Byron Scott Trial Nears in Studio City as Campbell Hall Settles 1987 Assault Claim

Former Lakers guard and coach Byron Scott is set to stand trial in Van Nuys on September 8, alone, after Campbell Hall — the Studio City private school where the alleged 1987 assault took place — reached a confidential settlement with his accuser. The deal removes one of two defendants from a lawsuit that has spent nearly four years working through California courts, leaving Scott to face a jury over allegations he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old student during the filming of an instructional basketball video in the school's gym.

According to the Los Angeles Times, plaintiff Hayley Dylan — who was known as Hayley Mendell at the time — alleges that Scott, then a 26-year-old married Lakers star, walked her away from faculty members and the video production crew and assaulted her in a janitor's closet on campus. Scott has admitted to sexual contact with Dylan but maintains he believed she was 18 years old and a member of the video crew, not a 15-year-old student, per the same account. Dylan is seeking unspecified economic and non-economic damages from Scott in the case, which was originally filed on December 30, 2022.

The lawsuit reached this point through California's Child Victims Act, the state law that opened a temporary three-year window, running from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022, for previously time-barred childhood sexual abuse claims. Under Assembly Bill 218, which created the statute, adult plaintiffs must submit two declarations filed under seal — one from a licensed mental health professional and one from the alleged victim's attorneys — before such a case can proceed, as detailed by the Los Angeles Times. That lookback window triggered thousands of revived lawsuits statewide against private institutions and local governments, including a record $4 billion settlement paid by Los Angeles County in 2025.

Scott's Early Bid for Anonymity

Before his identity became public, Scott tried to keep his name out of the case entirely. In an August 2024 court motion reported by the Hindustan Times, Scott sought to proceed under the pseudonym John Doe, arguing there was insufficient evidence to corroborate the claims and that public disclosure would severely damage his reputation as a public figure. That effort failed, and the lawsuit was later publicly unsealed in 2025.

Dylan's legal team, meanwhile, has fought its own procedural battles. Early in the litigation, her attorneys successfully petitioned the California Court of Appeal for a writ of mandate after the trial court initially failed to comply with all procedural provisions of the Child Victims Act, according to a summary from law firm Glaser Weil, which represents Dylan through lead counsel Kerry Garvis Wright. That same firm notes that Scott's defense — that he believed Dylan was an adult crew member — runs up against both her allegation of forced restraint in the closet and California statutory limits on consent defenses in cases involving authority figures and minors. Under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 1708.5.5, adult defendants in positions of authority over minors are barred from using consent as a defense in civil sexual battery claims involving minor students.

Campbell Hall's Exit From the Case

Campbell Hall spent much of 2025 and early 2026 trying to remove itself from the litigation entirely. The lawsuit alleges the school's faculty and staff failed to supervise or protect Dylan, but Judge Lee S. Arian denied Campbell Hall's motion for summary judgment in January, ruling that the school was responsible for protecting students from harm by a third party while on campus. Rather than proceed to trial itself, the Episcopal K-12 school then reached its confidential settlement with Dylan, one that will remain sealed until the conclusion of Scott's trial.

That settlement now sits at the center of a legal fight over how much Scott could owe if a jury finds against him. Campbell Hall attorney Linda Bauermeister has argued the school's settlement should be subtracted in full from any jury award against Scott. Wright has countered that Scott is only entitled to an offset for the economic-damages portion of that settlement, since Campbell Hall's payment covers non-economic damages such as emotional distress — a distinction the trial court will have to sort through under California law governing how settlements from one defendant offset judgments against another.

A Storied Career Now Under Scrutiny

Scott grew up in Los Angeles and attended Morningside High School in Inglewood before building a 14-year NBA playing career, 11 of those seasons with the Lakers, where he won three championships. During the 1987-88 season, the year following the alleged encounter, Scott had his best statistical year, leading the world champion Lakers in scoring at 21.7 points per game alongside Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In his final playing season in 1996-97, he returned to the Lakers to mentor rookie Kobe Bryant, whom he later coached from 2014 to 2016 — one of the few people to serve as both teammate and head coach to Bryant.

Scott went on to coach five NBA franchises over 15 seasons, compiling 454 career wins and earning 2008 NBA Coach of the Year honors with the New Orleans Hornets, in addition to leading the New Jersey Nets to back-to-back Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003. Campbell Hall itself has produced notable alumni including Paul Thomas Anderson, Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, and Ariel Winter, along with NBA players Jrue Holiday, Justin Holiday, and Aaron Holiday.

The case is not Campbell Hall's only recent legal exposure. Hoodline has previously reported on a separate wrongful death lawsuit against the school over a teen crushed in its parking lot. Scott's case also lands amid a wider wave of Child Victims Act litigation nationally; a Brooklyn jury recently awarded $18 million in a similar school abuse case under New York's own lookback law, underscoring the scale of institutional liability these statutes have unlocked across the country.

Jury selection and trial proceedings are scheduled to begin September 8 at the Los Angeles Superior Court in Van Nuys, where jurors will be asked to weigh Scott's individual liability and determine what, if anything, he owes Dylan in damages.