JUST IN: EXPLOSIVE LAWSUIT ALLEGES CENTRAL JERSEY HATZOLAH EMT'S SEXUALLY ASSAULTED PATIENT

Central Jersey Hatzolah (CJH) has just been slammed with a massive lawsuit which reveals concerning allegations that EMT's sexually assaulted and abused a woman they were transporting to a hospital, FAA News has learned.

The lawsuit does not reveal the names of either the plaintiff or the individual CJH members.

According to the complaint just filed by New York Attorney Donna H. Clancy, Esq.:

This action is brought to vindicate the human and civil rights of Plaintiff JANE DOE, who was sexually assaulted and abused while being urgently transported by an ambulance owned, operated and/or maintained by CJH. Plaintiff contends that CJH had a legal and contractual duty to provide JANE DOE reasonable safety, care and treatment as a patient requiring emergent medical care and failed to fulfill that duty by allowing and facilitating the assailant, JOHN DOE, to commit a sex crime, sexual assault and sexual abuse upon JANE DOE during the course of his duties as an emergency medical technician (“EMT”).

On a Friday evening, in or about June 2015, JANE DOE, experienced a medical emergency while at her cousin’s residence in Lakewood. CJH members responded to the scene, put her onto a stretcher and into the back of the ambulance, en route to NYU Hospital in Manhattan.

The driver returned to the driver’s seat of the ambulance, while Plaintiff’s husband sat next to him in the passenger seat of the ambulance. Another EMT remained in the back of the ambulance with Plaintiff.

The EMT then proceeded to drug Plaintiff and explicitly requested that the driver of the ambulance turn off the lights, purportedly to ensure that JANE DOE would lose consciousness on the way to the hospital.

Plaintiff’s husband and the ambulance driver then observed that JOHN DOE’S hands were under the blanket covering JANE DOE. 

When Plaintiff’s husband and the ambulance driver confronted JOHN DOE and asked why his hands were under the blanket covering JANE DOE, JOHN DOE responded that he was checking Plaintiff’s pulse. 

While in route to NYU Hospital in Manhattan, the ambulance driver was required to switch ambulances midway and stopped at a rest area to make the transfer.

After JANE DOE was transferred into the new ambulance, she reported to the ambulance driver that the EMT drugged her and touched her inappropriately while she was being transported in the first ambulance. Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff lost consciousness. 

The ambulance driver immediately reported the sexual assault to another volunteer EMT who expressed shock and highlighted JANE DOE’s vulnerability given her medical emergency, and the medication that JOHN DOE had administered to her, which Plaintiff later learned was Klonopin, a medication prescribed for certain seizure disorders, panic disorder and agoraphobia, which can cause unconsciousness. The second EMT then reported the sexual assault to Defendants’ management.

After reporting the sexual assault to CJH management, the second EMT replaced the first and remained in the back of the ambulance with JANE DOE until they reached NYU Medical Center.

CJH management then contacted its ambulance driver who also reported the sexual assault and provided a detailed account of what he witnessed while emergently transporting JANE DOE with her husband present in the passenger seat of the ambulance.

The suit contends 6 causes of action:

i) Sexual Assault

ii) Sexual Battery

iii) Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

iv) Gender-Motivated Violence Pursuant to VGMVPA

v) Negligence

vi) Negligent Hiring, Training, Supervision and Retention

The complaint demands judgment as follows:

(1) Compensatory damages for economic losses, physical and emotional pain and suffering, mental anguish, humiliation, loss of reputation and opportunity and enjoyment of life in an amount to be proved at trial;

(2) Liquidated damages in an amount to be awarded at trial;

(3) Punitive damages in an amount to be awarded at trial;

(4) Attorneys’ fees, costs and disbursements;

(5) Interest; and

(6) Such additional relief to Plaintiff as the Court deems just and proper.

Central Jersey Hatzolah has 35 days to answer the complaint.

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