$2.35M settlement in Jewell teacher abuse case covered by insurance
Published 3:49 pm Monday, March 2, 2026
The Jewell School District will not need to dip into classroom funds or its substantial timber revenue to pay $2.35 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed earlier this year, district officials said.
Superintendent Cory Pederson said the settlement money will not come from the operating budget and paying it will not affect staffing or student programs.
It will be paid solely by insurance using none of the district’s timber revenues or other funding.
“Because this obligation is met through our insurance coverage, these funds are separate from timber revenues and any state funding that supports our classrooms, teachers and student programs,” Pederson said.
An abuse case resuls in arrest, jail time — then a lawsuit
David Michael Brandon, a former Jewell School District shop teacher, was convicted in Clatsop County in 2023 of two counts each of third-degree rape and third-degree sodomy and one count of unlawful delivery of marijuana.
As previously reported by The Astorian, Brandon, now 48, was sentenced to three months in jail in 2023. On April 9, 2024 his probation was revoked and he was ordered to spend three years in prison.
A federal civil rights lawsuit was filed in April 2024. The lawsuit alleged that Brandon engaged in repeated sexual abuse of a student starting in 2017 when she was 14 — and the district did little to stop it. According to the lawsuit, Brandon engaged in sexual contact and sex with the student in his classroom during school hours, as well as in his truck and at his home. He sexually assaulted the girl on more than 100 different occasions through December 2018, the suit alleged.
The victim’s attorney, Peter Janci, said the $2.35 million settlement is among the larger of school-related settlements in Oregon. It reflects the seriousness of the allegations and the district’s responsibility, he said, but it would never be enough to lessen the damage done.
“Our client will have to suffer some of the impacts of the abuse that she experienced going forward,” Janci said. He added the school could have done something but it didn’t. There were “a lot of missed opportunities to intervene and protect students,” Janci said.
