Judge tosses claims against city of Charlotte in Myers Park sexual assault trial
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Title IX complaints in CMS
From lawsuits at Myers Park High to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reassigning administrators amid controversy, this is the latest on sexual assault cases and Title IX issues in the district.
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A federal judge on Thursday threw out a woman’s claims that the city of Charlotte and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department responded inadequately when she allegedly was sexually assaulted at Myers Park High School.
U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad, who is presiding over the jury trial, agreed to throw out the claims against the city and CMPD, but denied Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ attorney’s request for those claims to be dismissed. Attorneys for the district will start their defense Friday.
The decision was made after nearly a day’s worth of testimony from Jane Doe, the Myers Park High student who alleges she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted near the school. Attorneys for CMS and CMPD tried to show that Doe willingly left campus with the alleged attacker and had a number of opportunities to ask for help if she felt kidnapped or uncomfortable.
The crux of her civil lawsuit against Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the city of Charlotte involves its response to her alleged kidnapping and sexual assault. Doe says the school resource officer and Myers Park officials mishandled her case, leading to violations of Title IX protections.
The most-anticipated part of a high-profile trial that started Tuesday, Doe for hours on Thursday recounted 20 minutes from Nov. 3, 2015 that left her depressed and “really sad, just trying to get through,” she said. She was 17 at the time of the alleged assault.
Doe, alleged attacker meet in physical science class
Doe says she was a shy student at Myers Park High School who was worried about her weight.
She struggled with self-confidence when she attended the school between 2013 and 2015. She tried to make friends and was optimistic about boosting her self-esteem, she told a jury Thursday, because her goal was to attend law school and work for the FBI.
Doe, dressed in black with her hair in low pigtails, spoke plainly with little inflection in her voice during her testimony in Charlotte’s federal courthouse. She’s listed in court as Doe to protect her identity.
Doe met her alleged attacker, an 18-year-old male student who goes by Q.W. in court records, in her third-period physical science class in 2015. Q.W. was a senior at the time. He has never been identified.
“My first impression of him was he had a really short fuse and was aggressive,” Doe said, adding that he got into an altercation with another student over a pencil.
But Q.W. ended up asking Doe to be a part of his group for an assigned project — to come up with a comic strip and poem about rocks. Doe accepted. By the end of that class period, Q.W. passed her a note asking for her number.
She said, “No.”
“He was the first boy to ask for my number,” she said Thursday. “It was a little awkward.”
Text messages exchanged
A few classes later, Q.W. told her she was pretty. And when he asked for her number again, she was flattered and gave it to him.
The pair began texting on Oct. 29, 2015. They continued to talk, and Q.W. paid her compliments. Doe testified she felt like they were becoming friends.
On Oct. 30, the text conversations escalated. Doe’s attorney, Laura Dunn of L.L. Dunn Law Firm, showed screenshots of the text messages to the jury Thursday.
Q.W. asked Doe if she was a virgin and if she had ever seen a penis. In another text that night, Doe asked Q.W.: “What if I kissed you?” Q.W. responded that he’d want to have sex.
As they continued to text, Doe and Q.W. talked about skipping school, and Q.W. offered to show her his penis. Doe testified she said “yes” to skipping school, but asked “where?”
She also put a stipulation on him.
“I want you to ask me out first,” Doe texted. “Like I have to (be) your girlfriend.”
Q.W.’s response: “I don’t want a relationship, though.”
By the end of the conversation, Doe texted: “OK. I’ll skip with you.”
Myers Park officials see Doe
Doe testified she changed her mind about skipping on Nov. 2 because “she got a bad vibe.” She said in court Q.W. continued to pressure her.
On Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, Q.W. texted her at 6:22 a.m. and asked her: “Do you want to skip 1st block?”
Hoping he’d get the hint, Doe replied: “Not right now.”
Throughout her testimony, Doe said she didn’t deny him because she “didn’t want to hurt his feelings.”
But when they arrived at school Nov. 3, Doe said she agreed to walk with Q.W. to her weight-lifting class.
