What happened to you at PAL was not okay, and the city has said so 230 times.

Eric Uller ran computers and vans and errands at the Santa Monica Police Activities League for thirty years, and he used every bit of it to get close to children. He was arrested in 2018 and died before he could be tried. Since then the city has paid about $230 million to more than 230 people. Now there is a second wave, roughly 180 more claims, and the city has decided to fight them in court instead of settling. If you were a PAL kid and never came forward, this page tells you where that leaves you.

The first two rounds settled. The third is being contested: the city has set fourteen cases for trial in 2027 and is talking about fraud. New claims are still being filed, and anyone coming forward now needs a lawyer who will actually try the case, and a record that holds up.

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6 questions. Your answers are private and go to one person.

This applies to you no matter what

• You never filed. The two settled rounds had a claim deadline at the end of 2022, and you missed it, or never knew about it. New claims were still being filed in December 2025.
• You told somebody in the 1990s. So did others: the city's own file showed a 1991 background check that turned up an earlier arrest involving a child and a 1995 report that was answered with an instruction to stop gossiping. That is the cover-up the settlements were built on.
• You are over 40. So is nearly everyone who was a PAL kid in the Uller years, which is why the age deadline is not the one that matters here; the discovery clock is, five years from the day you understood what it did to you, and that turns on a conversation.
• The word fraud scares you, because the city has used it about the new claims. What answers that word is a real record, and it is the reason our questions are the ones they are.
• You're one of the 230. Then you have been paid, and there is nothing here for you except our respect. This page is for the ones who weren't.
• You're a sibling, a spouse, a friend asking for someone who can't. Reach out anyway.

The PAL record: the arrest, the settlements, the second wave, and when

We didn't write what's below. The City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Daily Press did, and we link to every one. We don't add to it.

We checked this on September 11, 2026, and the newest thing in it is from December 12, 2025. When something new gets filed or decided, it goes in here within 72 hours, with the link.

Who can be held responsible in a Santa Monica PAL lawsuit

The City of Santa Monica. Uller is dead and PAL was a city program, so the city is the defendant, and it has already paid out on the theory that it knew: a background check that showed a prior arrest, a report in 1995, a man kept in the building for another twenty years. It is a public body, which means no punitive damages but no cap either, and for abuse after 2009 no government-claim hurdle before you file. Almost all of PAL is before 2009, so the claims rules are a lawyer's question.

What changed in 2025 is the city's posture, not the facts. It settled 230 cases. On the next 180 it is going to trial. That means a claim filed now has to be built like a trial exhibit from the first call, and it means we will not take a name we can't stand behind.

Your deadline: the California statute of limitations, and the settlement deadline you may have missed

Your situation still qualifies even if

• You never told a soul. He drove you home. He knew your parents.
• You're over 40 and assume that's the end of it.
• You saw the $230 million and figured the money is gone. The city is litigating the next round because it has to defend a budget, not because the claims aren't real.
• You don't want to be lumped in with anyone the city is calling a fraud. Neither do we, and it is the reason we ask real questions.
• You live somewhere else now. Most people do, by the time they're ready.

Programs covered

The Santa Monica Police Activities League youth center and every PAL activity, trip, ride and event from 1987 to 2018, and other City of Santa Monica youth programs where Uller volunteered. A different city's PAL? The questions still work. Answer them and say where.

Who sees your form

Kerim Eravci · Survivor Advocate · Not a lawyer

I was a victim, and I waited. Not because I didn't know what happened to me (I knew every day), but because I'd decided it was over, mine to carry, nobody's business. When I finally went looking for a lawyer, the answer came back in two words I'd never thought about: statute of limitations. My time had run out while I was busy getting through it.

What that has cost me since is a long story, and I'll tell you the whole thing in private, if you want it. The short version is the reason my name is on this page: I'm here to help people do what I wish I'd done, which is find out where you stand while the door's still open.

I'm not a lawyer. I read what you send, I call you once, on your terms, and nothing gets filed unless you say so. Ask sooner than I did.

Kerim Eravci is not an attorney. He's a survivor.

What happens next. Three steps, nothing more until you say so.

1. You answer 6 questions. Nothing is filed. Nothing starts.
2. A survivor calls you, once. Not a robot, not a call center. Someone who has been where you are.
3. You decide. You find out your options. If you want to stop there, you stop there.

How this works

ME2 Survivors Alliance protects the heart. Licensed California attorneys do the legal work. We are not lawyers and we don't pretend to be.

You never pay a dollar

Every case is on contingency. There is no charge for the call, the review, or the case. The firm is paid only out of a recovery, and if there is no recovery you owe nothing.