The Freetown-Lakeville Regional School District and the head of the Diocese of Fall River Bishop Edgar M. Cunha have each been sued in connection with a case where a Taunton man raped a 14-year-old child who he interacted with as a substitute teacher and a Sunday school teacher .
Taunton resident Gilbert Hernandez was sentenced in 2024 to multiple decades in prison in Fall River Superior Court for charges that included rape of a child and rape of a child with force, according to a Fall River Herald News article . The incidents took place in 2018.
On Tuesday, the victim, who was identified using the pseudonym Jane Jones, filed two lawsuits against the Freetown-Lakeville School District, the bishop, Hernandez, and employees of the Fall River diocese. The first lawsuit claimed the school district “took no action to protect students from” Hernandez, and the second lawsuit claimed the diocese “took no action to protect [Jones] from” Hernandez.
Here’s what the lawsuits say.