Alphonso Davis had no business being around kids, and the Broward County School Board should have known it. That's the basis for a lawsuit filed in February by a local mother-daughter duo who claim the sexual assault suffered by the latter could have been prevented.
According to the court filing, Lori Davis' daughter was a student at Plantation High School back in 2006 when she engaged in "abhorrent deviant fornications" at school with teacher Alphonso Davis. She wasn't the only victim.
The abuse happened when the girl was 17. (It's unclear whether there's a familial relationship between Lori Davis, the defendant's mother, and Alphonso Davis, or whether the shared name is a coincidence.)
Fast-forward to 2010: Alphonso Davis was arrested and charged with sexual battery and unlawful sexual activity with certain minors, charges that stem from his relationship with another Plantation High student, according to the lawsuit.
It wasn't until this case was cracked open that Lori Davis' daughter (whose name has been redacted from the court file obtained by New Times) revisited her past abuse.
"The conscious mind" of the girl "resisted grappling with the locked away memory of her trauma until" the case "peeled away the layers of repression and self willed forgetfulness," the court filing says.
The girl eventually went to police with her story. In April 2012, Alphonso Davis was charged again, this time with three counts of sexual battery stemming from the later allegations. Those charges are still working through the legal system.
But the recent civil action claims the School Board should have been aware it had a bad guy on its roster well before the abuse took place.
"For a lengthy period before this hiring," the suit says, "Davis had been flaunting his proclivities as a serial sexual predator against underage girls while he was a teacher." The board "had actual and/or constructive notice of the unsuitability of Davis," the court filing says. "There were discoverable clues, tip-offs, paper trails which could have been ferreted out from a reasonably efficient investigation."
What exactly those warning signs were, these initial filings don't say. But the School Board was negligent in permitting a "sexual predator to infiltrate the supposedly secure enclave of a classroom."
Alphonso Davis is currently doing a stint in the Taylor Correctional Institution in Perry for the first round of charges. He's not expected to get out until 2032. Due to the nature of his crimes, he's been placed on FDLE's sex offender registry as a sexual predator -- the worst of the worst.
Calls for comment to Lori Davis' attorney, Angela Dawson, were not returned. The Broward School Board also did not call us back. We'll update as more information becomes available.
Send your story tips to the author, Kyle Swenson.
Follow @NewTimesBroward
