RICHMOND, Va. — A woman who says Old Dominion University police interrogated her for nearly eight hours before allowing her to get a medical exam to preserve evidence of her reported rape filed a federal lawsuit against the school Friday.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Norfolk and obtained by The Associated Press, accuses the school and campus officers of unlawfully detaining the woman, intentionally inflicting emotional harm on her and violating Title IX after her alleged sexual assault in October 2014. Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in any educational program receiving federal funds.
The woman says police held her in a locked conference room for hours — without any family members or a victim advocate — instead of taking her to get a rape kit, even though she told the officers she had an appointment and was still bleeding from the sexual assault.
She claims the officers treated her like a criminal instead of a victim and denied her access to food, water and use of the bathroom. She says the officers told her that her alleged attacker had been given food and water in a nearby room, demonstrating “that ODU was treating a reported rapist better than her, the reported rape victim,” the lawsuit says.
The detectives “knew the prompt collection of forensic evidence could support Ms. Doe’s report of rape and provide sufficient probable cause to arrest (her alleged attacker), but instead they intentionally denied her timely access to receiving such collection services. Instead they conducted back-to-back interrogations, during which time they expressed repeated criticism of her criminal complaint,” the lawsuit says. The filing identified the detectives as Robert Taylor and Christopher S. Jones.
The woman, who is not identified, filed a complaint with federal education officials in October accusing the school of mishandling her case. In that complaint, she claimed the school violated the Clery Act, which requires schools to inform victims about their options to notify law enforcement after an assault, among other things. The education department could fine the school up to $35,000 per Clery violation.
A criminal investigation was launched after the assault, but the alleged attacker was never charged, the woman’s attorney, Laura Dunn, has said. Dunn, who is executive director of the Washington-based nonprofit, SurvJustice, declined to comment on the lawsuit beyond what’s in the complaint.
