A South Florida college student said she was sexually assaulted inside her dorm room and is filing a lawsuit against the university, citing lapses in security at campus housing.
The alleged assault happened in the early morning hours of Sept. 12 at The Willie C. Robinson dorms, an all-female dormitory at Florida Memorial University.
According to the lawsuit, the freshman student was asleep in her bed when she was awoken at around 3 a.m. by two drunk men.
The attackers threatened the victim with violence if she did not comply with their demands, the suit alleged. One of them "brutally sexually assaulted" her as she tried to escape.
The lawsuit said the attackers were able to enter and escape the dormitory through fire exit doors that the university allegedly knew were not secured or monitored by security personnel.
"The problem here is that there is a main entrance that is monitored by an RA and that entrance is monitored 24 hours a day, but they know people are going in and out of these fire exit doors, and they are still not monitoring and still not securing them," said attorney Thomas Hasty.
According to the court filing, the victim ran to a neighbor's dorm and the men got away without any alarm going off in the building.
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"They escaped after the assault laughing, walking out the fire exit door, and to date, we have not identified them," Hasty said.
The victim has since transferred out of the university.
Florida Memorial University officials said they could not comment on the case.