Dunn showed the courtroom video footage from Nov. 3, 2015. The footage, timestamped at 6:59 a.m., showed Doe and Q.W. walking on a sidewalk on campus. Other students were around and driving into the parking lot. It was then, Doe said, Q.W. grabbed her and led her off campus to a place called the Bamboo Forest.
Bradley Leak, a CMPD employee assigned as Myers Park’s school resource officer, saw Doe and yelled, “Where are you going? I’m calling your mom,” Doe said.
‘Help. I’m being kidnapped’
Doe said she texted her friends and mom to try to get help as Q.W. grabbed her arm and led her across a busy street. She testified that cars were honking at them while they were crossing.
Those texts from Doe included: “Help. I’m being kidnapped.”
“Tell Officer Leak.”
Another text from a friend asked Doe if she was in danger. Doe texted back. “No.”
She also texted her mom: “I think he’s crazy.”
“I was just wondering why no one was helping me,” Doe said Thursday.
Doe recounted in graphic detail how Q.W. allegedly sexually assaulted her between 7:31 a.m. and 7:51 a.m. on Nov. 3. She said Q.W. aggressively kissed her, pulled out his penis and forced her to put her hands on it. Doe said she “didn’t like it” and continuously asked if “we could stop.”
At one point, Doe said, he told her to kiss his penis. When he pushed her shoulders down, she fell back on a log and dropped her phone. Her glasses fell off and broke, Doe said. That’s when, she said, Q.W. forced his penis into her mouth.
“He grabbed my hair like this,” Doe said and demonstrated in court. “My hair was fixed like it is today.”
She testified Thursday he also pulled down her pants and touched his penis on her vagina. She again begged him to stop.
Around that time, some students walked by and they both stood up.
“I still beat myself up. I didn’t yell for help,” Doe said. “It was so embarrassing. It was so humiliating. I just wanted my mom.”
After the students were out of sight, Doe said Q.W. continued to pressure her. He put his penis in her mouth and ejaculated.
“I was so disgusted,” Doe said Thursday. “I spit it out. I didn’t know anything else at the moment, but I knew I wanted to press charges.”
It’s unclear if any charges were ever brought against Q.W.
During her testimony, her current boyfriend, who has attended every day of the trial, buried his head in a jacket and appeared to be crying.
After the assault
Court records show school officials, including Leak, found Doe and Q.W. as he was attempting to walk her back to the school. Leak put them into a patrol car.
Jane Doe’s mother on Wednesday testified there was little communication from school officials or Leak about the report they created about the alleged sexual assault. School officials told the family they believed Doe was skipping school. Mrs. Doe said she did not receive the outcome of a school investigation other than “they said nothing occurred.”
Mrs. Doe said she took her daughter to the hospital on the day of the incident for a sexual assault exam. She also took her after the incident because her daughter complained about ear, throat and neck pain. She was prescribed pain medication. Doe also received mental health services.
Doe seeks compensation for damages that include physical and psychological pain, suffering, impairment, lost wages, loss of educational opportunity, attorneys fees, costs and “further relief that justice may require,” according to the claim.
After the attack, Doe texted friends: “I was attacked. I feel so gross. If I have AIDS I’m going to kill myself.”
In the afternoon, attorneys for CMS and CMPD tried to show that Doe willingly left campus with the alleged attacker and had a number of opportunities to ask for help if she felt kidnapped or uncomfortable.
They asked Doe why she didn’t ask for help when a school resource officer called out her name as she left the school with the alleged attacker, why she didn’t run into a gas station on her walk to the woods with the alleged attacker or why she didn’t call for help from any of the three students who walked by when the assault was happening.
Doe responded, “I was terrified.”
Defense attorneys tried to show CMS cooperated with CMPD and tried to get the family to cooperate. Myers Park officials also tried to talk to the family, defense attorneys said. Doe acknowledged that was true.
This story was originally published January 19, 2023 at 6:15 PM.
