A teenage girl who went to a Sunnyvale Marine Corps recruiting center in October 2024 expecting to learn about enlistment says she instead spent nearly six hours locked inside a recruiter's office, sexually assaulted while the blinds stayed drawn and the door stayed shut. Less than two years later, her attorneys have filed a federal claim demanding $10 million from the Marines, arguing the service knew the recruiter posed a danger and put him in a position to prey on her anyway.
The claim, filed Oct. 21 under the Federal Tort Claims Act, names Sgt. Jorge Lara-Pedroza, the recruiter the teen, identified in court filings as Jane Doe, says she met at a high school event before he arranged for her to come to the Sunnyvale recruiting center, according to The Mercury News. She was 17 at the time. Once she arrived on Oct. 28, 2024, the complaint alleges Lara-Pedroza led her into his office, locked the door and closed the blinds before repeatedly sexually assaulting her over the course of approximately six hours, according to a release from Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, the law firm representing her.
A Threat, Then a Report the Next Day
During the alleged assault, Lara-Pedroza warned Doe that she would not have a military career, according to the firm's release. Doe reported the assault the following day to her high school principal, who then took her to the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, the firm's release states. Sunnyvale police arrested Lara-Pedroza on Oct. 29, 2024, on suspicion of felony crimes including oral copulation, penetration with a foreign object, and arranging to meet a minor for sexual conduct.
According to the complaint, Lara-Pedroza spent the remainder of 2024 and 2025 in jail awaiting trial. Doe's attorneys allege the Marines discharged him during that period over earlier, relatively minor misconduct — a move she says was intended to avoid a court martial over her allegations. Lara-Pedroza ultimately accepted a plea deal from prosecutors that required him to register as a sex offender but included no prison sentence, according to Military.com. As of Oct. 21, 2026, he was still not publicly listed on California's sex offender registry, the outlet reported.
Claim Alleges the Marines Knew the Risk
The federal claim does not just target Lara-Pedroza's conduct. It alleges the Marines failed to properly hire and supervise him and failed to implement policies and procedures that could have stopped a recruiter from preying on potential enlistees. The complaint further alleges that Lara-Pedroza had faced multiple prior complaints of sexual violence before he was ever allowed to recruit students at Doe's school, per the same release. The claim also points to Department of Defense regulations that prohibit recruiters from holding closed-door conversations with potential recruits — a safeguard Doe's attorneys say was ignored.
This is not the first time Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight has brought this kind of case against the Marine Corps. In February 2024, the firm filed a $5 million claim on behalf of a different 17-year-old who said she was sexually abused by Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Champagne, a Marine recruiter, according to Marine Corps Times. That complaint alleged the Marine Corps knew Champagne's ex-wife had previously accused him of abuse and sexual assault, yet still let him serve as a recruiter, according to Military Times, which reported the recruiter assaulted the teen in May 2023 after months of sexual comments and coercion. The firm later asked the federal government to reconsider its denial of that claim, according to a statement from the firm.
A Pattern Documented for Decades
Concerns about recruiters targeting teenagers considering enlistment are not new. A 2006 investigation found that more than 80 military recruiters were disciplined for sexual misconduct with potential enlistees in a single year, including at least 18 from the Marine Corps, according to NBC News. That reporting found victims were typically between 16 and 18 years old and usually weighing whether to enlist — the same age range as Doe at the time of her alleged assault.
A 2022 article in the U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings noted that the Marine Corps has recorded the highest documented sexual-assault rate per capita among the military services, and found that in nearly half of 2,212 reported sexual-assault cases across the armed forces in 2007, the chain of command took no action at all. The same piece compared survey results at service academies from 2018 and 2022.
Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the Marines generally have six months to investigate and issue a final decision on Doe's administrative claim, a timeline Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight has cited in describing next steps. If the claim is denied or the agency fails to act within that window, the firm says Doe can then pursue a lawsuit in federal court.
