COMPLICATED LAWSUIT: If you Drink & Have Consent Sex Today, A MeToo Activist Could Ruin You 14 Years Later Claiming Regret Rape
A lawsuit is stemming from a drunken encounter at Dartmouth College almost 14 years ago. It is also pitting a Dartmouth alumna inspired by the #MeToo movement against a Tuck School of Business graduate trying to protect his reputation in the internet age…Monica Morrison, the plaintiff, was a 19-year-old sophomore in May 2005 when, she alleges, she was sexually assaulted by Robert Langrick, then 29. Morrison, now a 33-year-old freelance writer living in New York City, left a voice message for Langrick. Langrick, now a 42-year-old executive working in New York City, says in his court filing they had consensual sex, noting that Hanover police investigated and didn’t charge him with any sex crime, in part because of testimony from witnesses. He also has made counterclaims of libel and slander. In her Nov. 1 lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, Morrison seeks legal protection to speak and write publicly without fear of defamation charges against her from Langrick.
The undisputed facts in the case, filed in the Eastern District of New York in November, include that Morrison met Langrick while playing beer pong, a drinking game involving ping pong balls and cups of beer, at a fraternity party in May 2005. The two later found themselves back at the School Street group house belonging to an undergraduate society called Panarchy, where Morrison was living at the time. At the center of their dispute is whether what happened at Panarchy was a crime or consensual. Morrison claims that Langrick sexually assaulted her while she was “dead drunk.” Langrick insists they had consensual intercourse in Panarchy’s cupola.
Langrick, who is married and the father of two children, in his court filing seeks to have Morrison’s complaint dismissed, require her to remove “defamatory” posts on the internet, and require that she refrain from making similar such statements in the future. In her filing, Morrison said her calls [to Langrick] reflected her “reawakening” to the trauma she experienced related to the 2005 incident. His filing describes her actions as “meritless allegations of sexual assault for self-aggrandizement and financial gain that represent a disturbing and unfortunate perversion of the otherwise laudable #metoo movement.” He seeks damages in excess of $75,000, and asks that the court require Morrison to remove the allegedly libelous posts and refrain from “similarly defaming” Langrick in the future.
vnews.com By Nora Doyle-Burr
