The Mohawk Trail Regional School District and town of Rowe have been added to a lawsuit involving the alleged sexual abuse of a minor.
According to court documents, on Sept. 3, Franklin County Superior Court Judge John Agostini allowed an amendment to a civil suit that was filed earlier this year against former Mohawk Trail Regional School boys ski coach and Pelham Lake Park Manager Sean Loomis. The complaint alleges that Loomis used his position as a coach and park manager to groom and sexually assault Erin Laffond, a student and member of the ski team who also worked as a lifeguard at the park.
Now the school district, Mohawk Trail Regional School, the town of Rowe, the Rowe Park Commission and Loomis’ wife Leann Loomis, who formerly served as the district’s Title IX coordinator, have been named as co-defendants. The amended complaint alleges that these parties should have known and prevented the alleged abuse.
“The Defendants, Leann Loomis, Mohawk Trail Regional School District, Mohawk Trail Regional School, Town of Rowe Park Commission, and The Town of Rowe and/or their agents, servants and employees, knew or should have known of this misconduct on the part of Sean Loomis. Upon information and belief, Sean Loomis made numerous verbal and physical sexual advances toward Ms. Laffond, at both the MTRS and the Rowe Park Commission grounds,” Greenfield attorney Jim Merrigan wrote in the amended complaint. “The Defendants failed to protect Ms. Laffond. Sean Loomis was not properly supervised by his employer while in the presence of Ms. Laffond, nor was his misconduct reported through the proper channels by his own wife, Leann Loomis, a mandated reporter.”
In March, Pittsfield attorney Joshua C. Hochberg, whose law firm represents Loomis, told the Greenfield Recorder that Loomis denies the allegations. When reached on Friday, he declined to comment further.
Members of the Rowe Selectboard, Rowe Town Administrator Brooke Shulda, Rowe Park Commission Chair Laurie Pike and Mohawk Trail Regional School District Superintendent Sheryl Stanton did not respond to requests for comment on Friday or Monday.
The Mohawk Trail Regional School District is being sued on counts of negligent supervision and retention, negligence, and for violating Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 214, Section 1C, which states “a person shall have the right to be free from sexual harassment.”
The Mohawk Trail Regional School is likewise being sued for violating Section 1C.
The Rowe Park Commission is being sued on a count of negligence.
The town of Rowe is being sued on counts of negligent supervision and retention, and for violating Section 1C.
Leann Loomis, who worked at the school district and served as the Title IX coordinator, is being sued on a count of negligence.
Sean Loomis is being sued on counts of sexual abuse of a minor, sexual assault, sexual battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress and false imprisonment.
The complaint alleges that in 2014, when the plaintiff joined the ski team as a 13-year-old eighth grader, Loomis began making inappropriate comments. This progressed into inappropriate touching and text messaging in 2015, and between 2016 and 2019, Loomis “on numerous occasions, made nonconsensual sexual contact and sexually assaulted the plaintiff.”
Merrigan previously explained that because his client was 16 years old when Loomis is alleged to have first sexually assaulted her, she was of the age of consent in Massachusetts. In a criminal trial, the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the relationship was not consensual. According to Merrigan, the DA’s office decided that the evidence was insufficient to support a criminal prosecution, prompting him to file the civil suit.
The complaint states, “The Defendants, MTRSD, the Town of Rowe, the Rowe Park Commission and/or their agents and employees failed to recognize and/or scrutinize the inappropriate and/or sexualized nature of Sean Loomis’ relationship with the Plaintiff,” and “The Defendant, Leann Loomis, failed to report any knowledge and/or suspicion of misconduct perpetrated by Sean Loomis within the proper channels of MTRSD in violation of State and Federal mandated reporting statutes and/or regulations.”
The plaintiff is seeking an undetermined amount in damages and is requesting a trial by jury.
According to court documents, a pretrial conference has been scheduled for Nov. 21.