Family files $500,000 claim against Kent School District

A law firm has filed a $500,000 claim against the Kent School District in the alleged sexual assault of a minor by a substitute teacher.

Attorney Mark Lindquist, of the Hermann Law Group with offices in Seattle and Tacoma, announced the claim in a Tuesday, March 22 media release.

Surinderjit Mauli, 66, pleaded not guilty to two counts of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation in Kent Municipal Court in December 2019. The charges are still pending.

Lindquist filed the claim on behalf of the family of one of the girls, who was in Mauli’s fourth-grade classroom. He was charged with allegedly sweeping his hand over the girl’s buttocks, rubbing her stomach and back, and grabbing her hands and pinning her hands to a desk.

The girl has been in counseling to deal with the trauma, which severely impacted her feelings about school and teachers, Lindquist said. The claim is for the trauma from the alleged sexual assault, emotional distress, expenses, losses and damages which are ongoing, according to the claim for damages. The claim states the district breached its duty to protect the girl from harm.

“Schools should be save havens for our children,” Lindquist.

Though the claim is against the school district, Lindquist said he expects the future lawsuit will include Mauli as a defendant.

Under Washington state law, a claim is a necessary prelude to a lawsuit against a government entity, Lindquist said. Sixty days after a claim is filed, a lawsuit can be filed if the claim has not been successfully resolved.

Mauli was removed from the substitute teacher list for the school district after the allegations. He had worked as a substitute teacher in the district since June 2018.

A Kent School District spokesperson has not replied to the Kent Reporter for comment about the suit.

The alleged assault was in September 2019. Then-City of Kent Prosecutor Tami Perdue decided in 2019 to file two counts of fourth-degree assault against Mauli after the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declined the case. Kent Police initially investigated the incident as a possible child molestation case, according to police reports.

“This case was reviewed by our office and it was determined it did not meet the threshold of our office’s filing standards of felony assault,” said a King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office spokesperson in 2019. “We declined to file and referred the case to Kent Municipal Court.”

In a 2019 interview with Kent Police, Mauli denied touching, hugging, rubbing or patting any of the students except for the tap on the head.

City case update

Mauli’s case was resolved by what is called a stipulate order of continuance, according to Michele Walker, chief prosecuting attorney for the city of Kent.

That order functions as a contract between the city and the defendant wherein he agrees to certain conditions and in exchange, at the end of the term of the order, the city agrees to dismiss the charge. That agreement was entered on Jan. 19, 2022, Walker said in a March 22 email.

“The terms of the agreement, which is for 24 months, is that Mr. Mauli agrees to have no criminal law violations,” Walker said. “He must pay $150 in costs, he must appear at any and all future court appearances on this case, he must keep his address updated with the court, he must enroll in and successfully complete a moral reconation treatment program, he cannot possess or own any firearms or other weapons, he can have no contact with the alleged victims(or their families) in this case.

“He can have no unsupervised contact with any unrelated children under the age of 18, he cannot substitute teach, he cannot have contact with any minors for purposes of employment and there are harassment no contact orders in place protecting both of the named victims in the case.”

Walker said if Mauli complies with all of those conditions the case will be dismissed at the end of the agreed upon term, about 22 months from now.

“If he violates any other above-referenced conditions, he agreed to the admissibility of the police reports in this case and upon such a violation the city would move to revoke the stipulate order of continuance agreement and the court would read the police reports and make a determination of guilt,” Walker said. “Assuming that happened and the court found him guilty he would be sentenced and then have a criminal conviction for the two assault charges.”