Attorneys for a Slidell man who was raped by his elementary school janitor began trying to convince a St. Tammany Parish District Court judge Monday that the sexual abuse the man endured as a child changed his life forever, and the St. Tammany Parish Public School System is to blame.
Justin Bleker, now 23, was 11 years old when Dino Schwertz repeatedly attacked him in the bathroom at Abney Elementary School in 2007.
Bleker's testimony in Schwertz's criminal trial 9 years ago helped put the janitor in jail for 999 years. But after a decade of changing attorneys and delays, the civil trial in the case began Monday.
22nd Judicial District Court Judge Raymond Childress began by viewing videotaped interviews between Child Advocacy Center workers and Bleker, his child-like voice in stark contrast to the grown man sitting next to his wife in the courtroom.
In an interview with WWL-TV and The New Orleans Advocate last week, Bleker said, "Nobody really thought anything because he was a janitor."
But Bleker said the abuse began in the fall after school started, always in the school bathrooms.
Attorneys for the school district raised questions in court about the extent of Bleker's abuse, hinting the district isn't liable because Schwertz may have committed the attacks on his two- to three-hour lunch break.
Plus, the board's attorneys implied the school and the district had no indication Schwertz would be a sexual predator, because among other things, no child pornography was found in a search of Schwertz's home.
But Rebecca Hickman, Bleker's mother, argues the school district's negligence began when the district and Abney's principal gave Schwertz the green light to begin working at the school before his state-mandated background check was completed.
"They allowed him to work in a school setting without having his background check back. When his background check came back, it stated that he was a convicted felon. He lied on his application. They knew he lied on his application but they allowed him to continue to work," Hickman said.
Schwertz was on probation for a bank fraud conviction and has another conviction for violating a protective order. Both of those appeared on Schwertz's background check, but they did not appear on his job application.
Bleker's psychotherapist, Carolyn Weaver, described the extent of Bleker's post traumatic stress disorder in court Monday afternoon. She told the judge Bleker still avoids bathrooms with open doors, because that was always a signal at Abney that the janitor was cleaning them.
About the abuse, Weaver said, "It changed the trajectory of his life for the rest of his life."
While Schwertz is a named defendant in the case, he did not appear in court Monday. Hearings are still underway to determine if he is in default in the case.
Bleker is expected to once again take the witness stand in the case later in the week.
Two other victims of Schwertz's have already reached out-of-court settlements with the school district.