Sommers Schwartz attorney Andy Dragovic filed a personal injury lawsuit on behalf of three women who were sexually assaulted in their apartment and suffered severe physical, mental, and emotional trauma because of insufficient security in their apartment complex.

As alleged in the complaint, the plaintiffs are three college students who were roommates in an East Lansing apartment building owned, managed, and controlled by the defendants. Despite a history of multiple police calls for service for crimes of unlawful entry, home invasions, burglaries, and assaults on the property, the building entrance lock had been in a continual state of disrepair and was nonfunctional, and this despite numerous complaints to management made by the apartment residents.

In the early morning of January 24, 2020, a 24-year-old man entered through the building’s unlocked main entrance due to the nonfunctioning lock. Once inside the complex, he proceeded into the plaintiffs’ apartment, where he engaged in a spree of violence and sexual assault.

Specifically, he woke one of the plaintiffs and shoved the barrel of a handgun into her mouth. He then beat the young woman, tied her up, and raped her. He then entered another bedroom and dragged one of the other plaintiffs at gunpoint into the third roommate’s bedroom. After demanding the third roommate’s money, he repeatedly hit her in the head and face with the butt of his gun. He then forced one of the roommates at gunpoint to perform oral sex on the other before fleeing the scene.

The premises liability lawsuit seeks to hold the defendants accountable for breaching their duty under Michigan law to take reasonable measures to protect tenants and invitees. Specifically, their failure to maintain functioning locks on the apartment’s entrance doors, failing to repair those locks despite numerous complaints, and otherwise failing to provide reasonable measures to ensure the entrance doors and locks were functioning correctly. The plaintiffs seek damages for the severe and permanent injuries they suffered in the attack, including damages for past and ongoing medical expenses, pain and suffering, past and future loss of income, and other damages.