Woman Restaurant Patron Raped in Hotel Ladies’ Room
A woman excused herself from her dinner companions to go to the ladies’ room, which was located in the basement level of an upscale hotel in downtown St. Louis. While in the ladies’ room, a man entered and raped her. The hotel management had previously closed the restroom after deciding that it was too remote and dangerous, but later reopened the rest room without providing for any kind of security improvements. This case resulted in the first major Missouri Supreme Court opinion establishing that private business owners can be held responsible for the criminal acts of others against business invitees. This case has been cited in hundreds of other opinions across the United States.
Customer of Carry-Out BBQ Restaurant Kidnapped from Parking Lot and Raped
A woman stopped to pick up a food order at a neighborhood restaurant in a high crime area. The restaurant had been the scene of several armed robberies and other assaults. The kidnapper forced the woman to drive to at least two remote locations, raping her and sodomizing her with a knife. The woman sued the restaurant owners and her case resulted in a landmark Missouri Supreme Court opinion greatly expanding the rights of crime victims to sue business owners who fail to responsibly secure their property.
Two Teenage Girls Raped at Knifepoint in Apartment. “SECURITY BARS” Were Attached to Outside Window with Standard Phillips Screws
Two 19 year old students rented an apartment in a large mid-western city. They asked if the first floor apartment was safe, since the young women were new to the area. The manager assured them that there had been no crime at any of the several hundred units the company owned. Management also pointed out to the two girls that the windows were protected by “burglar-proof” bars. The girls agreed to lease the apartment. Shortly after moving in, the young women returned home after running errands. A man hiding in their closet attacked and raped the women at knifepoint. The police found that one of the bars had been removed with a common screwdriver. The “burglar-proof” bars had been installed on the outside of the windows with standard screws. Our investigation demonstrated a wide pattern of prior burglaries and assaults in dozens of apartments owned by the same people, including a prior break-in at the young victims’ very apartment only months before they moved in. Under cross examination, the apartment manager admitted the owners of the complex ordered her to lie to prospective tenants about crime on the premises even though there had been prior rapes, burglaries and assaults at the complex.
Elderly Woman Attacked and Stabbed 7 Times in Her Car While Parking Lot Guards Stand Only Yards Away
As a 70 year old shopper sat in her car at a grocery store parking lot, a person high on PCP wandering the parking lot attacked hew with a knife in an attempt to steal her car. Although the car was parked within yards of the entrance to the busy store, the armed guards were nowhere to be found and did not respond to the victim’s screams. The assailant stabbed the woman 7 times and was finally stopped by passing shoppers. The parking lot had been the scene of countless prior violent crimes, but few improvements had been made in the security.
Department Store Employee Kidnapped from Remote Employee Parking Lot Despite Employee Complaints About Safety of Parking Lot
This victim was an employee of a large department store in a major urban shopping mall. Even though many other employees complained, they were forced to park in a remote corner of the mall parking lot in order to give shoppers parking spaces nearer the entrances. On the evening in question, two men with lengthy prison records were wandering the mall parking lot seeking out an easy victim. One of the men later testified that they followed up to 20 potential victims out of the stores. He said they abandoned each robbery attempt because the customers parked too close to the store entrances and they feared detection. Finally, they saw the victim arrive at work and drive to the remote employee parking area. They rushed to her car, taking her by surprise and forced her into the back seat and drove off the lot. After several hours, the men drove the car to the middle of a bridge, shot the woman and threw her from the bridge into the icy river below as she pleaded for her life.
Female Apartment Tenant Raped by Intruder Who Gained Entry Through Defective Sliding Glass Door
A young North Carolina woman applied to rent an apartment in a modern luxury complex. The manager showed her a first floor apartment. She was worried about being on the first floor and specifically requested an upper story apartment. Management told the young woman that none was available but that the first floor apartments were completely safe. The manager affirmed that there had been no crime anywhere in the complex. As it turned out, this was false. There had been a wide pattern of break-ins, assaults and armed robberies in the complex. After only a few weeks of occupancy, a man entered the apartment while she was asleep by prying open a sliding glass door that had an inadequate lock. He raped the tenant in her apartment. The sliding glass door was not fitted with a secondary locking device that would have cost the complex under $5 to install. An apartment manager testified that the expense was not authorized by the owners of the complex, since there were over 100 first floor apartments. Management was aware that the primary locks on these sliding glass doors were inadequate and that there had been numerous break-ins at the complex through these doors where there was no secondary lock installed. Immediately after the tenant was raped, she moved from the apartment complex. Two young women rented the very apartment where the victim was raped. These prospective tenants also asked about crime, and despite the manager’s direct knowledge of the recent rape, she told the young women there was not a crime problem at the complex.
