Here is the infuriating story of a woman who was visiting a Connecticut hotel: woman was raped in front of her children and was told by the hotel that she was careless. This is an open talk thread where you can discuss this story or talk about anything you like.
I’m mad a hell just reading this story. The woman was raped at gunpoint in front of her own children while staying at the Stamford Mariott Hotel in Connecticut. The rapists name is Gary Fricker who is currently serving a 20 year sentence in prison. The assault occurred in a hotel parking lot, when she was in a minivan with her two young children. Read about it here and here and here.
She subsequently sued the hotel for negligence, claiming that the Connecticut hotel did not use reasonable security precautions and did not patrol and monitor the parking lot adequately. Clearly one can argue if a hotel should really be held liable for crime on their premises. Must all misfortune and bad luck be paid for by someone else?
I think not, but I think less of the Stamford Mariott, Connecticut hotel’s defense. They are responding to her lawsuit by claiming that she was careless and negligent. My goodness. According to the Marriott she “failed to exercise due care for her own safety and the safety of her children and proper use of her senses and facilities.” They also expressed “sympathy” and “regret” for her predicament.
Curious as to reader thoughts. At what point should a defense team simply surrender for fear of the commercial consequences of their defense? And how much liability should a business really have for bad things that happen on their vast premises?
The Connecticut hotel woman versus the Marriott hotel gives us something to think about for a Sunday. Where do you come down?
Photo: Sam’s Hearing Life
August 16th, 2009 at 2:09 am
so now women have to think twice before filing a report against this disgusting act?
A woman has been sexually assaulted infront of her children, and you blame her for being careless?
what the hell ! ?
(totally in favor of HER)
August 16th, 2009 at 2:23 am
“At what point should a defense team simply surrender for fear of the commercial consequences of their defense?”
I just went to a Marriot parking lot with my friend and had him punch me in the face and rob me. I sued and won; we split the award 50/50. Awesome huh?
August 16th, 2009 at 2:28 am
no rape is justifiable, yet the hotel is not guilty either, it’s just the hotel line of defense is faulty. can’t blame nobody for getting raped, she never invite the rapist to do the despicable evil, blame the thief not the owner. thank you.
August 16th, 2009 at 2:48 am
I don’t know what the Hotel’s security measures were at the time but to suggest that the woman was liable in any way shape or form is absolutely ridiculous. If she had been in a poorly lit convenience parking lot alone and scantily clad that would be one thing, but being private property the hotel should have some deterrent measures; if it turns out they had lights out or were ignoring surveillance cams then the woman has a good case
August 16th, 2009 at 2:54 am
The Hotel is completely NOT to blame unless they are in the business of planting rapists in their own parking lot….Gary Fricker is to blame…While it is an unfortunate incident for the woman and her children and this man is clearly an evil so and so for commiting this vile act this is obviously an incident of yet another unneccessary lawsuit. What did the hotel do wrong? I see nothing. What’s next sue the police dept. for not being right at the scene of the crime when it was being committed? Or should we have a new law providing police protection or private security for every citizen? Really, we live in a dangerous world people..get your head out of your butt and pay attention to your surroundings. btw this is yet another argument against gun control..Allow the public to defend themselves and their family with deadly force if necessary..if this was my wife or mother or daughter this guy wouldn’t be in prison..he’d be in the mourge
August 16th, 2009 at 3:12 am
That’s is just rediculous, now she should turn around and sue the hotel for slander. How a woman dresses gives no man the right to rape her and as far as being careless that makes me so angry. I feel the hotel was careless and reckless in that they had inadequate security.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:19 am
Really sick situation all around.
The hotel has to come up with a defense for a
thing that they had nothing to do with because
the suit was filed. Thank you tort lawyers.
Then again,if the offender were to be oh, I don;t know, let’s say executed for the crime, it might give cloture to everyone. And yes, give the lady 500K. But, I want the guy dead.
No, I do not mean languishing in prison for 10 years. I mean clean up sparky and, DO II will personally pull the switch.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:23 am
If the hotel cannot provide basic protection for it’s guests, then it shouldn’t be in business. I say the hotel is just trying to put the blame on the woman to cover their own ass. I would sue and I hope she wins.
ANYBODY who blames a victim for a rape should be locked up themselves.
PS… WTF…more guns aren’t the answer. And he might be in the morgue, but you’d be the one in prison
August 16th, 2009 at 3:25 am
This hotel is not very bright and certainly and killed their business I am sure not only by the act but by their statement.
Any business as a civil liability to provide some form of security for their customers and not having any form at all will not help their case, but like must businesses it is always a short cut to curb expense, dumb beyond dumb. I would not stay their not due the incident but due to their statement, either they have terrible lawyers to allow such a statement to the public or they just need to go back law school
August 16th, 2009 at 3:31 am
People are just lawsuit happy. She should file her lawsuit against the rapist for what he did. A place of business cannot be expected to monitor every inch of their property 24/7. The lawyers have to respond and guess it would be too simple to just say “Look around, the world is evil. You can be attacked any place you go”. Everyone loses in these lawsuits except the lawyers because the costs are passed on to everyone else–if you stay at a hotel, buy insurance with the same company they do, etc, etc. I worked with an idiot that said shoplifting is o.k. because the stores have plenty…stores will make their profit or go out of business and people lose jobs so they raise prices to cover the theives of this world and we all pay more…it goes round and round and round….
August 16th, 2009 at 3:33 am
A business does have the responsibility to provide a safe facility for their customers, within reason.
Was the parking lot properly lit? Was there a system in place to restrict access to the parking lot to actual customers? Were there security guards monitoring CCTV or doing rounds of the property? These are all reasonable precautions for the hotel to have taken, and if the rapist somehow managed to circumvent them all, then the hotel tried its best.
