A New Jersey college student claims a graduate from her school raped her and posted a video of the attack on Snapchat– yet was never charged with sexual assault, according to court papers and the student’s lawyer.
The woman, who is unnamed, claims she was assaulted by a man she met at a frat party on two separate occasions in February 2017 on the campus of Stockton University, according to a civil lawsuit she filed last week.
The first assault allegedly happened after the two went back to the woman’s dorm together after a raucous, off-campus frat party filled with heavy drinking, the suit alleges.
The woman, 18, at the time, woke up feeling sore and was later told by a friend that the man, who was 24 at the time, had sex with her when she was passed out and incapacitated by booze, the suit and her lawyer claim.
The woman’s lawyer said she was taken advantage of and led to believe the man had intentions to date her so she decided to have him back over to her dorm five days later — on Valentine’s Day. Once there, he tried to ply her with vodka, which she refused, court papers said.
“Plaintiff told the defendant that she ‘wanted to remember this time’ because it was Valentine’s Day. The defendant replied, ‘We’ll see,'” the lawsuit claims.
The woman, who chose to drink wine instead, believes the man spiked her drink with a date rape drug when she was in the bathroom because after she returned and they smooched, she blacked out, the suit alleges.
The next morning, the woman woke up in her bed naked and covered in vomit and discovered the man posted three SnapChat videos where he sexually assaulted her while she was incapacitated, the suit claims.
She contacted police shortly after and went to the hospital to undergo a rape kit, the suit said. The victim’s lawyer said they’re waiting on medical records to determine if there was evidence of a date rape drug in her system.
The woman then proceeded to text the man and ask him to remove the videos, but he only removed two of the three, her suit claims.
In April this year, the man was charged with invasion of privacy for recording a sex act without consent — but was not charged with sexual assault, the woman’s lawyer said, adding he hopes they reconsider.
He said his client underwent a rape kit and provided DNA evidence and her testimony is “very clear” and the case is “fairly straightforward.”
For the civil suit, the woman is seeking damages for psychological and emotional distress, depression and damage to her reputation.
The woman said she reported the incident to officials at the Galloway, NJ university, but it never launched a full investigation, the suit alleges.
The school’s director of resident life proposed she leave for the rest of the semester and when her grades dropped, she did and didn’t come back, the suit claims.
The woman said Stockton — which along with frat Pi Kappa Phi, and the alleged attacker are named in the suit– failed to protect her because the residential adviser in her dorm did not check on her despite loud music and underage drinking happening in her room on Valentine’s Day, court papers said.
Stockton University told the outlet in a statement that it has referred the matter to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.