Former Los Angeles Lakers guard and head coach Byron Scott faces a major legal conundrum. A long-running civil lawsuit against him is set to go to trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court on September 8 in Van Nuys. A fresh development, however, involving Campbell Hall, the private K-12 school in Studio City where the alleged 1987 incident involving Scott occurred, has emerged.
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Campbell Hall has officially reached “a confidential settlement” with the plaintiff, according to The Los Angeles Times. While the exact financial terms remain under seal, the resolution leaves the 65-year-old former NBA player as the sole defendant in the civil proceedings. What exactly happened, though?
The plaintiff, who was a 15-year-old student in the same school at the time of the incident, is seeking “unspecified economic and non-economic damages” from Scott under California’s Child Victims Act.
Scott, who was a 26-year-old married man and player for the Lakers during the summer of 1987, has acknowledged that sexual contact occurred between him and the plaintiff. But he has maintained in legal filings that he believed she was a member of a visiting video production crew, not a student.
In an official statement previously issued to the Los Angeles Times, Scott’s defense attorney Linda Bauermeister said her client was “devastated” by this legal complaint and that he believed “the plaintiff to be over 18 and had no idea she would claim otherwise until 35 years later. He respects girls and women, and the claims have blindsided him and his family.”
Recent court filings processed ahead of the September trial indicate that Scott’s defense team requested any financial figure determined by a jury be “offset” by the settlement amount paid by Campbell Hall.
However, the victim’s legal counsel, Kerry Garvis Wright, has countered the motion, arguing that under state law, a non-settling defendant is entitled only to offsets for economic damages, whereas the school’s confidential resolution accounts exclusively for “non-economic damages such as emotional distress.”
This also wasn’t the first time Campbell High attempted to remove itself from the litigation. Judge Lee S. Arian, however, denied its motion in January, ruling that “the school was responsible for protecting students from harm by a third party while on campus.”
“Plaintiff was the only student selected to remain after others left, yet no one checked on her whereabouts during lunch and no one looked for Scott and plaintiff while they were alone,” Arian wrote. “The evidence reflects that plaintiff’s whereabouts were effectively ignored.”
The above statement refers to the filming of an instructional basketball video that Scott and several other Lakers players had gathered to shoot in the Campbell Hall gym. It was during that shoot when Scott and the plaintiff were separated from the crowd, and the incident occurred.
The lawsuit against Scott was filed in December 2022 under Assembly Bill 218, known as California’s Child Victims Act. Signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, the statute opened a temporary three-year window from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2022, allowing survivors to bring civil claims regarding childhood sexual abuse that were previously barred by the statute of limitations.
Scott initially fought to have his name removed from official documents and be recognized as “John Doe,” but the judge denied his request.
The victim, now 54, settled a part of her case with her private Studio City high school in early August. A hearing was scheduled for August 17 for the judge to first decide whether to grant the school’s motion to file the settlement under seal. Notable Campbell Hall alumni include director Paul Thomas Anderson, actresses Dakota and Elle Fanning, and NBA players Jrue, Justin and Aaron Holiday.
At the time of the 1987 incident, Scott was married to his first wife, Anita, with whom he had three children. They divorced in 2014. He is now married to CeCe Gutierrez, a Basketball Wives star since 2020. Neither the former basketball player nor his family has publicly commented on the lawsuit yet.
The upcoming September 8 trial marks the latest legal struggle for Scott, a prominent figure in Southern California sports history.
Raised in Los Angeles, Scott attended Morningside High School in Inglewood before playing 11 of his 14 NBA seasons with the Lakers, winning three NBA championships during the franchise’s “Showtime” era in 1985, 1987, and 1988.
Following his playing career, Scott spent 15 seasons as an NBA head coach across five franchises, including a two-year stint leading the Lakers from 2014 to 2016.