Defense seeks dismissal

A circuit judge has promised the attorneys on both sides of a John Doe lawsuit involving the Oconee public schools that he will likely make a pre-trial ruling, perhaps, by the end of next week. Gregory Sloan, attorney for the school district and two of its former employees, is hopeful that Judge Perry Gravely will throw the case out the before it reaches a jury in the Common Pleas Court. The lawsuit filed last year on behalf of a former Oconee student is the second of two such lawsuits in which former students, referred to by the name John Doe, are the plaintiffs. In the case before Judge Gravely yesterday, the plaintiff is pursuing allegations of negligence, alleging the defendants did not do enough to stop teacher and coach Richard Trey Gardner III from sexually abusing the student. Gregg Meyers, attorney for the plaintiff, claims the district rehired Gardner year after year, yet Gardner failed to obey a directive in April 2000 that he no longer have any contact with the student he abused. In criminal court in 2013, Gardner was sent to prison for 20 years for abusing two students.