UPDATED: Lawsuit alleges sex-abuse cover-up by Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma
A lawsuit alleging a cover-up of sexual misconduct committed by Sonoma resident Paul 'Dwayne' Kilgore was filed on Tuesday against the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley, where Kilgore had been employed from 2002 to 2013.
Kilgore, 70, was found guilty in March of 2018 of six counts of sexual abuse of a minor and sentenced to 150 years in prison.
The civil suit, filed in Sonoma Superior Court by attorneys on behalf of four of Kilgore's victims, who during their years of abuse ranged in age from 6 to 13, alleges that during his 12-year employment with the Sonoma Valley Boys & Girls Club, staff there received multiple complaints and warnings from parents, club participants and its own employees about Kilgore's misconduct, but took no action, enabling Kilgore to continue sexually abusing his young victims for years.
The suit was filed on behalf of the victims by Taylor & Ring, a Los Angeles-based trial law firm. The lead attorneys on the case are partner Dave M. Ring and co-counsel Natalie Weatherford.
Also named as defendants in the suit are the national Boys & Girls Club of America organization and the Petaluma Boys & Girls Club, where Kilgore was employed in 2014, as well as Kilgore himself. The suit says other individuals may be named as defendants in further addendums to the initial filing.
In a statement announcing the suit, Ring said that Kilgore 'used his position of authority to gain trust and take advantage' of the victims 'by manipulating their emotions and sexually exploiting them.'
'The Boys & Girls Club ratified this sexual abuse because they knew it was occurring as far back as 2002,' said Ring, 'yet turned a blind eye, allowing him to continue 'coaching' young boys unsupervised.'
Weatherford said the club could have prevented most of the abuse if it had taken the complaints about Kilgore seriously.
'Instead, the club chose to protect its employee, Kilgore, over the children entrusted into its care,' wrote Weatherford.
The lawsuit provides a timeline of events that allege when specific complaints about Kilgore were made, and when reports of inappropriate conduct by Kilgore were allegedly ignored by club management and staff.
The suit posits that from the time Kilgore was hired at the Boys & Girls Club in 2002 through his resignation in 2013, some club employees had become aware of suspicions, or had received specific complaints by club members, that Kilgore was engaging in inappropriate relationships with club members, including undressing in front of members, having members undress in front of him, commenting on their genitalia, buying them presents and taking them on overnight trips and to his home, and that club staff did not alert parents or law enforcement.
When reached by phone on Tuesday, Ring said that he has evidence that the Boys & Girls Clubs 'went out of their way to keep this problem internal and to protect themselves.'
The lawsuit alleges that the club's employees and executive board members began to notice inappropriate relationships between Kilgore and young boys at the club shortly after his hiring. According to the suit, Kilgore incorrectly answered every question on a 'sexual harassment test' administered by the club, but that his supervisor at the time signed off that Kilgore had completed sexual harassment training and passed the test.
The complaint alleges that the boys attempted to change clothes in bathroom stalls on a trip to a pool and that Kilgore directed the boys to change in front of him and made comments about their penises. According to one of the plaintiffs, he reported the incident to BGCSV employees in 2007, but heard no more about it.
The lawsuit alleges that both club parents and employees complained to club officials about Kilgore's conduct and described his relationships with the young buys as 'inappropriate' and 'red flags.'
Despite these complaints, the lawsuit alleges that the BGC assigned Kilgore to teach a class about puberty and sexual health to boys at the club. The lawsuit contends that Kilgore used this class to groom the young boys and to normalize his touching and sexual advances.
At the time of Kilgore's arrest in 2016, a former club member named Jeremy spoke with the Index-Tribune about Kilgore's inappropriate conduct with him from 2002 to 2007. A former foster child, Jeremy spent most days after school at the club because he was living at the time with his grandmother in her trailer home nearby.
'He got my home number from the Boys and Girls Club and started inviting me and my brothers go do things with him,' said Jeremy. 'Dwayne would grope us and rub our backs and put his hands on our thighs.'
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: