A trial date of April 13, 2027 has been set for the lawsuit brought by a former Riverside Brookfield High School student against RBHS District 208 and Gary Prokes, the former head of RBTV, in which the former student alleges that Prokes first groomed her and then sexually abused her while she was a student at RBHS from 2014 to 2018.
The plaintiff is referred to by the pseudonym Jane Doe in the lawsuit which was filed in June 2025. Tom Cronin, Jane Doe’s attorney, said Prokes’s participation in the case has been stayed while he is under criminal investigation. Riverside Director of Public Safety Matt Buckley did not return a message from the Landmark asking about the status of that investigation. Prokes, a graduate of RHHS, retired in 2023 after working at RBHS for 37 years.
RBHS achieved a temporary victory last fall when Cook County Circuit Court Judge Frank Andreau dismissed RBHS District 208 from the case but Cronin then filed an amended complaint on Nov. 17 with more specific allegations that school officials knew of or should have been aware of Prokes’s misconduct which brought the school district back into the case. Lawyers for RBHS again tried to get the complaints against RBHS dismissed from the case but failed. The case is now assigned to Cook County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Chrones who denied motions to dismiss counts against RBHS this spring.
The amended complaint alleges negligent supervision, negligent retention and willful and wanton negligence by RBHS as well as negligence and sexual battery by Prokes. It alleges that Prokes befriended and isolated Doe and then escalated physical contact with her from inappropriate touching to sexual assault while Doe was a minor.
The amended complaint also alleges that four RBHS students witnessed inappropriate conduct by Prokes. The students tried to make a covert video of Prokes and Doe together in private. The amended complaint alleges that at least one student prepared a memorandum about Prokes’s behavior and met with Dave Mannon, assistant principal for student affairs, and then dean Neil Dughetti to alert them of their concerns about Prokes.
The 1 ½ page memorandum, which was titled Yikes, alleges that Prokes was “sneaking around with student” during the 2017 Fall Play and were locked away in a RBTV studio to move allegedly non-existent boxes. It also alleges that Prokes and Doe remained in the RBTV office after a football game after Prokes hurried other students out of the office.
The memorandum also alleges that Prokes met privately with the student who prepared the memorandum and told them that “nothing was going on” between him and Doe. Prokes allegedly told the student that he was only trying to help Doe and was like a mentor to her. Prokes allegedly told the student that Doe was in “a really bad place” and that he helped her emotionally.
The memorandum alleges that after meeting with and presenting the memorandum to Mannon and Dughetti the student who prepared the memorandum was pulled out of Prokes’s class for the rest of the semester, made exempt from the class’s final exam and was told to spend the class period in a supply closet in the student services office for the remainder of the semester.
The amended complaint alleges that multiple RBHS educators and administrators knew or should have known about Prokes’s conduct yet nothing was done.
RBHS declined to comment about the case.
“Because this matter is currently the subject of pending litigation, the district is unable to provide any public comment,” said Kiley Fletcher, the school’s community engagement coordinator, in an email. Deanna Zalas, the school board president, also declined to comment when asked about the case.
