Go Back  PPRuNe Forums > Flight Deck Forums > Rumours & News
Reload this Page >

Another Captain Rape Claim Lawsuit Filed in Seattle

Rumours & News Reporting Points that may affect our jobs or lives as professional pilots. Also, items that may be of interest to professional pilots.

Another Captain Rape Claim Lawsuit Filed in Seattle

Old 3rd May 2018, 15:38
  #1 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Posts: 5,898
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Another Captain Rape Claim Lawsuit Filed in Seattle

As the lawsuit says, the Captain's 'grossly abusive actions epitomize the purpose and necessity of the #MeToo movement'.

Flight attendant sues SkyWest Airlines over alleged drugging, rape by captain during layover

Originally published April 26, 2018 at 6:00 am Updated April 27, 2018 at 10:00 am
By Lewis Kamb Seattle Times staff reporter
They had hung out a few times before, just as friends — a captain and a flight attendant, sharing camaraderie and a love of hockey.

But now, Mary E. Morgan wants nothing to do with the senior pilot — not after that hazy night in late November 2016, when Morgan claims he drugged and raped her during a layover in Edmonton, Alberta, before a return flight to Seattle.Months after reporting the alleged sexual assault to Canadian police — and to her longtime employer, SkyWest Airlines — Morgan said she’s tired of living and working in fear.The man she says assaulted her, Capt. Robert L. Rowe, continues to fly for the airline, she says. And Morgan contends her employer has done nothing to protect her from crossing his path again: Both employees for SkyWest remain “domiciled,” or based out of Sea-Tac International Airport, she says.

“I’m exhausted, I’m scared, I want to keep my job — I love my job,” said Morgan, 39, who has worked for SkyWest for 14 years, most recently commuting from her home in Victoria, British Columbia. “But this shouldn’t happen. I shouldn’t have to be terrified to go to work.”

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/flight-attendant-sues-skywest-airlines-over-alleged-drugging-rape-by-captain-during-layover/

And, as with the previous suit, the action is filed by Lincoln C. Beauregard, Esq. and his colleagues.

The new lawsuit is posted here:

https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...t-SkyWest.html
Airbubba is offline  
Old 4th May 2018, 07:10
  #2 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Great South East, tired and retired
Posts: 4,364
Received 203 Likes on 92 Posts
Where can you buy "date rape" drugs??? Aren't they restricted? If so, how can somebody holding an aircrew medical still be fit to fly if prescribed to have such drugs?
Ascend Charlie is online now  
Old 4th May 2018, 10:05
  #3 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Alaska, PNG, etc.
Age: 60
Posts: 1,550
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by Ascend Charlie
Where can you buy "date rape" drugs??? Aren't they restricted? If so, how can somebody holding an aircrew medical still be fit to fly if prescribed to have such drugs?
Are you serious?????? You haven't ever heard that people sell drugs illegally? Both illegal drugs and prescription pharmaceuticals obtained outside legal channels? Have you been living under a rock?
A Squared is offline  
Old 5th May 2018, 04:01
  #4 (permalink)  
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Derbyshire, England.
Posts: 4,091
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Ascend Charlie

Where can you buy "date rape" drugs??? Aren't they restricted? If so, how can somebody holding an aircrew medical still be fit to fly if prescribed to have such drugs?
An often prescribed sleeping tablet, won't name it here, is the most common 'date rape' drug. Pilots, especially long haul pilots, can lose their circadian rhythm and sleep becomes a very hit and miss affair, (even fifteen years after retiring!). The various aviation regulating authorities have their own rules and restrictions on just which sleeping pills working crew can take, usually something low dose that is out of the system quite quickly and probably not including the drug I am aware of, in well publicised court cases, as having been used for date rape. If a pilot is prescribed a sleeping tablet it remains his/her responsibility to report for work in a drug free state.
parabellum is offline  
Old 5th May 2018, 04:47
  #5 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: phoenix, AZ, USA
Posts: 245
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
No idea to the merits of this accusation. The timing, however, is a little suspect, almost two years later.

