Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO — A recent lawsuit alleges that Provo employees failed to properly act before a woman was attacked and raped after leaving work at the Provo Recreation Center in July 2020.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Utah's U.S. District Court, accuses the city of negligence after a woman working as a lifeguard reported to her supervisors that a man was staring at her and made her feel uncomfortable while working. The same man later sexually assaulted her in the recreation center parking lot, according to the lawsuit.
Erika Larsen, an attorney representing the woman, said in a statement Wednesday that the city of Provo failed to protect the lifeguard from "a young woman's greatest nightmare."
"Provo City had multiple opportunities to protect their employee, but instead they repeatedly chose to do nothing," Larsen said in statement.
On July 16, 2020, the woman said she was working as a lifeguard at the recreation center when she noticed a man who kept staring at her and repeatedly tried to talk to her. Despite her declining to talk to him several times, she said the man continued to stare at her and try to talk to her.
Uncomfortable with the situation, the woman told a co-worker about the man. Later, that co-worker informed the woman that the man "relentlessly asked (co-worker) private questions about (the woman)," like her name, age and work schedule, according to the lawsuit.
The woman later signaled with her whistle that she needed to talk with a supervisor on duty. The supervisor later told her "she did not know what to do," the lawsuit alleges. When the supervisor walked away, the man allegedly "attempted to bait (the woman) into the pool by feigning that he was 'drowning' while staring directly at (the woman)." The lawsuit goes on to say the man later told the woman he was fantasizing about her while standing "unreasonably and uncomfortably close" to her.
Again, she called for a supervisor with her whistle. The supervisor spoke to her again, along with another co-worker. The two only offered to stay with the woman for a few minutes until the next shift rotation. The lawsuit alleges that the supervisor "failed to provide any meaningful resolution to the issue."
Later, the woman exited the recreation center alone and saw a man walking toward her. She said she could see the man was wearing a blue recreation center shirt from the city, so she assumed he was another city employee.
However, she quickly realized the man was the same person who had been harassing her at the pool. Despite her attempts to evade the man, the lawsuit states he forced his way into her car and raped her. When she tried to find out the man's identity, the woman was told the city had no security camera footage of the parking lot where she was attacked, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit notes that a notice of claim was served to Provo in February, and the city did not respond. The woman is asking for a jury trial and to be awarded an unspecified amount in damages.
A message to a Provo public information officer seeking comment was not immediately returned Thursday.
