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Rape Victim Sues Marriott Hotel for Negligent Security
June 05, 2008

If you thought that plush interiors and liveried doormen are an assurance of the high standards of a hotel in everything, including security, think again. One woman who underwent possibly the worst experience a woman could go through right under the nose of the hotel she was staying at, has sued the establishment for failing to prevent her assault.

The rape occurred inside the parking garage at the Marriott Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut. The woman was loading her children's car safety seats into the back of the car, when she was assaulted by 50-year-old Gary Fricker who pressed a metal object to her back and told her that he had a gun. Once he had her in the car, Fricker proceeded to rape the woman right in front of her two young kids, both of then younger than seven. He also threatened to assault them if they dared to scream. The woman began screaming for help when another car approached the ramp, and Fricker then ran away.

Since that unforgettable day, the woman who has undergone intensive stress counseling and therapy, says her life and that of her children has been irrevocably changed. The children too have been in therapy, and their mother worries about the long term effects that this incident will have on them. At the time of the rape, they weren't old enough to help defend their mother, but they were old enough to remember.

Fricker was later found and convicted of the crime.

In her lawsuit, in which she claims more than $15,000, the woman alleges that Fricker had been found loitering around the hotel a few days before the attack, but was not questioned by security. On the day of the accident, Fricker reportedly was found looking for victims in the hotel and around the lobby, but nobody questioned his motives. One hotel employee reported seeing Fricker in the vicinity of the hotel acting in a suspicious manner and did not act.

It seems that the hotel failed miserably in its security arrangements for its guests. With the kind of rates that these hotels charge, one sure hopes the 400-count Egyptian cotton sheets are the softest in all the land, because the hotel security definitely leaves much to be desired. There were no employees monitoring the parking lots, and the staff was not trained to undertake appropriate security for its guests. Moreover, the hotel should have been aware that there were assaults that had taken place in the neighborhood in the months before the rape.

It's hard to imagine how this incident has affected the woman and her children. To endure a rape is in itself a traumatic experience. To suffer one, trapped in your car in the parking lot of an upscale hotel with people and help so near, yet so inaccessible, and with her children as spectators, must have been a nightmare. When people visit a five star hotel, they expect first and foremost to be taken care of. The hotel seems to have been lax with the safety of its guests. All the compensation will probably not erase memories of that day, but the woman definitely deserves justice.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of negligent security. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

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