Washington State has a state law that makes employers liable in a case such as this where someone in a supervisory position has assaulted someone under their direct control. Since corporations have deep pockets that’s where the lawyers flock.
cactusbusdrvr is offline  
Old 5th May 2018, 06:29
  #6 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Warwick
Posts: 197
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Reading through the lawsuit, Item 12 neglects to detail when she reported the incident to her senior flight attendant and police, same day? or a year later?. If it was same day any police authority would have interviewed the pilot and if her condition was as stated in Item 10 that pilot would be in serious trouble, guilty or not.

if reported much later her story could be entirely invention, the effects of these drugs has been widely reported online and although they will be available legally and illegally there does not appear to be any evidence whatsoever. So does every captain have to be escorted by a chaperone to avoid claims.
Deltasierra010 is offline  
Old 5th May 2018, 15:29
  #7 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Alberta
Posts: 281
Received 17 Likes on 3 Posts
Originally Posted by Ascend Charlie
Airline captains live in 5-star hotels, not under rocks, and generally don't frequent places where the undesirables sell illegal drugs. They are nice people and don't do this sort of thing.

And anyway, "she was asking for it".
Ascend Charlie
Not sure where you live but in Canada we have had Police officers arrested for selling drugs to other Police officers so what makes airline captains living in a 5 star hotel so Godly???

And as for your comment that she was asking for it Really go crawl Back under what ever rock you crawled out from. That like saying the pedestrian deserved to be run over because he was on a sidewalk.

Last edited by Bksmithca; 5th May 2018 at 15:30. Reason: spelling
Bksmithca is online now  
Old 5th May 2018, 15:37
  #8 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: PA
Age: 59
Posts: 30
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by Ascend Charlie
Airline captains live in 5-star hotels, not under rocks, and generally don't frequent places where the undesirables sell illegal drugs. They are nice people and don't do this sort of thing.

And anyway, "she was asking for it".
You are kidding arent you?
underfire is offline  
Old 5th May 2018, 19:15
  #9 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Everett, WA
Age: 68
Posts: 4,392
Received 179 Likes on 87 Posts
Reading through the lawsuit, Item 12 neglects to detail when she reported the incident to her senior flight attendant and police, same day? or a year later?
According to a report I heard on the local radio, she claims she initially reported it within 24 hours - after that it got more vague but supposedly she was told it was being looked in to.
tdracer is online now  
Old 5th May 2018, 21:50
  #10 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: world
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by tdracer
According to a report I heard on the local radio, she claims she initially reported it within 24 hours - after that it got more vague but supposedly she was told it was being looked in to.
well she has the go to attorney advising her now, and if she is in fact saying that she reported it back then, I'd say its a pretty good bet she did, for obvious reasons, as in there would be a record.

Assuming that, the question really is, what did the company do?

For sure, "looking into" ain't gonnna get it.
costalpilot is offline  
Old 5th May 2018, 22:17
  #11 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Posts: 5,898
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
The new 'improved' PPRuNe interface makes posting a link or an excerpt pretty challenging but from the Seattle Times article referenced above this timeline of the reporting of the alleged rape is offered:

After that, Morgan says her memory gets fuzzy. She can recall only “snippets” of events before she remembers “waking up naked in (Rowe’s) bed.”

“He was lying next to me, and I was so confused,” she said. “I just felt dull, just kind of foggy and hazy.” Morgan said she quietly dressed and returned to her own room and took a shower, finding bruises on her breasts and thighs and blood in her genitals.“I knew I had been assaulted,” she said. “But at that moment, I was so confused and in shock.” Morgan said she texted Rowe, asking him to explain how she ended up in his bed.“Put two and two together,” she said he texted back. Once at the airport, Morgan said she tried to avoid Rowe during the return flight to Seattle.

A few days later, Morgan said she told her parents “everything that had happened,” and later called a friend — SkyWest’s chief flight attendant.“I told him what had happened, and he said, ‘Well, I’ve never heard anyone say anything like that about Bob,’ ” Morgan said.

The chief attendant took no further action, she added.Over the next few days, Morgan went to a doctor to be checked for sexually transmitted diseases, then reported the alleged rape to police. An officer in Sidney, British Columbia, forwarded her statement to an Edmonton police detective, who obtained additional evidence, including statements from SkyWest and a hotel clerk, Morgan said.

In an email Thursday, an Edmonton Police Services spokesman confirmed a case was forwarded to prosecutors, but “the Crown did not proceed with charges as a result of insufficient evidence.”

In December 2016, shortly after Morgan reported her allegations to police, she said she also informed SkyWest’s employee-relations office. The airline placed her on paid leave, she said, but conducted only a cursory review before summoning her back to work.

