Lawsuit claims fired JCPS employee indicted on sexual abuse 'groomed' victim

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A fired Jefferson County Public Schools employee who faces sexual abuse charges is now being sued by one of his alleged victims, along with the school district and other groups attorneys say could have prevented the abuse.

Christopher Morris, 50, was arrested in June after police say he sexually abused two teens. At the time, Morris was employed with JCPS and a coach for a traveling Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball team.

Morris was later indicted on 38 counts of criminal behavior, including sexual abuse of a minor and sodomy. Police said the crimes happened between Aug. 2012 and May 2022 with one victim who is under 16 years old, and another victim under 18 years old.

Joseph Gaines, an attorney for one of the victims, claims Morris sexually abused a minor for several years while he coached basketball at Noe Middle School and for an AAU team, the Quinn Anvils.

Christopher Morris (Source: Louisville Metro Corrections)

"Parents shouldn't have to worry about people committing such heinous criminal acts as occurred in this case where somebody's indicted on 38 counts of criminal behavior with minors," Gaines said. "Minors should be safe when they go to school."

The lawsuit claims the victim was groomed by Morris into thinking that having sexual relations with him would make the child a better basketball player. The sexual abuse began when the child was in seventh grade and went on for several years, the lawsuit alleges.

Gaines says the victim looked up to Morris as a father figure. Morris groomed the victim, and would take the child out of class at Noe Middle School. When forcing the child to perform sexual acts, Morris would say "God would want you to do this," the lawsuit alleges.

Along with Morris, the victim is also suing JCPS, Dionte Mucker, who is currently the athletic director of Conway Middle School, AAU and Quinn Chapel AME Church for failing to protect the child from sexual abuse. In the lawsuit, Gaines and his co-counsel argue that "it would not have been hard for others to recognize what defendant Morris was doing to the victim."

Gaines believes the defendants should be held accountable for their failure to protect the victim from the behavior of Morris.

"We believe that Mr. Morris was the seminal preparator but everybody played their part in allowing this to happen," Gaines said. "It should not have happened. Places like JCPS and AAU and other things should be safe havens for children and their parents."

Morris most recently provided in-classroom assistance to teachers at Conway Middle School. He was also a basketball and volleyball coach there. He is no longer employed by JCPS.

Gaines says they're waiting for the defendants to be served and want to move forward with the goal of giving their client closure.

"It was really hard for him to come forward with it," Gaines said. "I just hope for some form of closure for him."

Morris has a pretrial conference in the criminal case Oct. 19.

Related Stories: