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 layoverOriginally 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 |
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?
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Originally Posted by Ascend Charlie
(Post 10137618)
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?
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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? |
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. |
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. |
Originally Posted by Ascend Charlie
(Post 10138439)
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". 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. |
Originally Posted by Ascend Charlie
(Post 10138439)
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". |
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? |
Originally Posted by tdracer
(Post 10138973)
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.
Assuming that, the question really is, what did the company do? For sure, "looking into" ain't gonnna get it. |
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?” |
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. |
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 |
Originally Posted by groundbum
(Post 10140096)
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 |
One has to ask: why did the prosecutor decide not to proceed?
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Originally Posted by Herod
(Post 10140652)
One has to ask: why did the prosecutor decide not to proceed?
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.” |
Originally Posted by Herod
(Post 10140652)
One has to ask: why did the prosecutor decide not to proceed?
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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. |
Originally Posted by Airbubba
(Post 10140847)
From PPRuNe's sister forum this crew bus rumor on the earlier rape claim at Alaska Airlines:
https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/2588093-post124.html I would check that source. |
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.
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Originally Posted by parabellum
(Post 10141866)
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.
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Originally Posted by Blind Squirrel
(Post 10139897)
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.
Commercial Pilots are not in the habit of drugging and raping their co-workers. Well, there you have it. The accused pilots in both the Alaska lawsuit and the more recent Sky West lawsuit must both be innocent because they are commercial pilots, right? Ridiculous, right? Beyond ridiculous, absurd even. Yes, of course it is absurd. It is *precisely* as absurd as the claim that someone would not lie about a rape because she is a commercial pilot ...or a flight attendant. Now, I am not claiming that the flight attendant's accusations are false. I haven't assumed her accusations are true, but have no reason to disbelieve her. The reality is people do really vile things. People, rape people, and people make fabricated accusations of rape. Both are evil, but there is nothing about being employed in aviation which proves one is inherently incapable of doing either. |
Originally Posted by cactusbusdrvr
(Post 10140858)
Yeah, because crew bus rumors are the gospel truth. I would check that source. |
Originally Posted by A Squared
(Post 10141884)
You seem to have the two incidents confused, the incident Deltasierra10 is referring to involved a flight attendant, not a "commercial pilot" and the details you cite are also from the flight attendants alleged rape.
Nobody is denying the defendant in this case his day in court, with all the protections that due process can provide. But when I read of a case like this, with two possible explanations, I know in which direction the odds are pointing. |
Nobody is denying the defendant in this case his day in court |
There are plenty of women who falsely claim some kind of improper conduct against a man, often a superior or a professional for a variety of reasons. This is exactly why a male doctor will have a chaperone present when he examines a female patient and exactly why I have a female assistant present when I have formal interviews with females, even one word allegedly used wrongly can cause problems, years ago I did have one that tried it on, in the current climate it would have been a problem. So I don't buy the " I was too traumatized " reason for delaying reporting an attack and the sueing the airline for compensation confirms it, they are going for the cash and are being coached by the lawyers, nice work if you can get it. I did wonder about the drinking before duty, they should both have been fired for that alone. Do I trust women?, not one inch I have employed too many, men do it too especially if there is "discrimination potential". |
Was this lawsuit filed in Seattle in search of a #metoo compliant jury, or was the jurisdiction in re the home of the airline company the driving factor?
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SkyWest is not based in Seattle (Utah IIRC), but my understanding is the flight crew who was allegedly raped was based out of Seattle.
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Originally Posted by tdracer
(Post 10143525)
SkyWest is not based in Seattle (Utah IIRC), but my understanding is the flight crew who was allegedly raped was based out of Seattle.
You recall correctly. SkyWest has been sued in many differing states when it was considered advantageous to the complainant. |
Originally Posted by Deltasierra010
(Post 10143440)
There are plenty of women who falsely claim some kind of improper conduct against a man, often a superior or a professional for a variety of reasons. Again, I am not claiming that I believe the Sky West FA's claim is made up; I have no basis for knowing. But anyone who is claiming that it must be true because rape claims are inherently true, or that women are inherently honest, or that some occupational field is filled only with honest people, has departed rationality and is simply voicing prejudice and bias. |
Originally Posted by A Squared
(Post 10143651)
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates the 8% of rape accusations are fraudulent.
The Reverend Al Sharpton made his name in New York three decades ago as a 'community activist' pushing phony rape allegations. Surprisingly, this infamous case is rarely mentioned in the #MeToo discussion. |
Originally Posted by Airbubba
(Post 10143662)
Can you provide a cite for that statistic? Who made the estimate? Was it an official? Thanks.
