LAWSUIT: Poudre School District pays $16.2 million to settle lawsuit for child abuse.

Poudre School District will pay a total of $16,200,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the parents of ten children who suffered horrific abuse at the hands of former employee Tyler Zanella, a paraprofessional who was hired as a bus attendant to assist autistic, mostly non-verbal,  elementary school children. Killmer Lane client, the Montgomery family, were among the families included in the settlement. “My family will never be the same. I don’t remember what life was like before Ash was assaulted,” Daisy Montgomery said, “They showed us four videos of the 37 that they ended up finding in a one month period of our son being brutally assaulted.” Finally, after noting physical signs of abuse, district officials watched bus videos, saw the abuse, reported it to the police, and Zanella was immediately arrested.  He was ultimately convicted and was sentenced to over twelve years in prison.

Shockingly, Poudre School District officials knew almost immediately that on his application for the school bus job, Zanella lied by failing to report that he had a prior criminal conviction for child abuse. Despite this knowledge, Zanella was hired and thus empowered to torment and torture helpless children, including our client.

Killmer Lane, LLP Partners David Lane and Liana Orshan were responsible for achieving this remarkable result for the Montgomery family.

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