(Trigger Warning)
Doing anti-violence work means that I hear a lot of stories… A lot of disturbing stories. Still, I actually gagged when I read this. Sorry to get all graphic, but I almost lost my cookies on the computer.
It wasn’t the violence of the assault that got me—like I said, I’ve heard a lot of stories. It’s not that I don’t care—it’s just that after a while, emotional overload sets in. I get upset every time I hear about a sexual assault, but it’s usually more of a simmer than a boil.
What set me off in this case was the alleged indifference of the police and college administrators, piling trauma upon trauma.
The family of a Dominican College freshman who said she was raped in her dorm and later committed suicide urged the state Attorney General’s Office yesterday to investigate the allegations, which they charge were never taken seriously by the Blauvelt college or the Orangetown Police Department.
The request came on what would have been Megan Wright’s 22nd birthday. The Ramsey, N.J., woman was 19 when she said she was raped by two student athletes and one of their friends on May 7, 2006. She committed suicide in December of that year.
Okay, clearly this is a tragic and terrible situation. It has a more awful end than many, but it sounds a lot like other stories I’ve heard. I’ve heard about gang rapes. I’ve seen indifferent administrators and police in sexual assault cases before…
The description of the case is what made my stomach churn.
The lawsuit also says: “While Megan Wright was still in the room, one of the assailants exited the room and held up a white sign, which purportedly contained Megan Wright’s signature, to the surveillance cameras so that the camera could pick up the works printed on the sign above the signature: I WANT TO HAVE SEX.”
According to the lawsuit, the next morning, Wright woke up believing something was wrong. She had a vague recollection of the events of the previous evening. She noticed that she was wearing different clothes and was sore and bleeding in the vaginal area. Wright went to White Plains Hospital where an examination confirmed that “substantial injuries, including bruising and lacerations, indicated forcible rape. The nurse on duty that day, in fifteen years of practice, has rarely seen a victim evincing more physical trauma than Megan Wright.”
The lawsuit says Dominican College never conducted its own investigation. It directed Megan to pursue the investigation with a detective in the Orangetown police department who, unbeknownst to Megan at the time, was employed by Dominican College as an instructor.
The detective took a writing sample from Megan by asking her to write the words: I WANT TO HAVE SEX. In his police report, the detective indicated that his refusal to investigate the assault was due, at least in part, to the fact that he believed that Megan’s handwriting matched the writing on that sign.
What kind of consensual encounter includes someone having you sign something saying that you want to have sex? This detail of the case is so sketched out that it immediately gives me the creeps. And the detective refused to investigate because of that shiver-inducing detail?
The other details included here are equally disturbing. The vast majority of rape survivors do not show any injuries, even upon close examination using special dye to show any micro-tears to genital tissue. The fact that Megan was so seriously injured says quite a lot about what happened to her. So does the school’s alleged unwillingness to look into a case with that much evidence.
In a statement released after a news conference outside Cuomo’s Manhattan office, [Wright family attorney] Allred said that though Wright promptly reported the assault, the school offered her no instructions for filing a formal complaint with the school. It also conducted no investigation on its own and refused to provide a reasonable accommodation for the final exam she was scheduled to take a few days later, or for her to return safely to the school in the fall semester, she said.
Instead, Allred said, the school steered Wright to a detective in the Orangetown Police Department without telling her that the detective was an instructor on the college’s payroll.
The detective, Allred said, conducted only a cursory investigation, did not visit the crime scene or interview key witnesses and closed the file.
If these allegations are true, this is simply one of the most egregious cases I have ever come across. I hope that Dominican College and the Orangetown Police are held accountable, and that other schools will take a lesson from this about what happens when sexual assault allegations are ignored or covered up. The family is suing for at least $10 million in punitive damages, and if what they are saying is true, I hope they get it.
Honestly, $10 million doesn’t seem like enough to me, given what Megan Wright’s parents have lost.
