his family if he told anyone about the incident. The son allegedly developed depression so severe that one of the teachers at school recognized that something was wrong and prompted an investigation. The Florissant Police Department was notified again of the sexual assault claims and retrieved the results of the dormant rape kit.
On November 28, 2018, a warrant was issued for Deonte Taylor, and he was arrested for the sexual assault more than three years from the time of the incident. Following his arrest, authorities obtained a DNA sample from Taylor, and he was discovered to be HIV-positive at the time he sexually assaulted the boy. Taylor was finally convicted of first-degree statutory sodomy on April 21, 2022.
Taylor also pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit murder because he hired a hitman to kill John, his mother and grandmother in an attempt to escape justice. Court documents say Taylor used his position in the Florissant public school system to acquire Jane's social security number to discover where the family lived. Jane claims that due to safety concerns, the family had to enter protective custody and she had to quit her job, leaving the family destitute as she was the family's sole breadwinner.
The plaintiffs claim that the defendants' refusal to properly investigate the sexual assault in a timely manner was based on racial discrimination because the plaintiffs are Black. Additionally, they claim that the former chief of police for the Florissant Police Department admits to liability in the case but that their attempts to reach a settlement with Missouri Public Entity Risk Management (MoPerm) have been refused without reason. As such, the lawsuit asserts that the defendants' conduct constitutes violations of the Fourteenth Amendment's Substantive Due Process, the Right to Equal Protection of the Law and Vexatious Refusal to Pay.
The plaintiffs are seeking damages for loss of assets, income, health insurance and other benefits, embarrassment, humiliation, damage to their reputations, sustained emotional distress, deprivation of constitutional rights, medical costs, physical and mental pain, plus interest, court costs, attorney fees and other relief. They are being represented by Christopher Bent of the Law Offices of Christopher Bent in St. Louis.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Missouri case number 4:23-cv-01309