William S. Hart Union High School District governing board President Linda Storli announced at the start of Wednesday’s meeting that $10 million in settlements had been reached with regard to lawsuits stemming from the 2019 Saugus High shooting.
The announcement confirmed The Signal’s first report of the settlement published Tuesday.
Reporting out of closed session, Storli said $10 million will be paid out to settle lawsuits filed by the families of Gracie Anne Muehlberger, 15, and Dominic Michael Blackwell, 14, the two students who were killed by the shooter, a 16-year-old Saugus High School student who also wounded three others before turning the gun on himself.
Each family is set to receive $5 million via the district’s insurance provider, per the terms announced by Storli. No other details of the settlement were disclosed, other than the vote to settle being unanimous, and the cases were referred to only by their L.A. County Superior Court case numbers.
The district was insured for such an incident up to $50 million, according to a response to a request made in November.
Nick Hane, attorney for the Blackwell family, said Thursday in a phone interview that just because a settlement has been reached doesn’t mean the family feels any sort of closure.
“This settlement is supposed to try and help make them whole for the loss of their son,” Hane said. “They don’t think money is gonna make them whole in any way, and what they’re really looking for is change by the district, and it’s very specific.”
The district sent the following statement to The Signal on Thursday: “In November of 2019, Saugus High School was the sudden victim of an on-campus shooting, and while our entire community was devastated to its core by the tragic event, it most certainly caused unthinkable pain for the families who lost their children. Words of sympathy and condolence feel inadequate when speaking to those who have lost loved ones to gun violence, and while nothing can bring their children back, we do hope these agreements will help bring some closure for the two families.”
It is the end of a yearslong legal battle for the families of Blackwell and Muehlberger, who were shot and killed by Nathaniel Berhow on Nov. 14, 2019, with no clear motive uncovered despite years of sworn depositions and investigations by multiple agencies.
Hane said the incident could have been avoided had the district had full-time school resource deputies at each high school campus, which wasn’t the case at the time of the shooting, and more campus supervisors watching for signs of danger.
“His behavior was very odd,” Hane said, recalling video footage of Berhow prior to the shooting, “and he was looking for someone to challenge him, and there was no one there to challenge him. No one at the gates, watching the kids coming on campus, even though they were supposed to be. There was one campus supervisor on the whole quad and when things happen, he was like leaning against the wall and when he heard the first shot, he ran away as fast as he could. That was the extent of the supervision and security of the school.”
While the settlement agreement couldn’t legally bind the district to changes in security, Hane said the hope is that now that the legal battle is finished, the district can move forward with those changes.
The other issue that was being argued was that the district did not do its due diligence in making sure Berhow was OK despite warning signs that his mental health was deteriorating, Hane said.
“No one talked to the shooter, ever,” Hane said. “Not when he was a victim of domestic violence, not when his father died, not when his grades fell, not when he missed school, not when he quit the track team. None of the times that there were red flags did the school district ever talk to him.”
The case appeared headed to trial in September after arguments were made and the trial date set for January by Judge David Cowan in his Beverly Hills Courthouse.
Attorneys for the families and the Hart district argued in court as recently as last month over the admissibility of the shooter’s Department of Child & Family Services records and whether the district should have seen warning signs and intervened, as the plaintiffs alleged.
There also were arguments made over the degree of liability for Berhow’s mother, who reported not knowing there were guns in the house despite reports of numerous weapons being found.
Berhow used a homemade ghost gun in the shooting, with the parts seller also believed to be a target on the liability form.
Hane said the Blackwell family will speak to Nathan Hochman, the new L.A. County district attorney, about criminal charges being presented against the mother, arguing that she allowed Berhow to have control of the guns that were found at the home.
The parts dealer, he said, would have to be charged federally due to the potential case involving gun parts.
The plaintiffs previously indicated plans to call as witnesses the other teens who were shot, and school-security experts to talk about the efficacy of school resource officers, the standard of care and the post-shooting risk assessment.
There were four Sheriff’s Department experts expected to be called upon to testify, including longtime local Detective Dan Finn, who was off-duty at the time of the shooting but later received the Medal of Valor from Sheriff Robert Luna for his bravery in the response.
In its defense, the Hart district was expected to call three campus supervisors, including a staff member who was on duty at the time of the shooting, and the district’s director of technology, on its witness list.
There were also several school and district officials, including the former principal, expected to speak toward support services for students and additional safety protocols.
There were also social workers on the list for the defense, but the settlement avoids a lot of testimony expected to be painful for both sides.
“The family wanted to have their day in court,” Hane said, “but they had to balance that against the students and the teachers and their family members and the brothers and sisters, some of whom with respect to the Blackwell family are all minor children still having to testify and relive it.”
