EVANSTON, Ill. — A federal judge has ordered an ex-school security officer to pay $3 million in damages to the family of a former student he is accused of sexually abusing dozens of times.
A default judgment was granted Tuesday by U.S. Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer against 35-year-old Michael Haywood, awarding the student’s family with $2 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages, reports The Associated Press.
Default judgments are issued when a defendant fails to appear in court or enter a plea. Haywood had been served with a notice of the motion for default judgment on Aug. 6, according to The Patch.
A lawsuit filed in August 2019 by the alleged victim’s family claims Haywood, who was a security officer at Evanston Township High School, groomed the student in 2018 and 2019. When she turned 17, the lawsuit says he engaged in “unwanted and unauthorized sexual and other contact” with the teen over 40 times.
Haywood has not been criminally charged in the alleged assaults. In February 2019, he was charged with sexually assaulting a different student in November 2018. Haywood pleaded not guilty in that case and is home on electronic monitoring.
The alleged victim’s family also filed a lawsuit against the school and the city of Evanston claiming conduct by officials “not only gave sexual predators access to unlimited prey; it also created a culture whereby no ETHS employees voluntarily came forward to protect female students.” It also alleges the school did not inform parents of the allegations against Haywood after his firing in January 2019.
“Haywood’s sexual abuse and conduct was open, ongoing, persistent, and widespread, such that it was common knowledge, obvious, and/or readily apparent to some (if not all) ETHS staff when it was occurring,” said Andrew Stroth, the attorney representing the family and the teen. “Haywood’s conduct was so widespread, frequent, and readily apparent that ETHS staff either had actual knowledge and/or knew and deliberately turned a blind eye to his conduct.”
The civil lawsuit is still ongoing and the school district continues to seek to dismiss the case.
