Jesuit high school deal resolves lawsuit stemming from allegations of molestation by school janitor decades prior
For the second time in as many months, a prominent Catholic high school in New Orleans recently agreed to pay an out-of-court settlement to resolve a lawsuit claiming child molestation decades earlier by a janitor at the institution.
Both the plaintiff and Jesuit high school struck the agreement ahead of a late September trial date in the city’s civil district courthouse, according to 27 July legal filings reviewed by the Guardian.
That pact came after Jesuit and another plaintiff alleging child molestation by the same school janitor – as well as one of his custodian colleagues – served notice in court on 4 June that they had agreed to an out-of-court settlement.
An attorney for both of those plaintiffs, Richard Trahant, in June would not deny that the settlement in that case was worth more than a $2.4m verdict awarded to an unrelated Louisiana sexual abuse claimant in the summer of 2025. When asked about the more recent settlement’s terms, neither Trahant, his co-counsel – Soren Giselson and John Denenea – nor attorneys for Jesuit immediately commented.
