In a 2014 federal civil lawsuit filed against Curtis by his three victims in the criminal sexual conduct case plus a fourth Lakewood High School student accuser with similar claims, Curtis was found liable for battery against the four girls by Janet Neff, U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of Michigan. A former Lakewood Public Schools board member who had started a group ministry with Curtis, Brian Potter, revealed for the first time in a 2015 deposition that Curtis had admitted to him in May 2012 that Curtis kissed one of the victims and had been "inappropriate," but that Potter had not reported the conversation to authorities. In June 2017 Curtis' victims settled a civil lawsuit against Lakewood Public Schools for $575,000.