According to The Huffington Post the Marriott Hotel has withdrawn its defense claim in a rape case in Connecticutt.
A Marriott hotel abandoned a defense Monday in a lawsuit brought by a Connecticut woman raped at gunpoint in front of her young children: that she was careless and partially at fault.
The withdrawal followed days of backlash against Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott International Inc. after the hotel filed papers saying the victim "failed to exercise due care for her own safety and the safety of her children and proper use of her senses and facilities" — even though her attacker was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The woman also accused Marriott in June of indirectly exposing her and her children's identity by seeking subpoenas for the depositions of her pilates instructor, friends and tennis partners, a house cleaner, and a baby sitter.
"This was done to expose the identities of the Doe family in their community so as to intimidate them from pursuing this case, pure and simple," attorneys Paul Slager and Ernest Teitell wrote in court papers.
Attorneys needed to determine the effect of the crime on the victim, said Marriott attorney Donald Derrico, noting that the subpoenas haven't been issued. The hotel will decide whom to subpoena on a case-by-case basis, he said.
"Her name was never, ever, ever disclosed to anyone," Derrico said.
Marriott issued a statement Friday that it was "profoundly sorry that such a terrible thing happened to the victim of this violent crime" in its parking garage. The chain said the situation has "created a mistaken impression that Marriott lacks respect" for victims of violent crimes.
That's my take on it. My question of the week is, "How can so much of corporate America be run by such nitwits who make mega bucks?"
"That's my take on it. My question of the week is, "How can so much of corporate America be run by such nitwits who make mega bucks?" "
ReplyDeleteCorporate America has created a culture that encourages executives to be nitwits and promotes the dumbest. American corporate culture promotes, as the great virtues, a lack of creativity, lack of discriminatory thinking, lack of compassion, and lack of basic honesty that can't be described easily or concisely.
'Utilitarian' doesn't do it justice, because it isn't even utilitarian. Ultimately, it is a system of perpetuated failure (both moral failure and business failure) presented as success.
If I were feeling terribly snarky, I'd call it 'Republican.'
I'm not American and I don't live in America so I preface my remarks by saying this applies to the human situation, rather than America per se.
ReplyDeleteI actually believe the hotel chain is sincere when it says the situation has created a mistaken impression that Marriott lacks respect for victims of violent crimes. Poor little misunderstood Marriott. Oh the self-pity.
The only respect here is acknowledgment of the victim's power to litigate and damage Marriott.
Everything here is an exploration of power.
The rapist's power to act violently, the hotel's power to legally intimidate, the victim's own power to litigate.
How do we break out of this paradigm, which will throw up another situation like this, again and again?
I wish I had the answer to that. Like most women I do think the victim had the right to sue Marriott and, imo, done exactly that. I guess that from the public's reaction Marriott finally figured out that their "defense" wasn't such a wise one.
ReplyDelete