A $12.5 million verdict 

The Rochester City School District and Edwin Fleming, a former East High School music teacher accused of sexually abusing numerous girls decades ago, were hit with a $12.5 million verdict Feb. 24 in the second case against Fleming to go to trial.

The jury found Fleming and RCSD liable for damages to the plaintiff, anonymously referred to as BL Doe 4. She alleged she was raped and sexually abused by Fleming throughout the 1980-81 school year after district employees had been made aware of Fleming’s abuse of other students and failed to report it to authorities.

“I was fearful of him. I was fearful of getting in trouble. I was fearful of anyone finding out,” BL Doe 4 said of her feelings after the second time she was raped by Fleming, according to her deposition transcript.

RCSD is liable for 40 percent, or $5 million, of the $12.5 million in damages, which include $10 million in past damages and $2.5 million in future damages, says John Bansbach, the plaintiff’s attorney. This comes on top of over $5 million in payments that have been made following settlements in other cases against Fleming and RCSD, Bansbach says.

RCSD did not respond to a request for comment.

The settlements included portions that could be paid out by insurance, but the $5 million in damages due from RCSD in this trial verdict have to be paid by the district directly, Bansbach says.

Years of abuse

Fleming was a prominent music teacher at West and East High Schools, and he is the father of renowned lyric soprano vocalist Renée Fleming. At East, he became head of the music department, which was widely recognized as the best in the city.

In total, 11 cases have been opened against Fleming and RCSD for his abuse, according to the Monroe County Supreme Court’s filings. Two were closed by the plaintiffs, Bansbach says, and only one remains open.

Of the eight cases that are now closed, two went to trial (including BL Doe 4’s), and the other six ended in settlements.

One settled case was launched by Victoria Visiko, the only one to sue him without anonymity, who previously spoke to the Rochester Beacon about her experiences.

In most of the cases, the plaintiffs’ experiences echo one another across the span of 1968 to 1981—Fleming hugging, touching, kissing and molesting them, along with displaying favoritism toward certain female students, and in some cases escalating his assaults into graphic rape.

“I was housesitting for a family,” said BL Doe 4, recounting the third time she was raped by Fleming in 1980 or early 1981, according to her deposition transcript. “And their house was in Henrietta, and Fleming told me that he had a brother or some relative in Henrietta and asked me what the address was. I told him the address. He said he might stop by just to say hi and check on me.

“And he did arrive at the residence. He had a bottle of champagne and what appeared to me to be a handgun. He put the—what appeared to be a handgun wrapped in a—maybe a holster. I don’t know. Put that down on a table, opened up the champagne, poured me some. He had some. And he took me into the bedroom in the home and raped me.”

Shortly after many of the suits against Fleming were filed, the Democrat & Chronicle uncovered in 2019 that Fleming was allowed by district leaders to quietly resign before the 1981-82 school year without any police report being filed. However, Fleming’s salary card shows he was paid for that school year without working, Bansbach says, and that his resignation was registered in April 1982. 

It was listed as due to “illness.”

Fleming, who now lives in South Carolina, according to court documents, went on to work for five other local school districts before he again popped up as an RCSD employee in 1987, the D&C reported from records released by New York’s teachers retirement system.

He was employed by the Geneseo, Greece, Spencerport, Gates Chili and Churchville-Chili school districts after his initial RCSD resignation, according to the D&C’s reports.

“It’s just a sad, tragic thing you hope wouldn’t happen in 2025,” Bansbach says.

One suit of many

All of the cases against Fleming and RCSD were filed under the Child Victims Act, a 2019 New York state law that created a window for survivors of alleged abuse to file civil lawsuits that would have otherwise been barred by the statute of limitations.

New York is one of 30 states and three U.S. territories that have passed laws reviving previously expired child sexual abuse claims since 2002, according to a CHILD USA analysis from May 2024. The revival window laid the groundwork for numerous high-profile lawsuits against institutions across New York, including dozens of school districts, numerous dioceses (including Rochester’s) and the Boy Scouts of America.

In total 10,857 cases were filed under the CVA in New York, making it—by a gargantuan margin—the state with the highest number of cases filed under a revival window, according to an August 2024 CHILD USA report.

“These windows are crucial, as they allow victims, who may have only recently recognized the abuse they suffered, to seek legal recourse and hold their abusers accountable,” wrote CHILD USA in its report. “Additionally, revival windows serve to educate the public about the prevalence and impact of CSA, shift the financial burden of abuse from victims and taxpayers to the perpetrators, and help identify hidden predators and institutions that endanger children.”

To Bansbach, the damages awarded in this case were in part granted because the jury “got it.” Many people have a hard time believing that a school district should have to pay money now for something that happened a long time ago, he says, and many believe childhood sexual abuse is something a victim can just “get over.”

“You don’t recover. You manage it,” he says.

“I think it was a better jury, and the other thing is I think the proof went in well,” he says of the decision. “It was a really engaged jury. The expert witness who presented testimony about her damages was very articulate and believable. This woman (BL Doe 4) had seen the same counselor for over 30 years.”

There is one case still open against Fleming and the district filed by a woman known as BL Doe 10. 

“We’d love to settle it, but it takes two to settle it, and the district hasn’t done anything to indicate that they want to settle,” says Bansbach.

Justin O’Connor is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer.

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