Dartmouth College professors 'raped, sexted and groped students, invited cocaine use in class and hosted late night hot-tub parties' states $70M lawsuit filed by seven victims
By Chris Spargo
Daily Mail
November 15, 2018
The trustees of the smallest of the seven Ivy League schools have been hit with a $70 million lawsuit claiming the institution dismissed and later tried to cover up incidents of sexual harassment, assault and even rape.
Seven women filed a complaint in US District Court on Thursday alleging that three professors at Dartmouth College 'leered at, groped, sexted, intoxicated and even raped female students.'
The filing also states that 'these professors conducted professional lab meetings at bars, invited students to late-night 'hot tub parties' in their personal homes, and invited undergraduate students to use real cocaine during classes related to addiction as part of a 'demonstration.'
Six of the seven women are named in the court filing while the professors who allegedly committed these offenses are identified as Todd Heatherton, William Kelley and Paul Whalen.
The suit claims that the alleged predatory behavior of these men had reported to officials as far back as 2002, and the plaintiffs are demanding no less than $70 million in both compensatory and punitive damages.
Kelley and Whalen are each accused of raping a student after a night of drinking, attempting to seduce women under their supervision and punishing those who rebuffed their advances in the Department of Psychological and Brain Science (PBS).
Kristina Rapuano said that she was concerned that Kelley might try something at a conference and told him that she would do nothing more than drink with him on the night of her alleged assault, according to the complaint.
'Kelley sexually assaulted Ms. Rapuano in the early hours of March 28, 2015 by having vaginal intercourse and other sexual contact with her when he knew she was too incapacitated to consent,' reads the court filing.
'In the morning, Kelley told Ms. Rapuano that they had 'had sex' two times, and that Ms. Rapuano had 'freaked out' at some point during the sexual interaction.
'Ms. Rapuano has no memory of engaging in sexual intercourse, nor does she recall leaving the bar or how they returned to the hotel. Based on her physical state the following day, she has wondered whether Kelley drugged her.'
The filing goes on to state: 'For his part, Kelley acknowledged on different occasions that he was well aware of Ms. Rapuano's level of intoxication and knew that she had no recollection of that night.'
Vassiki Chauhan claims she was raped by Whelan after a night of heavy drinking on April 24, 2017 - 15 years after the first complaints about one of the men.
'When Whalen attempted to initiate sexual contact, Ms. Chauhan forcefully rejected his advances and told him not to touch her. Ms. Chauhan tried to leave his house several times by going downstairs. Each time, Whalen followed her downstairs and prevented her from leaving,' states the filing.
'Whalen then forced her to engage in non-consensual intercourse with him. When Ms. Chauhan told him to at least use protection, Whalen laughed and told her, "that is one thing I am not going to do."
'The next day, Whalen pressured Ms. Chauhan into meeting him and asked her whether she thought their encounter was consensual, demanding that she keep it private and tell no one.
'Following her sexual assault, Ms. Chauhan was in physical pain. As a result, she visited Dartmouth's medical facility and sought medical attention. After examining Ms. Chauhan, the medical practitioner asked if the sexual encounter had been forced. Whalen suggested that Ms. Chauhan was merely being 'paranoid' for seeking medical treatment.'
Both women state that they had endured a sexually hostile environment before and after these alleged sexual assaults.
Marissa Evans claims that Kelly sent her photos of his 'fully naked body, including his erect penis,' his 'genitalia with sex toys, including a penis "cage" and a penis "hat,"' and of himself 'engaged in sexual encounters with two unidentified persons.'
This all happened in the wake of Evans being raped by a male student who broke into her dorm room.
The complaint states that in addition to the more than 10 sexually explicit photos she received, Evans was also sent texts from Kelly 'describing his personal use of sex toys, his past sexual encounters, and his sexual preferences in terms of dominant/submissive roles; Asking Ms. Evans to describe her sexual practices and fantasies; Instructing Ms. Evans on how to perform oral sex on a woman; Seeking to assert sexual dominance by commanding Ms. Evans to masturbate and—likening her to a pet—calling her “good girl”; and expressing his intention to have sexual intercourse with her when she returned to Dartmouth in January 2017.'
Annemarie Brown claims in the complaint that the behavior of the professors may have played a role in her rejection from another Ivy league institution.
'Whalen and Kelley cultivated a hostile environment in which professional boundaries were virtually nonexistent. For example, after learning that Ms. Brown had just interviewed for a position at Harvard, Whalen and Kelley pressured her to take a picture with their arms around her and texted it to her potential Harvard supervisor with the caption "wish you were here,"' states the complaint.
'Days later, Harvard rejected Ms. Brown.'
These women each claim that they did everything they were supposed to do in an attempt to stop these behaviors, but officials did nothing.
'The seven plaintiffs, each an exemplary female scientist at the start of her career, came to Dartmouth to contribute to a crucial and burgeoning field of academy study,' states the complaint.
'Plaintiffs were instead sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by the Department's tenured professors and expected to tolerate increasing levels of sexual predation.'
Dartmouth praised the women for coming forward but denied allegations that it ignored complaints that allegedly date back almost two decades.
'I would like to reiterate that sexual misconduct and harassment have no place at Dartmouth,' said Dartmouth President Philip Hanlon in an email to the college community Thursday.
'We applaud the courage displayed by members of our community within PBS who brought the misconduct allegations to Dartmouth's attention last year. And we remain open to a fair resolution of the students' claims through an alternative to the court process.'
In October 2017, Dartmouth launched an investigation into the three professors. It never released the findings and was preparing to fire all three.
Heatherton retired this summer however after being told he would be fired and denied tenure. Whalen and Kelley resigned soon thereafter in a similar fashion.
Whalen and Kelley have yet to comment while a lawyer for Heatherton stated that the former professor admitted to behaving inappropriately at conferences but said he never had sexual relations with students.
Six of the plaintiffs were graduate students and one was an undergraduate at the time of the offenses.
The lawsuit paints a harrowing picture of women being forced to endure a program in which their academic careers were dependent on men who seemed mainly interested in drinking and getting them into bed.
Those who refused to take part in their parties or bar hopping were often denigrated or ignored, according to the lawsuit.
Repeatedly, the lawsuit alleges, the three would set about grooming incoming graduate students.
They would often comment on their physical appearances, give them extra attention and then bombarded them with invitations to drink with them at local bars or while out at conferences.
When the women would oblige, they would seek to get them drunk and take advantage of them.
The New Hampshire Attorney General's office has also launched its own criminal investigation into these allegations.
No comments:
Post a Comment