Mental Patient Raped by Her Psychiatrist
While a patient in a large metropolitan hospital, a severely troubled female psychiatric patient was raped by her psychiatrist in her room. The doctor then recommended several electric shock treatments allegedly in an attempt to make her forget the incident. She had very little recall of the entire visit to the hospital as a result. After the patient’s release from the hospital, the woman was watching a movie when one of the actors began to look extremely familiar to her – the actor looked exactly like the doctor. She still did not recall the rape. Later, as she was entering the hospital for an outpatient visit, she saw the psychiatrist standing outside the hospital, recognizing his face but not recalling who he was. After a few days, her memory of the rape returned and the woman called the police. No charges were filed because so much time had passed and there was no physical evidence. Through months of investigation, and without physical evidence, we were able to prove conclusively that the female patient had, in fact, been raped by the doctor.
Supermarket Customer Carjacked and Shot to Death on Parking Lot
After church band practice, a young man decided to stop at a large supermarket with two friends. While his two companions went into the store to shop, the young man sat in his late model luxury car on the parking lot. Four gang members wearing yellow bandannas covering their faces had been wandering around the parking lot for more than 30 minutes, looking for cars to steal. Two of the gang members eventually approached the young man and, at gunpoint, ordered him out of his car. After taking his keys, they shot the young man. He died hours later at a local hospital. The store owners argued that they could not have prevented the murder and, in fact, it had guards outside who simply were unable to see the murderers wandering the parking lot at all. During our investigation, we learned that the murderers had attempted to car-jack two other shoppers as they wore the masks on their faces. The first of these attempted car-jackings occurred only 30 feet from where the guards were supposed to be stationed. This particularly lucky shopper saw the men approach with masks on and with a gun and sped out of the lot as fast as he could, making significant noise with his tires. Nonetheless, the guards said they saw nothing and heard no car exit the lot.
Young Woman Kidnapped from Parking Garage and Raped by Security Guard
Several young people parked in a large parking garage to attend a night time music festival. When one of the girls returned to the garage, she found her friends had left her. She and a male companion approached the parking garage security guard for help, who told them he would make arrangements to drive them home after he completed his shift. The young man slept in the office while his woman companion napped in the guard’s car. In the middle of the night, the guard slipped into the car and drove out of the garage with the woman still sleeping in the back seat. He drove her to another state, raped her and threatened to kill her. Instead, he drove her back to the neighborhood of the garage and dropped her off. The guard had been hired by the guard service even though he was being sought for the murder of a 13 year old girl in Iowa. On his employment application, the guard listed the aunt of the murdered girl as a character reference. He also listed a contractor in Nebraska as a former employer. Actually, the “contractor” was a prison work crew foreman who had supervised the rapist during a long prison sentence. No reference was checked prior to hiring the guard.
Parents Murdered in Front of 8 Year Old Daughter in Their Apartment
An 8 year old girl was staying with her father and step-mother at their apartment building. Suddenly the door to their apartment was kicked open and three men with guns rushed in. The step-mother, sensing what was about to happen, pulled a blanket over herself and her step-daughter. The little girl then heard a shot and heard the father collapse to the ground as he begged the men to spare his wife and daughter. The men then killed the step-mother. The men had left their car running outside a rear door to the building during the 20 minute crime. The armed guard who was to have been on duty at the door where the murderers broke into the building had failed to appear for work that evening. In fact, he showed up at the beginning of his shift and filled out a patrol log for the 8 hours he was supposed to work, fabricating the entire evening’s events. He slipped the patrol log under the manager’s locked door and then left the building. Upon examining the guard’s false report, it read that an hour after the murders took place, “everything was normal at the building” while, in fact, scores of police officers and detectives were combing the entire building and investigating the double homicide.