Sexual Violence, Title IX, and Victims’ Rights
Lawsuit Against Colgate University for Failure to Keep Student-Athlete Safe from Abusive Coach
Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight has filed a lawsuit against Colgate University. The Complaint alleges that Colgate ignored abuse by its women’s lacrosse coach Kathy Taylor, who overtrained student-athletes to the point of injury, harassed them, and forced them to play while hurt. That abuse eventually led to over twenty players leaving the team and three players attempting suicide, the Complaint alleges.
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FTCA Sexual Assault Complaints Against the Army for Employing and Retaining Sexually Abusive Doctor
On December 15, 2025, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight filed seven Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) administrative complaints against The Defense Health Agency, the U.S. Department of the Army and the U.S. Department of Defense (collectively, “the Army”) on behalf of Jane Does 1-7.
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Baltimore Archdiocese, St. Mary’s Seminary Wrongful Death Lawsuit
On June 27, 2023, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Grant and Eisenhofer, P.A. filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Flannery and Liam Gallagher against the Archdiocese of Baltimore (“AOB”), its affiliated St. Mary’s Seminary and University, and the seminary’s owner, Society of St. Sulpice, for their roles in the 2022 death of the Plaintiffs’ father, Frank Gallagher Jr.
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FTCA Sexual Assault Complaints Against Coast Guard
Since September 5, 2024, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight has filed 22 separate Federal Torts Claims Act administrative complaints against the United States Coast Guard; its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security; and its former parent agency, the Department of Transportation, (collectively “the Coast Guard”) on behalf of former Coast Guard Academy cadets who were sexually assaulted during their time at the Academy. The complaints allege that the Coast Guard was negligent in failing to implement adequate policies and practices to prevent sexual violence from running rampant at the Academy, and that leadership failed to act despite having knowledge of the sexual violence regularly occurring on campus.
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FTCA Sexual Assault Complaints Against Army Doctor
On September 14, 2023, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight filed two separate Federal Torts Claims Act (“FTCA”) administrative complaints against the U.S. Department of the Army and the U.S. Department of Defense (collectively, “the Army”) on behalf of John Doe 1 and John Doe 2. Both are former patients of Dr. Michael Stockin, an Army doctor who faces criminal charges for sexually abusing numerous former patients.
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FTCA Sexual Assault Complaint Against Marine Recruiter
On February 15, 2024, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight filed a Federal Torts Claims Act (“FTCA”) administrative complaint against the United States Marine Corps and its parent agencies the United States Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense (collectively “the Marines”) on behalf of a teen-aged recruit who was sexually abused by a Marine recruiter.
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Navy Captain Sexual Assault Lawsuit
On November 29, 2023, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and Maritime Legal Solutions filed a lawsuit against the United States on behalf of Elsie Dominguez. The Complaint alleges that Ms. Dominguez, a civilian mariner working as the 1st Assistant Engineer aboard the USNS Carson City, a naval vessel operated by the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (“MSC”), was raped by the Captain of the vessel.
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Harvard University Lawsuit
Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight filed a lawsuit on February 8, 2022, against Harvard University and the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Complaint alleges that Harvard violated Title IX and Massachusetts Civil Rights and Common laws by willfully ignoring a near-decade-long pattern of sexual harassment and retaliation by tenured Anthropology Professor John Comaroff against three female graduate students in Harvard’s Anthropology Department. The Complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of the three students, Margaret Czerwienski, Lilia Kilburn, and Amulya Mandava.
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Baltimore Apartment Complex and Property Management Company Lawsuit
In February 2021, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight filed a lawsuit on behalf of Emily Doe against a Baltimore apartment complex and property management company alleging premises liability negligence after Ms. Doe was raped by a stranger who had gained access to her building through a faulty door that Defendants had been made well aware of but neglected to repair for years.
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Midshipmen-Cadet Suits Against Maersk Line, Limited
The complaints alleged that Maersk Line, owner and operator of commercial cargo vessels, violated the Jones Act, General Maritime Law, and anti-discrimination laws by failing to adequately protect two female students from sexual assault and sexual harassment while they worked aboard the Maersk M/V Alliance Fairfax as part of the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy’s “Sea Year” program.
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MindGeek Sex Trafficking Civil Lawsuit
On December 15, 2020, less than a year after Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight helped secure a $13 million award in civil damages for 22 women who were illegally defrauded and coerced into making pornographic videos for the website GirlsDoPorn.com (“GDP”), 40 GDP victims filed a lawsuit against MindGeek, parent company of the free “tubesite” Pornhub.com, for participating in GDP’s fraudulent scheme and profiting from their videos.
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Rabbi Freundel Voyeurism Class Action
In October 2018, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia granted final approval of a $14.25 million class action settlement arising from Rabbi Bernard Freundel’s secret videotaping of females without their consent at the National Capital Mikvah facility in Washington, DC.
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The Waterford School Sexual Assault Lawsuit
In August 2020, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight and local counsel Ferbrache Law filed a lawsuit on behalf of Tabitha Bell against The Waterford School, an elite private school in Utah, alleging negligence and breach of its duty of care; premises liability; negligent supervision of its faculty and students; and negligent infliction of emotional distress, among other civil liabilities.
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