Former Medical Pupil Alleges Rape as a Results of Defendants’ Failure to Restore Defective Entrance Door
BALTIMORE, Feb. 23, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Attorneys at Sanford Heisler Sharp LLP in the present day filed a lawsuit in opposition to College Place Apts. LLC, College Place Apts. Accomplice, LLC and Signature Properties, LLC within the Circuit Court docket for Baltimore Metropolis, Maryland on behalf of Emily Doe, a former College of Maryland Medical Faculty scholar who was raped by a stranger after he gained entry to her residence by means of the defective entrance door of the constructing. The lawsuit alleges Defendants are responsible of Premises Legal responsibility for negligently failing to restore the recognized security threat.
Emily Doe is represented within the matter by Christine Dunn and Steven J. Kelly, Companions within the Baltimore workplace of Sanford Heisler Sharp LLP and Co-Chairs of the Legal/Sexual Violence Apply Group, and Clare J. Horan, an affiliate in the identical workplace.
In line with the grievance, Emily Doe was a 26-year-old medical scholar dwelling within the College Place Residences, a fancy marketed particularly to college students due to its proximity to the College of Maryland. Late one evening, in Could 2018, a wierd man entered Emily Doe’s residence, violently held her down, wrapped his arm round her neck and raped her, threatening all through that he would kill her if she made a sound. The person was capable of entry the constructing by means of the malfunctioning entrance door of the residence constructing. The entrance door was presupposed to be a safe, locked door, accessible solely by coming into a keypad code, however as a substitute it didn’t shut correctly.
Previous to the rape, Emily Doe complained to constructing administration that the defective door posed a safety threat. In truth, in an e mail despatched to constructing residents, the constructing’s administration acknowledged the security threat posed by a door that was not correctly closed. This was particularly problematic in a neighborhood with recognized excessive crime charges. The defective door was well-known amongst residents and upon info and perception, different residents raised comparable issues with the constructing’s administration. Regardless of the complaints, Defendants didn’t restore the door—a restore that, in keeping with the grievance, would have been a minimal value.
“The sexual assault on Emily Doe was totally preventable if the Defendants had fulfilled their obligation to restore a recognized faulty situation,” stated Dunn. “The Defendants knew that the entrance door didn’t shut correctly however they turned a blind eye and did nothing about it, thereby placing their residents at severe threat.”
“Shockingly, after I visited the residence constructing two years after the rape, the entrance door had nonetheless not been repaired and I used to be capable of open it simply,” stated Kelly. “Even figuring out {that a} rape had occurred within the constructing didn’t spur the Defendants to make the straightforward however crucial restore.”
Emily Doe endured bodily accidents together with bruises and lacerations on account of the sexual assault and strangulation. As well as, Emily Doe has suffered and continues to endure from psychological anguish and emotional ache and struggling. The grievance seeks compensatory damages, non-economic damages, and different damages, the precise quantity to be decided at trial. The grievance additionally alleges that Emily Doe is entitled to punitive damages.
About Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP
Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP is a nationwide public curiosity class-action litigation legislation agency with workplaces in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Nashville, and Baltimore. Sanford Heisler Sharp focuses on employment discrimination, wage and hour, whistleblower, prison/sexual violence, and monetary providers issues.
For extra info contact: Jamie Moss, newsPRos, 201.493.1027, jamie@newspros.com
