Brentwood Academy Rape Suit Dismissed But Questions Remain

FRANKLIN, TN -- A Williamson County judge dismissed the lawsuit alleging Brentwood Academy covered up the rape of a middle school student Thursday, but the ruling left confusion rather than closure in its wake, and on Friday, the judge ordered an absent attorney for the plantiffs to appear.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs - John Doe, the victim of the alleged locker room sexual assaults in 2014 and 2015, and his mother, Jane - asked Judge Deanna Johnson to dismiss the case without prejudice, allowing them to refile the case at a later date.

"We felt the court was forcing attorney-client protected information of the plaintiffs to be given to the defendants, so we dismissed without prejudice," Bureon Ledbetter, one of the Does' attorneys, told The Tennessean Thursday.

Instead, Johnson dismissed the case with prejudice, essentially barring the Does from refiling the suit forever and can be an indication the judge believes the suit was brought in bad faith. In civil matters, dismissal with prejudice stands as a final judgment, though the dismissal can be appealed.

Johnson said Friday she believed the plantiffs motion to dismiss the case was done in bad faith and then ordered Ledbetter’s appearance. Brentwood Academy’s attorneys had called for his arrest for contempt.

In any event, the dismissal baffled legal observers, as it's extremely unusual for a judge to order a with-prejudice order when the plaintiffs have asked for a without-prejudice dismissal.

Rule 41 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure gives plaintiffs the ability to asked for a voluntary dismissal without prejudice at any time before the trial itself begins. The rule further says such a request "must be followed by an order of voluntary dismissal" (emphasis not in original).

Johnson said Ledbetter’s comments to media and refusal to be deposed by defense counsel - the move he said would violate attorney-client privilege - prompted the emergency contempt hearings. She, however, did not issue a gag order.

According to the lawsuit, four then-eighth-graders raped, sexually assaulted and sexually harassed a 12-year-old in the 2014-15 academic year. When the boy's mother broached the topic with BA administrators, she was told by her son's counselor "this isn't how Christian institutions handle these things" and the school's headmaster Curtis G. Masters told John Doe " "everything in God's kingdom happens for a reason" and "turn the other cheek."

The school has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

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