Dorm workers fired in 2009 disturbance on campus also suing university

BY ASHLEY THOMAS
FLORIDA COURIER

An 18-year-old who said she was gang-raped by members of Bethune-Cookman (B-CU) University basketball team has filed a suit against the Daytona Beach school.

The young woman, identified as a former freshman female student at B-CU, is seeking damages for an alleged sexual assault by several members of the men’s basketball team.

Due to the nature of the suit, her name will not be used in the lawsuit filing documents.

No arrests made

As previously reported in the Florida Courier, an incident was reported in December 2010 in which a B-CU women’s basketball player accused members of the men’s basketball team of sexually assaulting her.

A police report filed with the Daytona Beach Police Department named former B-CU star basketball player C.J. Reed, son of the school’s former basketball Coach Clifford Reed, in the attack. C.J., who has left the school to play at the University of Central Florida, was never charged.

A probe was halted after the female student told officers she did not wish further investigation into the matter.

Suit alleges drinking, then assault

According to the lawsuit, Reed picked the female student up on the evening of Dec. 5, 2010 and the pair began drinking alcohol while in his car. After "two sips’’ of an unknown substance, she "became incapacitated, and passed in and out of consciousness,’’ the suit states.

The document further states the female student then heard Reed make a phone call to other members of the B-CU basketball team on his cell phone. She told him she felt sick and wanted to go home and he allegedly drove back to the university campus, picked up three other students and "from that point forward and continuing throughout the night and into the next morning, … the student was repeatedly sexually assaulted and/or gang raped by Reed and other members of the men’s basketball team."

B-CU accused of causing ‘further harm’

The complaint alleges that B-CU caused "further harm" to the female student by "failing to immediately suspend" C.J. Reed Jr. and all others who participated in the alleged assault, "in violation of the University’s Standards of Conduct and Judicial Affairs; failing to conduct a disciplinary investigation or otherwise enforce its rules and regulations prohibiting student alcohol use, sexual activity, and sexual assault; failing to report the assault to the NCAA, as required by applicable NCAA rules; discouraging … (the female student) from proceeding in any way on the matter; and by otherwise negligently or willfully covering up the sexual assault."

By continuing to require her to associate with Reed and her other accusers during such times as away basketball games, the complaint contends that the female student was further humiliated, caused additional grief, embarrassment and emotional distress.

The suit adds that the plaintiff "had no choice but to resign from the university, and in doing so lost her athletic scholarship."

The suit further alleges negligence on behalf of the school’s treatment and response to the alleged sexual assault on the female student and requests judgment against the school in excess of the jurisdictional $15,000 limit for her suffering of bodily injury, mental anguish, loss of scholarship and loss of earning capacity among others.

An effort to reach C.J. Reed by the Courier’s deadline was unsuccessful and former B-CU Coach Clifford Reed would not comment on the suit on Wednesday when reached by a Courier reporter by telephone.

Third suit in 10 days

The suit is one of three filed in Volusia County in the past 10 days naming B-CU as defendant. The suits range from an "array of items" including circuit, small claims and business torts.

The university is named in at least 14 suits with nine being filed in 2011. Of the 14, five also name Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed, university president, as a defendant.

In each of the latest three suits, the plaintiffs seek monetary damages in excess of $15,000.

2 fired after ’09 disturbance sue

Amid the other 12 suits, former B-CU employees Arthur Miles and Emerson Beckles filed separate suits against the university in the past week seeking retribution for damages they say they suffered after their dismissal from the school relating to a September 2009 disturbance on campus.

The incident made national headlines when about 100 students engaged in what was called a "brawl’’ at a men’s dormitory.

Nine people were treated by rescue workers at the scene, five for inhalation from fire extinguisher discharge, and four for minor injuries from fights. One B-CU student, Curtis M. Fluker, 18, was arrested on a charge of felony criminal mischief allegedly after he threw a chair through a window, an action that was captured on video.

The incident

Miles and Beckles were both live-in housing managers, also referred to as deans at the time of the incident which escalated into a "brawl’’ after a student hung a hanger on a sprinkler inside his room which set off the entire system flooding many areas of the dorm.

The managers were accused by B-CU’s president of mishandling the incident.

Questioned policies and procedures

The former housing managers assert they were fired after alerting the university president to the absence of policies and procedures which potentially affected their safety, the safety of the students and the safety of coworkers during the incident and in general.

The lawsuit contends that policies and procedures brought to the attention of applicable B-CU staff included inadequate means of communication with campus safety during and evacuation due to fire and/or emergencies contrary to state fire marshal codes, inadequate training for staff in conducting fire drills and evacuations, and inadequate staffing on campus to monitor alarms and control panels 24 hours daily in case of fire or other emergencies contrary to state fire marshal codes among others.

After making these concerns known the pair’s complaints state B-CU demanded the two to "not file an affidavit in support of criminal complaint filed by a co-worker against one of defendant’s (B-CU’s) students for the plaintiff’s protection and the protection of other individual on campus."

The claims assert that the pair was "terminated for objecting to those illegal policies practices and/or procedures," resulting in a loss of wages, loss of value of housing and the expense of relocating.’’

The claims filed by each former housing manager also assert defamation of character alleging comments given by President Reed to the media in 2009 were "false, intended to degrade and injure the plaintiff and his good name" among others when she stated she believed the plaintiff struck a student who had bruises on his chest and "they (Miles and Beckles) had no right to use force against our students" and that the plaintiffs used "horrible profanity" during the ruckus.

Both suits also state a loss of benefits, mental anguish and humiliation.

B-CU was unable to provide a comment due to pending litigation.