28 More Former Peabody Students File Suit In Child Sex Abuse Case

PEABODY, MA — Twenty-eight additional former Peabody middle school and junior high school students filed a civil lawsuit on Thursday against a former gym teacher and coach accused of sexual abuse, according to Boston Attorney Carmen Durso.

The former students join 13 others who filed a suit in August accusing James Toltz, now 80 years old and living in Florida, of various forms of sexual abuse while Toltz worked for the district between 1969 and 1996. The suit also named the city of Peabody as a defendant for "negligence for failing to properly train, supervise and discipline Toltz" over the period of accused abuse.

Durso said that the amended suit was filed Thursday in Middlesex Superior Court and claimed the abuse took place at the Higgins Middle School and John F. Kennedy Junior High School over the course of 27 years.

Durso told Patch on Thursday that 17 more former students "have been in contact with us and stated they either suffered similar abuse, or they witnessed other students being abused, or both."

Attorney Michael Heineman and Durso held a virtual news conference in August detailing the abuse of those 13 former students — who have chosen to remain anonymous, along with the latest 28 plaintiffs, according to Durso — and said at the time that they hoped that those accusations would make more potential victims feel empowered to speak out about their own experiences.

"We did expect there would be additional claimants when we filed the original suit, and we expect many more people to come forward," Durso said on Thursday. "It is interesting that we have been contacted by people living in other parts of the country, who did not learn about the suit immediately, but contacted us when they heard.

"One said to me 'I saw Toltz's picture in the news, before I knew the reason for it, and had an immediate memory of what he did to me, even though I hadn't thought about it for years.'"

In the 120-count suit, filed in Middlesex Superior Court in August, the anonymous victims and their representatives who spoke during the news conference, accused Toltz of watching young boys while they showered after gym class, conducting genital exams under false pretenses, inappropriate touching, spanking and fondling, offering drugs and of sexual assault.

The amended suit filed on Thursday includes similar accusations.

Durso said the boys ranged in age from 11 to 16 during the time of the abuse at JFK Junior High School and Higgins Middle School.

Durso told Patch the city of Peabody "was served with the original complaint and asked for additional time to answer, to which we agreed. We also sent them a copy of the amended complaint."

The suit seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages for injuries, damages, as well as pain and suffering endured.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)