A former high school running coach who faces possible prison time on suspicion of sexually abusing a student now faces a lawsuit by his accuser - an American Canyon High School student who also is targeting the Napa school district for not preventing the abuse.
The accuser, a teenager identified only as Jane Doe, filed suit Oct. 29 against the school's former cross country coach Brad Matthew Rowell and the Napa Valley Unified School District. The civil suit, which seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages, opens a second legal front for Rowell, who was arrested April 12 on suspicion of sexually abusing the student - a member of the Wolves cross country team he coached - for nine months.
The complaint filed in Napa County Superior Court accuses Rowell, who faces 22 felony counts including unlawful intercourse with a minor, of sexual battery and intentionally inflicting emotional distress.
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Meanwhile, the accuser is suing NVUSD - which operates public schools in Napa and American Canyon - for alleged negligence in overseeing Rowell and protecting students, including not promptly sharing reports of sexual misconduct with law enforcement agencies as required by law. The complaint repeats an allegation that the school's former principal, Andrew Goff, did not immediately report the coach's alleged sexual misconduct to law enforcement agencies as required by state law.
Rowell, a 42-year-old Sonoma resident, remains held in the Napa County jail on $500,000 bail. He faces six felony counts of unlawful intercourse and 12 counts of lewd acts with a minor.
A message seeking comment from Julie Bordes, spokesperson for the Napa school district, was not immediately returned.
The 16-page complaint contains the most detailed account to date of the American Canyon student's accusations, alleging that Rowell - who led track, cross country and physical education programs at American Canyon High for a decade starting in 2014 - began to groom the girl in April 2023, late in her freshman year.
Starting when the student was 15, Rowell took an unusually close interest in her, according to the lawsuit - complimenting her fitness, making playful jokes, creating a secret handshake for them, and frequently asking her to visit his school office. Rowell also convinced the girl to join the cross country team and predicted "that she would be the fastest runner if she joined," and proclaimed her his favorite student in a handwritten letter, the complaint states.
As the Wolves' cross country team practiced during the 2023 summer break, Rowell took to emailing the student several times a day, going on runs alone with her, and driving her to and from practices in his own vehicle, according to the lawsuit filing. In July, Rowell moved on to hugging and kissing the girl, and then explicit text messages and oral sex - sometimes abusing the student in his car in the school parking lot, the filing adds.
When the new school year began in August, the sex acts continued - sometimes in Rowell's weight training classroom or a school closet - and Rowell issued student passes to allow the girl to get out of classes so he could abuse her during school hours, the lawsuit states. Students and faculty also saw Rowell driving the student to nearly a dozen cross country meets, during which he abused the student in his vehicle before and during competition, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit alleges that by late November 2023, Rowell's behavior had become so blatant that students began suspecting a sexual relationship between him and the student. Then, on April 3, an American Canyon student reported the rumors to a school counselor, who shared the report with Goff, the high school principal.
Rather than go to American Canyon Police with the allegation, however, Goff instead spoke with Rowell, who denied any abuse and instead asked for the student tipster to be removed from Goff's weight training class, according to the lawsuit. The student was pulled from the class with no further investigation and no interviews by school district staff, the complaint states.
In response, the tipster's mother, in two emails to Goff, criticized the principal for punishing her daughter and shared her concerns about Rowell's behavior with students.
Finally, on April 9, another school counselor notified Josh Coleman, American Canyon Police's resource officer at the high school. Coleman interviewed the student, who confirmed having sexual relations with Rowell, and the teacher was arrested the same day, according to the lawsuit.
Rowell initially posted bail on three counts - including sexual exploitation of a minor and having explicit material of a minor - and was released, only to be jailed again three days later on nearly two dozen other counts.
The accuser's complaint also alleges that an American Canyon High teacher made insensitive and victim-blaming remarks in the week of Rowell's arrest.
According to the filing, the teacher told female students in his class to "be safe and look at the regulations for clothing" before asking, "Are you going to be wearing a tank top?" After students objected to those remarks, he defended Rowell and falsely suggested that Rowell's accuser had herself been arrested, the lawsuit states.
The complaint argues that Rowell's behavior was so egregious and went on for so long that school officials should have known enough to prevent or stop any abuse. "Despite this knowledge, NVUSD continued to employ Rowell and negligently failed to stop or prevent the abuse from occurring," reads the complaint, written by the accuser's attorneys Kelly D. Van Aken and Mikayla G. Kellogg.
The Napa County District Attorney's Office in June lodged four more charges against Rowell in late May. Three of the counts allege lewd behavior with a different minor, now in her late 20s, between 2008 and 2010 - once in Napa and twice in Stanislaus County. Prosecutors also announced an additional charge linked to his behavior with the American Canyon student.
The four later charges carry longer potential prison sentences - from three to eight years per count, compared to a range of 16 months for four years on the earlier charges. Rowell pleaded not guilty to all counts June 4.
Rowell's next court appearances in his criminal case are scheduled for Nov. 19 and 20 in Napa County Superior Court.
In late June, the district attorney's office charged Goff with one misdemeanor count of failing to report child abuse or neglect to authorities - a requirement for educators in California. A settlement conference for Goff is scheduled for Nov. 19 in Napa County court.
The Napa school district placed Goff, who was serving as an interim principal, on leave after Rowell's arrest. At a town hall meeting in American Canyon - at which the district announced the firing of Rowell from the high school - NVUSD Superintendent Rosanna Mucetti said the district did not sideline Goff as principal as punishment, but to allow the high school to operate smoothly during an investigation of the case.
Goff is no longer listed in the staff directory of the school, where Karin Hatton is now principal.
You can reach Howard Yune at 530-763-2266 or hyune@napanews.com.
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