David M. Ring

For years, Ring and others who represent the victims of child sexual abuse had been pushing the Legislature to expand the time available to file civil cases against abusers.

"We thought we had it in 2016, but Jerry Brown vetoed it," Ring said, referring to the former California governor.

The law gave plaintiffs eight years from the date they turn 18 to file suits. That changed on Oct. 13, 2019, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 218, which extended the limit to 22 years from a plaintiff's 18th birthday. It also redefined the event, renaming it child sexual assault.

That was a major advantage in a case Ring filed against the City of Santa Monica over claims by six individuals that the city failed to protect them from Eric Uller, a former city employee and a volunteer at the city's Police Activities League who was arrested in 2018 and charged with molesting four boys. Uller committed suicide. The number of his victims reached 23, with cases dating back to 1989.

Thanks to the change in the law, the city settled for $32 million in January 2020. The agreement included Ring's clients and more than a dozen others represented by colleagues at other firms. John Does 1-6 v. City of Santa Monica, 19-STCV34374 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed March 16, 2019).

"The police department and city had repeated warnings and reports of [Uller's] horrendous behavior," Ring said. "Uller as authority figure preyed on the most vulnerable young Latino boys."

He added: "We filed in March 2019 and the statute had not changed yet. We were taking a chance, because the cases could have been time-barred. Once the governor signed the new law, the city attorney to his credit approached the matter with compassion. They could have litigated for a long time. And the solution we agreed to was equitable. No one got less than a million dollars."

Another piece of good luck came when the parties inked the deal just weeks before the extent of the coronavirus pandemic became clear.

"The city would never have paid that kind of money if they had known what was about to happen to their budget," Ring said. "Sometimes the stars align."

It's been a quarter-century since Ring represented his first victim of child sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church, and he said he thought then that the onslaught of lawsuits would teach the church a lesson. That was optimistic. Last year Ring settled another such case, this time for $8 million. Protecting kids should be a priority. "Yet 25 years later sexual abuse known to institutions remains an epidemic," he said.

-- John Roemer