Lawsuits Filed Against Stockton University Are Piling Up

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP - A Toms River attorney has filed seven lawsuits against Stockton University on behalf of female students who say the school did not protect them from sexual assaults, most of which they claim happened at an off campus fraternity house.

Robert R. Fuggi Jr. filed four suits in July, one in August and one on Sept. 3. Five of the suits name the defunct fraternity Pi Kappa Pi, where the bulk of the incidents are said to have taken place, according to the New Jersey Law Journal.

"There is a systemic problem with underage drinking and sexual assault at Stockton," Fuggi has said. Much of the issue is tied to what he called "rogue fraternities" that host parties specifically targeting female students.

"They prey on these young girls," some of whom have just turned 18 not long before leaving for college, he said after the first lawsuit was filed. "This has been going on for a while."

Pi Kappa Phi is not an authorized fraternity at Stockton and the locations where the alleged assaults took place are also off-campus and not affiliated with the college, spokesperson Diane D'Amico has said.

Pi Kappa Phi closed the Stockton chapter back in May 2010, Mark Timmes, Chief Executive Officer for the fraternity, told The Trentonian. "The defendants named in this lawsuit are not members of Pi Kappa Phi," he has said. "The fraternity does not have any further comment on the pending litigation."

Stockton held mandatory assemblies for incoming students that dealt with the discussion of sexual activities, the suit states. The assemblies created a "dangerous and sexually charged environment," according to one lawsuit.

In that case, the woman claimed she had been drugged or raped after the man she went to a Pi Kappa Phi party gave her a green concoction, which she said left her incapacitated. The suit states she woke up sore and bleeding after the party. When she asked the man she went to the party with if they had had sex, he said yes and asked her if she didn't remember.

Another suit involved a Stockton student who claimed she was raped and bitten by the son of a Stockton counselor at a private home. The student had already seen the counselor, the man's mother, before because of previous unrelated rapes and a suicide attempt, the lawsuit states. The counselor told her she had an alcohol problem, the lawsuit states.

A later Stockton hearing took no action against the counselor's son.

Some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuits cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1999 finding in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, that a recipient of federal education funds is subject to a private action for damages where the recipient is “deliberately indifferent” to acts of sexual harassment by one student to another.

Stockton University spokeswoman Diane D’Amico has deferred any comments about the lawsuits to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, who is representing the university.

Photo: Atlantic County Courthouse