When Morgan told her employer she wasn’t ready to return, she said the airline gave her three options: take unpaid leave, transfer to a different airport or self-schedule flights to avoid Rowe.“Which isn’t the appropriate response, obviously,” said Julie Kays, Morgan’s Seattle attorney. “We see this a lot in these types of cases, where suddenly it all falls on the victim to upend her life. Well, what’s happening to this guy who assaulted her?”
Some aspects of the narrative are strikingly similar to the earlier Alaska Air case litigated by some of the same attorneys.
Airbubba is offline  
Old 7th May 2018, 03:14
  #12 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Rennes
Posts: 177
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
In fairness to Ascend Charlie, I believe his comment was intended to be set in ironic type, and read as such.

However, I'm not sure that any such excuse can be found for DS010. Contrary to his curious notion, commercial pilots are not in the habit of "inventing" stories about sexual violence at the hands of senior colleagues they barely know. Hard though it may be for him to accept, they generally do not find sexual encounters that result in "bruises on their breasts and thighs" and "blood in their genitals" pleasurable. And if it takes them eighteen months after the incident to file a lawsuit, only after having exhausted all internal recourses (and having the management of their airline co-operate in their nefarious scheme by refusing to take action) they must be engaged in a very long con indeed.

The courts, no doubt, will sort it out. But when I was a lot younger, they taught me in school about a principle called Occam's Razor. Google, as always, will provide the details for the curious.
Blind Squirrel is offline  
Old 7th May 2018, 09:11
  #13 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Leeds, UK
Posts: 281
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
from the news reports the Police did investigate contemporously, and the prosecutor did decide not to proceed. So I'm guessing it's on this basis, not-guilty, that the Airline proceeded, which is reasonable. Without a conviction, or an admission from the alleged assailant, the airline has to be guided by the legal system.

G
groundbum is offline  
Old 7th May 2018, 20:15
  #14 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: London
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by groundbum
from the news reports the Police did investigate contemporously, and the prosecutor did decide not to proceed. So I'm guessing it's on this basis, not-guilty, that the Airline proceeded, which is reasonable. Without a conviction, or an admission from the alleged assailant, the airline has to be guided by the legal system.

G
And one would hope that the captain would have a very strong claim against them if they did anything else.
Cynical Sid is offline  
Old 7th May 2018, 21:11
  #15 (permalink)  

"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
 
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: England
Age: 77
Posts: 4,136
Received 221 Likes on 64 Posts
One has to ask: why did the prosecutor decide not to proceed?
Herod is offline  
Old 7th May 2018, 21:16
  #16 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Posts: 5,898
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally Posted by Herod
One has to ask: why did the prosecutor decide not to proceed?
From the article above:

In an email Thursday, an Edmonton Police Services spokesman confirmed a case was forwarded to prosecutors, but “the Crown did not proceed with charges as a result of insufficient evidence.”
Airbubba is offline  
Old 7th May 2018, 21:26
  #17 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Canada
Age: 65
Posts: 102
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by Herod
One has to ask: why did the prosecutor decide not to proceed?
Herod, In Canada our courts have become overworked due to understaffing so unless the case is a slam dunk it never makes it past the crown prosecutors. In this case they likely looked at it as a he said she said with little evidence as the young lady had already showered and washed away any DNA Evidence.

Last edited by roybert; 7th May 2018 at 21:27. Reason: spelling
roybert is offline  
Old 8th May 2018, 04:05
  #18 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
Posts: 5,898
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
From PPRuNe's sister forum this crew bus rumor on the earlier rape claim at Alaska Airlines:

I just heard from a captain on the crew bus that he was fired for drinking against company policy, and she retained her job. This despite them BOTH drinking in the window.

Rape or no rape, they both drank against company policy. Why isn’t she being fired for her offense (especially due to her probationary status), just as he was/is?

If I were him, I’d sue AAG for sexism and equal opportunity practices.
https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/2588093-post124.html
Airbubba is offline  
Old 8th May 2018, 04:25
  #19 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: phoenix, AZ, USA
Posts: 245
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by Airbubba
From PPRuNe's sister forum this crew bus rumor on the earlier rape claim at Alaska Airlines:



https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/2588093-post124.html
Yeah, because crew bus rumors are the gospel truth.

I would check that source.
cactusbusdrvr is offline  
Old 9th May 2018, 06:54
  #20 (permalink)  
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Derbyshire, England.
Posts: 4,091
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Possibly several valid reasons, possibly not, but why did the FA have the captains mobile number? Or is that standard practice now? I retired before mobile phones were 'the norm', we just kept a list of room numbers.
parabellum is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.