Everyone employee involved at Dominican should be fired and investigated. This includes the local police who did nothing. What are the names of the rapists? where are these names posted?
So, you were surprised that the college did NOTHING? You can’t be serious? Most colleges do nothing. Visit http://www.uvavictimsofrape.com and read about the University of Virginia’s handling of rape cases.
The people involved in this horrific crime are absolutely disgusting.
One of the worst parts of the story was,when the detective was asked,why he did not investigate this crime his repsonse was
“They ONLY DO THAT ON T.V”
guess one can only get justice if your an actor!!!
[...] Ashley has the outrageously disturbing, senseless and tragic story of a young woman who was raped and later committed suicide, and whose parents are now suing her college alleging that they didn’t do enough to prosecute the rapists. A description of the assault (trigger warning): Wright was allegedly raped after leaving a party in a residence hall in May 2006. The lawsuit claims students were openly consuming alcoholic beverages in violation of school policy. After the leaving the party, two young men steered her from her room and brought her to another room where the three men named in the lawsuit took turns raping her. The lawsuit says other young men were watching and high fiving each other at various times during the assault. [...]
This is heartbreaking.
I went to Dominican and they consistently refuse to take responsibility for any flaws within the administration. This story made me shake. I went to a party this past weekend where a resident life administrator was present and he claimed the story was completely fabricated. Then several of my peers went on to say that Megan was “crazy” and was probably lying. You know- one of those girls who who was ashamed and decided the next day that she was raped. I also heard her mental instability was probably the cause for her false rape allegations and her suicide.
She killed herself. It is such a myth that women wake up and decided rape is a better alternative to shame. Considering how much more her name has been sloughed through the mud, and how awful her treatment was, that seems evidence that this young woman made a very hard decision to go forward with rape charges. Though I let these people know that they were being assholes and bigots, I sit here wondering… how many more Megan Wrights will there be?
And now I do not say this next bit lightly. Dominican College has hated my words for some time. I WILL NEVER LET DOMINICAN COLLEGE FORGET MEGAN WRIGHT.
Oddly this does not surprise me. Another alleged rape occurred in 1997. The attacker was proven innocent but banned from all dorms for a period of time. The victim left the school all together. The school always tries to covers things up and trys to make things very light. Poor Wright family.
My heart goes out to Megan Wright and her family. I can’t get over the part about the whiteboard; if you need to have the woman you are “having sex with” write a statement on a whiteboard that you are not raping her, chances are you are raping her. What can we do about this?
I was actually very good friends with Megan and was there the night this happened. Unfortunately, i left the party early and wish i could have been there to stop it. After reading what Tara Rose wrote, I am absolutely disgusted and infuriated by how her name is being dragged through the mud and she is being called a liar. This really did happen to her. I do not know the names of the horrible people who did this to her but i do know that two of them were on the Dominican basketball team and the other was a cousin of the basketball player. Surprisingly, or not, these “men” ( i use that word very loosely) did not return to the school the next year. And neither did Megan. Yes it is true that Megan was going through some other personal problems, but i can not help but feel that if the school and the police department did what they should have done, Megan would still be here with us today.
I hope that Megan’s mother and brother get the closure that they need by putting these people in jail.
Rest in Peace Megan. My Guardian Angel. Always in My Heart.
I doesn’t matter if Megan had personal problems or not. Rape is illegal. Personal problems? Being a rapist is a problem. but unfortunately it always involves innocent victims. The school and the police department are just as guilty as the rapists. Go get em’ Gloria!! Thank you Ashley for keeping Megan’s name alive. My sympathies and prayers to Megan and her family. Mary
The protection of the boys who raped Megan is part of a long trend of under-charging of crimes committed by men against women in Rockland County, NY.
In the most egregious case, back in the late 1990’s a Port Authority Police Officer beat his wife to death and dumped her body by Lake DeForest, Rockland’s primary reservoir.
