Kristin Smart's family sues Cal Poly 

After almost 30 years, Cal Poly is facing repercussions for how it handled the disappearance of Stockton-raised student Kristin Smart from its campus.

On Jan. 18, the Smart family—her parents, Stan and Denise, and her siblings, Lindsey Stewart and Matthew—filed a lawsuit against the university alleging negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and wrongful death.

"In August [2023], the Smart family followed Cal Poly's requisite claims-filing procedures, and filed claims under the California Government Claims Act," Erin Reding, an attorney representing the Smart, family told New Times on Jan. 22. "In September, Cal Poly informed the family that it was the university's position that the family's claims were not timely presented. As set forth more fully in the complaint, the claims were, in fact, timely because they did not begin to accrue until May 2023, when Cal Poly's president publicly apologized."

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• File Photo By Jayson Mellom
• JUSTICE DELAYED In April 2021 at Cal Poly, SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson announced that the Sheriff's Office had arrested Paul Flores and his father in connection with Kristin Smart's 1996 disappearance. The Smart family recently sued the university.

According to the California Government Claims Act, claims are bound by a time limit of six months from the date of personal injury, personal property damage, and/or wrongful death.

Cal Poly President Jeff Armstrong's apology to the family included a recognition that "things should have been done differently—and I personally wish that they had," according to the lawsuit. It prompted the Smarts to understand the university's failings, Reding added.

"The family still does not know what information in the possession of Cal Poly led the president to make the apology," she said.

In May 1996, Smart went missing after walking to her dorm with college peer Paul Flores after a party. He was reportedly the last person to see her. Her disappearance catapulted a seemingly never-ending search started by her family and later including local law enforcement. Smart was declared legally dead in 2002. Law enforcement arrested Flores and his father in connection to the disappearance in 2021. Last March, following a heavily scrutinized trial, Flores was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. His father was acquitted by a separate jury. But Smart's remains are still missing.

The Smart family's lawsuit alleges that Cal Poly failed to properly investigate her disappearance. The complaint states that the university police department took a missing person's report and interviewed people four days after Smart went missing. Campus police also allegedly didn't interview Flores until then even though multiple people identified him as the last person they saw with Smart. Further, the lawsuit states, Cal Poly Police Department [CPPD] didn't search his dorm room until 16 days after she disappeared.

"CPPD did not have a crime scene investigator on staff, struggled to retain such an investigator from another jurisdiction because they were 'too busy,' and did not conduct a formal crime scene investigation of Flores' room until 31 days after Kristin disappeared," the complaint reads.

The document detailed that Flores had harmed women before Smart's disappearance and continued to do so after. The earliest report mentioned in the lawsuit dates to December 1995 when a female Cal Poly student filed a police report stating that Flores harassed her by climbing the trellis of her apartment building to spy on her from the balcony.

Multiple women accused Flores of sexual misconduct in the years after Smart disappeared. At his trial in Salinas, two women, referred to in court as Sarah Doe and Rhonda Doe, alleged that he had sexually assaulted them more than a decade prior.

"If Cal Poly had expelled or even suspended Flores, he would not have attended classes and could have lost access to his on-campus housing," the complaint reads. "These repercussions could have sent Flores home to his family in Arroyo Grande, miles away from Kristin and the dorm room where he murdered her."

Cal Poly spokesperson Matt Lazier told New Times the university has no comment because the lawsuit is a pending legal issue. Δ