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Originally Posted by Airbubba
(Post 10143662)
Can you provide a cite for that statistic? Who made the estimate? Was it an official? Thanks.
From the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting 1995 "Crime in the United States" report As for all other Crime Index offenses, complaints of forcible rape made to law enforcement agencies are sometimes found to be false or baseless. In such cases, law enforcement agencies “unfound” the offenses and exclude them from crime counts. The “unfounded” rate, or percentage of complaints determined through investigation to be false, is higher for forcible rape than for any other Index crime. In 1995, 8 percent of forcible rape complaints were “unfounded,” while the average for all Index crimes was 2 percent. |
Originally Posted by Blind Squirrel
(Post 10142145)
Yet when it comes to sexual offences, so many of us are swift to entertain the improbable scenario rather than the likely one.
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Originally Posted by Herod
(Post 10140652)
One has to ask: why did the prosecutor decide not to proceed?
OTOH the standard required to find an employer liable of failing in duty of care is lower, balance of probability instead of 'sure'. |
Originally Posted by Airbanda
(Post 10145388)
Presumably lack of evidence required to convince a jury so they were sure that the statutory offence was made out. In UK we require a greater than 50% probability of conviction for prosecution to proceed. Likley to be similar in othe 'common law' jurisdictions.
OTOH the standard required to find an employer liable of failing in duty of care is lower, balance of probability instead of 'sure'. |
Leaving aside the details of the alleged rapes, the courts have to decide wether the airline handled the respective women correctly. I am assuming that they will accept that an illegal act " probably" took place unless the men concerned provide evidence to the contrary. What should an employer do in a case like this where there is no evidence, no criminal case, and no previous record of misbehavior, opinions please. |
Originally Posted by Deltasierra010
(Post 10145788)
What should an employer do in a case like this where there is no evidence, no criminal case, and no previous record of misbehavior, opinions please.
Investigation would take statements from complainant and alleged offender and from any witnesses as to parties' behaviour eg at hotel diner, bar etc in period preceding. If there is, as suggested in other similar case mentioned on this board, hotel CCTV then I guess that could be seen too. Investigator will report to Management on his/her finding as to facts based on credibility of accounts and on balance of probability. If offence is proven employer will take action up to and including dismissal. Employee can appeal internally and if that fails to an Employment Tribunal - effectively a court. MAy be different in Canada or US depending on Federal or State law*. Having recently witnessed a serious disciplinary at my own place of work around bullying and inappropriate behaviour (non sexual) the investigating officer needs to be somebody at the top of their game and be prepared to be totally independent regarding both the investigation and reputational damage to the employer. EDIT * In originally posting I was unclear as to how far Canadian angle on this went. Now see clearly it's a US airline with local staff based at Seattle/Tacoma but alleged offence took place in Edmonton Alberta. Thus one assumes criminal investigation was in hands of Canadian city/territory or federal police. Employer investigation/discipline and Civil Action against airline as employer follows rules for appropriate State as influenced by any Federal provision. |
Originally Posted by A Squared
(Post 10143735)
8% is not "improbable".
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Originally Posted by Blind Squirrel
(Post 10147025)
As I say, it's a long time since I was in school. But when I was there, they taught me that 92 > 8. More than ten times as great, in fact. I believe they mentioned it in the context of a discussion of...ah yes, probabilities.
Uhh, yeah, obviously 8 percent is less probable than 92 percent. Nobody claimed anything different. However, what you have claimed is that the possibility that she is lying is too improbable to consider, which is horsecrap. 1 in 12 is not too improbable to consider. Let me use your identical reasoning to construct "proof" the accused guy is innocent. This will help illustrate just how inane your reasoning is. The incidence of rape in the US is about 30 per 100,000. That's 0.0003% In other words, really "improbable", far less probable than 8%. For the sake of the example, if we assume that each rape is committed by a single perpetrator and each perpetrator commits only one, and half of population is men, that means that there's a 0.0006% probability that any one man is a rapist, which is still *very* improbable. So, according to your defective reasoning, we must assume that the accused is actually innocent, because there is only a 0.0006% probability that he is a rapist, far too improbable to consider. Nonsense? Yes, of course it is. Absurd? Yes, beyond Absurd. Completely devoid of logic? Yes. All that it true, it's absurd, illogical nonsense. But it also the *identical* rationale you have used to claim that we know the Flight Attendant is not fabricating her accusations. |
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