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Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., has settled for an undisclosed amount with a former student who alleged that subpar security measures on campus led to her rape in 2019, The Erie Times-News reported Tuesday. The case was set to go to trial in September.
The suit claimed that the attacker, who assaulted the plaintiff at gunpoint in her dorm room in the college’s Ravine-Narvik Hall, accessed the building through a door that had been propped open by a rock because the building’s card-reader system wasn’t working correctly.
The plaintiff also said she opened the door when the assailant knocked because the door had no peephole or other way for her to tell who was outside. There were no cameras or security personnel inside or outside the building, the suit alleged.
The college denied the claim that its security infrastructure had led to the rape and attempted to get the suit dismissed in September 2021, but U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter rejected the motion.
The perpetrator of the crime, Montelle Brown, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to up to 40 years in state prison.