However, if budget cuts caused any of these measures to not be maintained, the the hotel would and should be held at least partially responsible for allowing unsafe conditions to exist on their property.
And certainly, the hotel PR people should have explained to their attorneys that no matter the outcome of the case in Court, blaming a rape victim was a sure-fire PR nightmare and let’s find another, any other, tack to use. That this didn’t happen makes me wonder about the quality of the case the defense attorneys had to work with.
That said, without more knowledge of the case, I can’t say whether this is a real case of negligance by the hotel, or another case of ‘Someone has to be responsible for this horrible thing that happened to me, because I can’t accept that sometimes sh*t just happens.’, so I’ll wait for the details before I make up my mind on anything but that the hotel used very poor judgement in picking its arguement.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:37 am
The hotel is right. The woman is stupid.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:44 am
why a woman w/kids would pull into hotel parking lot without checking area is beyond me. wasn’t there valet service or was she trying to save a buck? was she a guest at hotel or just visiting someone there, if that case why did she have her kids w/her ? i have to agree w/hotel her story has too too many holes in it…..bottom line is she is just trying to make a buck out of doing something that she has done before (ie she had 3 kids)
August 16th, 2009 at 3:46 am
She is just going after the money now. This is why insurance is at an all-time high – because people can sue anyone and pass the blame accordingly. While she is at no fault for this rape, the hotel is not to blame either. The convicted rapist, who is in jail, is to blame and he has been brought to justice. End of story. Somehow, America has slighted itself into thinking that because they were a victim, they are entitled to money from someone, somehow.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:47 am
What a pitiful author. All the reader is given is emotion. How can we judge culpibility? Of course the hotel is going to defend itself! Of course this is a terrible act!
And all you responders that have an opinion, what rational zombies you are.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:50 am
I think it is a disgrace they should have
security patrolling the area at night around the clock. they should bear some of the responsiblity also for being some stupid
to say she was careless what nerve
August 16th, 2009 at 3:50 am
Well. This is hard to comment on.
In my eyes, the Hotel is ripe for a suit now. I mean, blaming the woman for being raped? Yeah, that’s not going to fly.
At this point, with a remark like that, they deserve to be sued back to the stone age. That is utterly insenstive to the poor woman(who was defenseless BTW), irresponsible, and just really making themselves look bad for business.
How is the woman to blame? Where do they get off saying that? Who thought of saying that? It just blows my mind.
I hope she wins. Really, that is just an evil thing to say.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:52 am
i have to agree with hotel, she was not a guest they did not invite her there, they did not put rapist there. how can she call this rape? when in fact she is raping hotel and cost of hotel guests. how do we know it happen there in thier lot….sounds to me , a story made up to cover her cheating ways. why the big fuss it was not like she was forced to do something that she had not done before….rape is hard cover up story used by many woman…..
August 16th, 2009 at 3:53 am
I think it is a disgrace they should have
security patrolling the area at night around the clock. they should bear some of the responsiblity also for being so stupid
to say she was careless what nerve
August 16th, 2009 at 3:55 am
Hotel is just as liable as if they failed to provide fire safety in their building. They must have well lit parking lots, keep an eye on who enters their parking lot to ensure their guests are safe. It is same as you slip and fall in their parking lot due to icy condition. They own the parking lot and have responsibility for their guests.
I am going to do what’s right and going to contact Marriot and tell them how I feel. As a potential customer and stock holder, I am sure they will listen to reason.
August 16th, 2009 at 3:56 am
A woman can stay in a hotel with her kids
who say’s she was cheating damn get real,And so what she has three kids MYOB
August 16th, 2009 at 4:00 am
1.) As a general rule, the hotel is not automatically responsible for the woman’s misfortune. But, neither is the woman. The only person really responsible is the rapist.
**Caveat to #1:
2.) I have never seen this hotel’s parking lot. Maybe it is well-lit and well-patrolled.
If it is particularly NOT well-lit, with many blind obstacles, then I would be inclined to say that maybe this lawsuit would prompt them to take their patrons’ safety more seriously and install more security measures. I HATE lawsuits, but is they stimulate necessary change, then they are good for something.
3.) How DARE the hotel come up with such a defense. Maybe the lawsuit is not one that is rooted on solid ground, but how dare they tell someone they were “negligent and careless”. I hope that their lawyer and their franchise is made an example of.
4.) Just for some of you who are a little confused about rape: Women don’t “wear” or “do” anything to solicit rape- rape is something that someone inflicts as an act of exercising power. To say that “it’s not like the woman was out there scantily clad or something….” shows that still, our knowledge of what truly defines rape as a society is still in the ignorant stages. It is NEVER the woman’s fault. I don’t care how much you want to argue that, but hear THIS: when it comes down to the actual act of rape- it is never the woman’s fault. When are we going to wrap our minds around this?
August 16th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Bill:
I regret that some woman at some point in your life has grabbed you by the balls, twisted and left you in a piss…(although, with your attitude, I find myself hardly wondering why…) but the sooner you learn that not every woman is dying to have sex with every man that she encouters, and that when this act is forced by a man who thinks they have the right to just take without permission, this indeed is called RAPE, Bill. Wikipedia might help you here.
August 16th, 2009 at 4:15 am
I would sue them for saying i am classless. did she take off her cloth and lay down in the parking log and say come and get it? i will never stay in Marriot just because they are low class and classless for saiding such a thing
August 16th, 2009 at 4:18 am
Why in the world is it the hotels fault? It is not the womans fault and it is not the hotels fault. This could of happened at WalMart or in front of her own home. Is she going to sue herself. It was a horrible thing to happen and thank God that she or her children were not killed.