An American household says the negligent security of a Bahamas hotel led to their 15-year-old daughter’s rape by an alleged drug seller, new courtroom papers say.
Henry Richard Nixon was criminally charged for allegedly raping the teenage visitor of the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in Nassau on April 4, 2021. He faces a prison trial May 22, in response to a newly filed lawsuit.
Now the woman’s father has introduced a $10 million case in opposition to the hotel for allegedly failing to guard his daughter, for lack of security and for permitting Nixon onto the property — regardless of his fame as a neighborhood drug seller, the papers say.
“Hyatt boasts its ability to provide families with a safe vacation, yet there were no security personnel which intervened to prevent this preventable crime,” the swimsuit fees. “Defendant’s failure to take reasonable and necessary precaution caused T.H. to suffer a horrific, life-altering event.”
The victim — known as T.H. within the Florida federal lawsuit — left her hotel room barefoot early that morning to speak with a buddy on the cellphone, the courtroom papers say.
Afterward, Nixon started chatting along with her earlier than luring her to a cabana on hotel property to rape her, the swimsuit alleges.
T.H.’s household — who have been visiting the Caribbean island from Pennsylvania for Easter weekend — observed she hadn’t returned to the room and went wanting for her, the submitting says.
The dad tracked her cellphone to the cabanas behind the hotel, the place he found Nixon raping his daughter, the swimsuit alleges.
“After the father ripped Nixon off, he found his daughter curled up on the ground, crying and in disarray, with her undergarments pushed to the side,” the courtroom papers declare.
“I wanted to puke,” the dad informed The Post. “I didn’t know this person.”
“I was so concerned for her safety,” the daddy stated. “He was incredibly older than her. There was obviously something massively wrong.”
“She was crying. She was in a heap on the floor,” he recalled.
The dad defined that he and his spouse had stayed on the resort earlier than and felt it was secure sufficient to return again with their two daughters.
“We thought we were at an extremely safe hotel and to have this happen to us is incomprehensible. It’s beyond words, how this could have happened,” the dad stated.
The father stated the incident modified his daughter and she is going to by no means be the identical.
“It’s going to be with her for life,” the dad stated, noting that she will get triggered when she hears police sirens and he or she distrusts older males.
“She is on a journey and we hope the upcoming trial gives a bit of her power back,” he stated of Nixon’s May prison trial.
“This is a family’s worst nightmare and it was entirely preventable,” the household’s lawyer Michael Winkleman stated in a press release. “This lawsuit is intended to hold Hyatt accountable for its negligent security, obtain justice for the victim and her family, and raise awareness about the hidden dangers of international travel even at high end hotels and resorts.”
A Grand Hyatt Baha Mar spokesperson stated in a press release: “While it is our policy not to comment on potential or pending litigation, Grand Hyatt Baha Mar takes all claims very seriously as the safety and security of our guests and colleagues are always a top priority.”
It was not instantly recognized who Nixon’s prison protection lawyer was.