I apologize for not remembering exactly, but he plead to a charge of Manslaughter, not Second Degree Murder, and got ten years and served seven, or something along those lines.
More recently, in 2006, Karesse Ebron, a sixteen year old (16) from the Village of New Hempstead in the Town of Ramapo, was beaten to death and dumped in a park on Route 45 near the Summit Park complex.
Her killer plead to a Second Degree Murder charge and got 22 years. The killer of Karesse Ebron will again walk among us on this earth in the 2020’s, and no later than 2028.
There were also two other murders of women in Rockland, one each in 2004 and 2005, that qualified for the death penalty but in which death was not sought.
Both of the woman-killers were convicted at trial of First Degree Murder charges, and got life without parole. (I support death for woman-killers.)
There is a problem in Rockland County with the systematic under-charging of men who commit violent crimes against women.
This has to change. I have been thinking about setting up a sign outside of Dominican’s Open House nights this August with words like:
Women Beware:
Dominican and O-Town
are Free Rape Zones
I am resolved to change the systematic under-charging of violent crimes committed by men against women.
I feel so sorry for this poor girl. What a terrible thing to have happen in the first place, then to be failed so miserably by the justice system like that. It’s hard to believe how this turned out so badly. RIP Megan. I hope that justice is finally served and your attackers AND the college are finally brought to justice.
God will take care of these guys. It doesn’t matter what they didn’t do, I know what God will do. These guys are living in hell right now. They might not realize it, but they are and it’s not even close to being over. They will not have peace until they confess and I don’t mean confess to authorities but to God and until they do, it’s going to be hell for them. Worse hell that Megan ever saw. So guys, have a nice life. It’s going to be a fun ride. I hope everywhere you go, your name is plastered all over the place and everyone around you know that you are a sexual predator.
Wouldn’t one think that flashing a sign reading “I Want to Have Sex?” in front of a security camera would result in security showing up at your dorm room door a few minutes later? Was the camera turned off?
Not pursuing sexual assaults on campus has been going on forever. I went to school in the late 1970s and roomed with a student employed as a late night security guard for a portion of the campus. He told me stories about incidents that happened where you had to wonder how the students weren’t warned or informed about the incidents (rape being just one, assaults and robberies being the others).
College students like to drink. And they are at an age where sexual experimentation is the norm. But for some reason, colleges don’t address past incidents and possible consequences in their orientation courses. Why not own up to the real statistics and create an awareness among the students?
College students also tend to be one of the weakest populations whereever they attend college. They have very little money, are temporary residents, and are young and are still learning how to deal with the not so pretty aspects of life. Why shouldn’t their colleges give them the information they need? Bottom line: the students are the customers, they are the ones paying the tuition, they have a right to know.
The special treatment afforded athletes is also something that may never change.
I find it utterly disgusting that this has to happen to such a young and beautiful girl who had her whole life ahead of her. I am sorry for all those people that had to also feel the pain of her passing. Its not just the victim that has to suffer after such brutal sexual assault against women, also all Megan’s family and friends hold grief and anger in there hearts to this very day. I know that she is in a good place now cradled in heavens rays of light and love. She is very proud of how you guys are fighting for her and all other women out there.
I find it saddening that so many colleges do not inform these cases to the public, only so that there is no chance of losing a paying college member. But might they not just lose them in the process? I advice anyone to have a good backdrop search of any college at all, how good and safe they might seem there is always a chance.
I just wish that these people could own up to their own doing. You will release a lot of peoples own pain in the process. I am furious that you haven’t yet done so.
If I could mention that this is written by a almost 14 year old girl who is astonished and quite upset about her case. I give my heart out to her and all of her friends and family who are so strong and stand so tall every single day. You guys are everywhere I have been researching injustice on women for an essay and I have decided over an accountable few days to dedicate it to Megan’s story. You have so many sights and an appearance on doctor Phil. Some sites like this one describe her case awfully well while others not as much. You should be so proud!