Melvin Dunlap says he doesn’t know how he became a plaintiff in the nation’s largest sexual assault settlement.
He grew up in Missouri, thousands of miles away from L.A. County’s juvenile hall — the subject of a flood of lawsuits from people who say they were sexually abused while in custody as children.
Dunlap says he never went to juvie, and was never abused.
And yet he is part of LA County’s $4 billion sex abuse settlement, identified in court filings as John Doe MD. His lawsuit claims he was “physically assaulted, sexually assaulted and abused” by staff at the Los Angeles Detention Center in Boyle Heights when he was 15 years old.
“I can put my hand on the Bible and say ‘I have never been sexually abused,'” Dunlap said, providing text messages and emails showing he sought to report the matter to the State Bar for investigation last July.
Dunlap’s lawsuit was filed by Downtown LA Law Group on October 15, 2024. The firm, also known as DTLA, is under investigation by the District Attorney, the State Bar and County Last year nine clients told The Times they were paid to file sexual abuse claims, some of which were fraudulent. DTLA has asked for at least three of the lawsuits to be dismissed.
The firm has denied all wrongdoing and said its lawyers “act with unwavering integrity, prioritizing client welfare.” The firm said through a spokesperson that DTLA rejects the majority of cases filtered through its office and cannot discuss specific clients due to “constraints of attorney client privilege.”
“Having said that, to our knowledge no one at the company has forced its customers or anyone else to sign anything,” DTLA said in a statement.
The Times confirmed that Dunlap was sued by DTLA through records that detail the firm’s clients in the L.A. County settlement. Like most sexual assault cases, all of the DTLA lawsuits were filed using only the plaintiff’s initials.
Dunlap, a 30-year-old fashion stylist, says he wanted to report the firm, but wasn’t sure how. On July 28, 2025, Dunlap sent an email to a law firm he found online, saying he wanted representation against the DTLA and help filing a State Bar complaint regarding “an attempt to include me in a class action settlement without consent.”
“I was told I needed to sign settlement paperwork for a case allegedly involving a juvenile claim. I made clear multiple times that I had no memory of the case, did not authorize representation, and firmly stated: ‘I do not want to be a part of this – remove me from the case,'” he wrote in the email.
“Despite this, I was told I couldn’t go because ‘it’s more complicated than that.'”
Dunlap said he never proceeded with trying to file a case against DTLA.
Melvin Dunlap, a 30-year-old fashion stylist, says his name was used to file a false sexual assault claim against LA County.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Dunlap has brought a few cases to DTLA over the past five years. The company that represented him in 2021 says he slipped in mop water at a hotel during a trip to visit his uncle, court records show. He says that he got about $1,700 for this. After moving to LA last year, he called the firm again when a driver ran over his foot.
In July 2025, he says, the firm called him and asked him to come to its downtown office on Broadway to discuss his case. He acknowledged that progress had been made in prosecuting the driver’s leg injury.
Instead, he said, he was taken to a glass office where a thin man named Alex in a baggy suit asked him to sign three packets of documents. No one told them what they were, he said.
Dunlap said, “I’m from the hood – you don’t just sign anything. So, I read the papers and it’s talking about some juvenile delinquent case out of California. And I’m like, I’m not even from California.” “I’m from St. Louis. I’ve never been to a juvie a day in my life.”
But, he said, the man continued to insist that he had.
“I feel like, ‘You’ve all got it wrong. I called you all about a little toe issue,'” Dunlap said. “He ignored it. He was like ‘No, no, no, it’s OK, just sign it.'”
After the county agreed to a $4 billion settlement in April 2025, each person suing was required to sign an agreement agreeing to the settlement in order to be eligible for payments, as well as a fact sheet detailing the abuse they suffered as a youth. Each case is eligible for up to $3 million, with attorneys covering between 33% and 45% in fees.
Dunlap said one document she was asked to sign appeared to be a questionnaire about the abuse while the other was some type of settlement agreement.
The county said it could not comment on whether DTLA submitted any additional documents, such as fact sheets, to Dunlap after the July 25 exchange due to “confidentiality provisions of the protective order and settlement agreement.”
Dunlap’s details deepen questions about how DTLA, a high-volume personal injury firm known for representing injured drivers, acquired so many sexual abuse plaintiffs — and whether some of them may have been unwitting participants.
The Times tracked down 10 people represented by DTLA in sexual assault settlements who, like Dunlap, had previously used the firm for personal injury lawsuits.
Before any money is distributed, former Superior Court Judge Daniel Buckley is investigating the firm’s affairs and interviewing people whose accounts raise red flags. The LA County District Attorney’s Office has also asked for a six-month delay in making payments and recently sent letters to law firms detailing hundreds of plaintiffs they believe require further investigation, according to a spokesperson for the district attorney.
Dunlap said he refused to sign the paperwork and tried to leave. But he said the man insisted Dunlap see “Bossman” and left him in the glass room for about five minutes as he went upstairs.
Dunlap said he had no interest in meeting the boss.
“Right now, it’s like a million thoughts running through my head,” Dunlap said. “I’m like, hey, is he going to get the cops? Am I going to go to jail? I have to get out of this office.”
The man came back and took Dunlap to an elevator to go to an office upstairs. Dunlap said as the man pressed the button to go up, he pressed the button to go down. The elevator hit the bottom floor and Dunlap says he was knocked out.
Downtown LA Law Group is currently under investigation by the State Bar and the District Attorney. The firm said it was not aware of anyone at the company forcing customers to sign anything.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Andrew Morrow, DTLA’s lead attorney who works on sexual assault cases, later sent Dunlap a photo of a retainer agreement with the firm dated Sept. 29, 2024, with a signature and Dunlap’s name printed on it, according to screenshots of text messages reviewed by The Times.
Dunlap said he did not recognize the signature on the document and that he had never signed a retainer for a sexual abuse case. The firm said in a statement that it uses “electronic processes to verify signatures.”
After the encounter, Dunlap texted Morrow, “What’s the matter with all of you?” “I didn’t even get a real apology, just more pressure about signing papers I had refused to sign multiple times.”
He added, “I told everyone over and over again that this is not me, I asked over and over again to leave.”
Morrow said he would dismiss the suit, but warned Dunlap that he was “leaving a lot of money to the bad guys who you said you hurt.”
The suit was not dismissed until March 23, leaving Dunlap part of the $4 billion settlement.
Dunlap says he is not interested in the money and believes the money should go to the actual victims. He says he just wants the case to end.
“So how do I get my name out?”
