Boys abused by prep school football coach FINALLY get settlement as paedophile case that split families is closed
- Poly Prep Country Day School was accused of covering up late coach Phil Foglietta's sexual abuse of young boys
- Decision to settle lawsuit brings three-year-long legal battle to an end
- Plaintiffs wanted $20 million each but school has not revealed size of settlement
A top New York private school has agreed to settle a landmark lawsuit brought by former pupils who claim its former football coach sexually abused boys there over a 20-year period.
Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn was accused of covering up abuse allegedly carried out by Phil Foglietta in a case that shockingly mirrors the Penn State scandal.
The school's decision brings to an end a three year legal battle which has divided former students and staff.
Accused: Former football coach Phil Foglietta (no deceased) is accused of abusing hundreds of boys at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn over a 20-year period
A sexual abuse lawsuit was filed in 2009 by ten former students and two day campers at Poly Prep.
At a hearing earlier this year, a lawyer representing the 12 victims argued that the abuse could have been prevented had the school not buried the football coach’s abuse in a bid to protect its reputation and athletic program.
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Kevin Mulhearn claimed that the school’s cover-up prevented Foglietta’s victims from taking legal action against the school in time, before the statute of limitations expired.
But in what could be a landmark decision for sexual abuse survivors, US District Court Judge Frederic Block ruled in August that portions of the lawsuit could proceed because administrators may have lied when they said they did not become aware of the abuse allegations until 1991, according to the New York Daily News.
Cover up: The school has been accused of hiding Foglietta's sexual abuse over many years
Scandal: The school, in Brooklyn, New York, is one of the most prestigious in the US
Mr Mulhearn, who is also a former student, accused Poly Prep of withholding documents and providing misleading testimony. The cover-up reportedly began in 1966 when one alleged victim named William Jackson told J. Folwell Scull, who was headmaster at the time, that he had been abused by Foglietta.
The school reportedly conducted a bogus investigation and the former student was threatened with expulsion if he continued to voice his allegations.
A few years later, another football player named John Marino told officials that he had seen Foglietta abusing boys on ten different occasions but he was branded a troublemaker.
The cover-up continued for another 25 years until David Hiltbrand, a Philadelphia-based journalist and former student, told of the abuse he had suffered at the hands of the coach and wrote about the scandal.
He was contacted by Mr Mulhearn, who filed the civil suit which sought damages of $20 million for each of the plaintiffs, in 2009. Mr Mulhearn is accused the school of fraud, a charge Poly Prep argued is irrelevant because the plaintiffs did not sue in time.
Crime: Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky (centre) was jailed for abusing young boys
During a hearing in June this year, US Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak ruled that there was evidence that Poly Prep tried to mislead the plaintiffs and the court.
Poly Prep officials declined to reveal the details of the settlement in a statement issued on Wednesday, reports the Daily News.
'We hope that the settlement brings a measure of closure to those members of the Poly community who were abused by Philip Foglietta,' headmaster David Harman is quoted as saying in the statement.
'Poly Prep has established itself as a model for the prevention of abuse to those within our care and we will do everything in our power to insure that nothing like this ever happens again.'
The plaintiffs claim the abuse had a huge impact on their later lives, leading to issues such as substance abuse and depression.
Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach at Penn State University was jailed for between 30 and 60 years in October after being found guilty of sexually abusing children.
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