Jury awards $131 million to Texas A&M student in case of sexual assault at bar
Eight years after she first reported rape allegations, a former Texas A&M student has been awarded $131 million by a jury that found the manager and owners of a Brazos County bar responsible for her sexual assault.
In the trial of a civil lawsuit in April, a jury determined that David Hammond, who was general manager of the Foundation Lounge in College Station, drugged and sexually assaulted Bethany, who was a 21-year-old student at the university.
According to the lawsuit, evidence shows that David Hammond “spiked” Bethany’s drink and then “raped her when she lacked capacity to consent to sexual contact with a complete stranger.”
The verdict included $31 million in compensatory damages — $15 million for past mental anguish, $5 million for future mental anguish, $5 million for past impairment, $5 million for future impairment, and $1 million for past pain. It also included $50 million in exemplary damages against the bar and $50 million against the assailant, according to court documents.
Victim vividly remembers night of assault
Bethany, who spoke to the Star-Telegram in an interview after the verdict and agreed for her first name to be published, was helping her friend look for a bartending job to pay for college in 2017. They applied at multiple bars on the night of Aug. 13, with Foundation Lounge as their last stop.
David Hammond had them wait until the bar closed at 2 a.m., and Bethany said, “I vividly remember” him closing the door and the lights being on, “and it haunts me to this day.”
After their conversation with David Hammond, he offered Bethany’s friend a job, which, looking back, likely wasn’t real, Bethany said. He then poured a shot of something from an unmarked bottle, “we took the shot, and we didn’t remember anything after that,” she said.
Bethany woke up naked next to him in a hotel room and could not find her clothes, she said. She put on her bra and shirt found on the floor but could not locate her pants and underwear. They ended up being in the bathroom at the Foundation Lounge, she said. “He had already admitted to taking me to an after party, which means I went from the bar to an after party, and then to the hotel with no pants or underwear.”
“My attorney showed in court, the shirt I was wearing was not long enough to cover up anything,” Bethany said. “That was one of the most disturbing things to me, was how many people may have taken pictures of me or didn’t intervene.”
Bethany could barely write her name after the incident and a coworker reported concerns about her to the College Station police. More than 70 hours later, she was able to get a sexual assault kit testing done, she said.
She reported the assault to police, believing that was what should be done, she said: “I always felt like, OK, I trust the police over anyone else. But it’s definitely been” hard. The nurses and doctors believed he had drugged them, she said, “but the case hit a standstill.”
“I just kept thinking, what do you have to do to be pursued criminally? If this isn’t enough, then what is?” Bethany said she had to follow up for many years to get her sexual assault kit results.
Fighting for justice can be hard
One of the biggest parts of Bethany’s college life was her work as a resident adviser in the on-campus apartments, where she made a lot of close friends. “They were some of the people that supported me by far the most through all of this,” she said.
Her boss at the time was the first person she informed as it affected her ability to work. Bethany said her boss encouraged her to seek immediate counseling. Bethany said her anxiety since the assault has been “extreme” and she was diagnosed with PTSD and depression.
“The PTSD has been something that has been hard to live with, because no matter how I tried to shut him and this incident out of my head, it’s always there,” she said.
At the civil trial, “it was very emotional and traumatic to testify, but it was a great relief for me to tell my story and to be heard,” she said. When the jury came back with their verdict, Bethany said, she could “barely breathe.”
When people in the courtroom heard and understood what she was trying to get across for years, “so much weight lifted off of me because I had been listened to,” she said.
Fighting for justice can be a “hard journey” Bethany said, as her message to other survivors. ”But it is so worth it. If you choose to try to put this behind you, that is up to you, but if you feel the need or the urge to pursue justice, that if you push hard enough, you’ll get there.”
The Texas A&M student counseling services and rape crisis centers have taught her coping strategies. However, Bethany said, it “hurts me to reopen that wound every week, be on a call with them — it will always be a part of me, as much as I don’t want it.”
Bethany felt an obligation to pursue justice, “so he would know that he didn’t get away with it.” Her husband, Hunter, and attorney Brian Butcher and his legal assistant Glenda Olson have been her “heroes,” she said. “I wouldn’t be where I was today without them. They listened and they believed me, and they fought hard to get me the justice that I deserved.”
In light of the verdict, Butcher and Bethany said they hope to pursue criminal charges against David Hammond. Butcher, who is with the Noteboom law firm based in the Fort Worth area, said he spoke with the Brazos County district attorney’s office about the possibility of reopening the case. The DA’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“I am so thankful that (civil) case and that verdict is hopefully opening up the criminal case again,” Bethany said. “I have fought so incredibly hard.”
Verdict was an emotional experience
After Bethany went to the police, for several years she was hoping that they would make an arrest that never happened. The DA decided that there was not enough evidence to pursue the criminal case at that time, and it was placed on inactive status, her attorney, Brian Butcher, told the Star-Telegram.
“When the verdict was read aloud in court, it was an intensely emotional experience, not just for Bethany, but also for everybody in the courtroom,” Butcher said. “Many of the jurors left the jury box and came and gave her hugs and told her that they were with her, and that meant an awful lot.”
Butcher said the jury found that the bar was negligent in its supervision, retention and training of David Hammond, who was a vice principal and manager of the bar.
Talking about the defendant’s history of abuse allegations, Butcher said, a “key piece of evidence that the jury heard in our case was that six months prior to the drugging and rape in our case, David Hammond was accused of sexual assault against an employee of the bar.”
When asked about a realistic amount that could be collected from the verdict, Butcher said the aim is to collect every non-exempt asset possible. What those assets are at this point is not clear because the bar is no longer in business. It is clear they won’t be able to collect anywhere near the verdict amount, but what was important is “to be heard and believed and to be vindicated and to get justice,” he said.
“I’m so proud of Bethany, because entering the legal fray in a case like this requires tremendous courage, fortitude and determination,” Butcher said. “It’s not easy, and when one woman does it, it’s a victory for every woman, because every woman is protected, and that was Bethany’s motivation throughout the entire course of litigation.”
Light at the end of the tunnel
There were a lot of jurors who stayed after the verdict to talk with her, Bethany said. One of them told her, “If I still let this affect me, then technically, one could think that David Hammond was the one that won, and I think that that was very impactful to me.”
“I’ll always carry this with me, and I know that the PTSD isn’t something that can just go away — but I’m hoping that I can be more present for my son and my husband,” she said. “My husband and I were dating when this occurred; he never doubted me, stuck with me through all of this.”