Sexual Violence, Title IX, and Victims’ Rights

On June 27, 2023, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Grant and Eisenhofer, P.A. filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Flannery and Liam Gallagher against the Archdiocese of Baltimore (“AOB”), its affiliated St. Mary’s Seminary and University, and the seminary’s owner, Society of St. Sulpice, for their roles in the 2022 death of the Plaintiffs’ father, Frank Gallagher Jr.

Since September 5, 2024, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight has filed 22 separate Federal Torts Claims Act administrative complaints against the United States Coast Guard; its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security; and its former parent agency, the Department of Transportation, (collectively “the Coast Guard”) on behalf of former Coast Guard Academy cadets who were sexually assaulted during their time at the Academy. The complaints allege that the Coast Guard was negligent in failing to implement adequate policies and practices to prevent sexual violence from running rampant at the Academy, and that leadership failed to act despite having knowledge of the sexual violence regularly occurring on campus.

On November 29, 2023, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Maritime Legal Solutions filed a lawsuit against the United States on behalf of Elsie Dominguez. The Complaint alleges that Ms. Dominguez, a civilian mariner working as the 1st Assistant Engineer aboard the USNS Carson City, a naval vessel operated by the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (“MSC”), was raped by the Captain of the vessel.

In February 2021, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight filed a lawsuit on behalf of Emily Doe against a Baltimore apartment complex and property management company alleging premises liability negligence after Ms. Doe was raped by a stranger who had gained access to her building through a faulty door that Defendants had been made well aware of but neglected to repair for years.  

The complaints alleged that Maersk Line, owner and operator of commercial cargo vessels, violated the Jones Act, General Maritime Law, and anti-discrimination laws by failing to adequately protect two female students from sexual assault and sexual harassment while they worked aboard the Maersk M/V Alliance Fairfax as part of the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy’s “Sea Year” program.

In October 2018, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia granted final approval of a $14.25 million class action settlement arising from Rabbi Bernard Freundel’s secret videotaping of females without their consent at the National Capital Mikvah facility in Washington, DC. 

In August 2020, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and local counsel Ferbrache Law filed a lawsuit on behalf of Tabitha Bell against The Waterford School, an elite private school in Utah, alleging negligence and breach of its duty of care; premises liability; negligent supervision of its faculty and students; and negligent infliction of emotional distress, among other civil liabilities.