This is believed to be the largest reported verdict for failure to report child neglect by mandated reporters, and is also believed to be the largest reported verdict related to failure of a law enforcement agency employees to report child neglect that resulted in subsequent child sexual abuse by a member of the same law enforcement agency whose employees failed to report the preceding child neglect.

The child abuse survivor alleged and proved that when he was between the ages of 13-14, a San Bernardino County Deputy Sheriff, Jeremie Cox, who lived in the same neighborhood as the child but did not know the child or his family, caught the child, and his friends, throwing things at an abandoned house in 2012.  Deputy Cox told the children to fix the damage, or he would give them a fine.  After that, over the next 1 and ½ years, Deputy Cox befriended the child, allowing him to play video games, watch shows and eat at the Deputy’s home, and even began to take the child on hiking and camping outings.  Over that period of time, Deputy Cox became aware that his mother was neglecting him by leaving him for extended periods of time and failing to provide proper food. 

Ultimately, in 2014, the child brought methamphetamine which was sent to his mother in the mail, to Deputy Cox, who testified that he took the methamphetamine into the County of San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, and tested it using a Sheriff’s Department testing kit.  After learning the results, the child ran away from his home, and the mother called the Sheriff’s Department looking for help to find her child.  Deputy Cox located the child – who had gone through the desert and ended up in the Deputy’s backyard.  Deputy Cox considered, but decided against, filing a child neglect report, because he did not want the child to go into foster care.  Instead of reporting the neglect of the child by his mother to CPS, Deputy Cox chose to communicate with the child’s mother directly and arranged to have the child move into Deputy Cox’s home.

After the child moved in with Deputy Cox, Deputy Cox began sexually abusing the child for the next three (3) years. 

Over those three (3) years, Deputy Cox routinely involved the child in his San Bernardino County Sheriff’s community, bringing him into the Sheriff’s Department work spaces, including the courthouse, and arranging for the child to go on ride-alongs with other deputy sheriffs in sheriff patrol vehicles.  Eventually, the child himself reported his mother to the County’s welfare fraud investigation unit because his mother had continued to receive the County’s welfare money to feed and care for him, but had not been done so for three (3) years he lived with Deputy Cox.  None of the deputy sheriffs, or the welfare fraud investigator, reported the neglect of the child by his mother, who was herself charged, convicted and jailed for welfare fraud. 

The child eventually reported the sexual abuse to law enforcement after he was able to move out of Deputy Cox’s house, when he was approximately age 21.  Deputy Cox was arrested while on duty as a deputy sheriff, later entered a plea, and was sentenced to prison in California.

The case was filed as John Doe v County of San Bernardino, CIVSB2131751.

The civil trial started on August 26, 2024, and lasted 4 weeks, with the verdict being returned on September 23, 2024.  The trial was presided over by Hon. Jeffrey R. Erickson.   

The abused boy was represented at trial by California child abuse lawyer, Chris Keane, www.keanelaw.com who focuses on child abuse and neglect reporting cases both in California, and across the country.  Six (6) other law firms turned down this abused boy’s case, and thankfully the boy’s great resilience and courage led him to keep looking until he found Keane.  The combination of Keane’s extensive experience with child abuse and neglect reporting cases, and the boy’s courage in being able to testify about his abuse at trial despite his agoraphobia and PTSD, led to the trial victory.

Keane’s co-counsel included nationally recognized trial lawyer, Michael Behm (Michigan), and appellate attorney, Andrew Chang, of the preeminent Plaintiff’s appellate law firm in California (Esner, Chang, Boyer & Murphy).

Keane and Chang were the 2017 recipients of the Consumer Attorneys of California “Streetfighter of the Year” award for their work on the landmark child abuse reporting case in California – against this very same County of San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, for the failure of the same department in 2008 to cross-report suspected abuse of a child to CPS.  Keane and Chang worked on that case for 9 years, resulting in a victory for that abused child and the Supreme Court decision:  BH v County of San Bernardino 62. Cal.4^th 168 (2015)

Keane has also been previously nominated as the Consumer Attorneys of California “Trial Lawyer of the Year” in 2019 for his record child abuse reporting verdict for a paralyzed abused child in Amador County: Miller v Sutter, Amador Superior Court, 13-CV-8253

SOURCE The Keane Law Firm

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