Raped for Business,|Then Fired, Woman Says

MIAMI (CN) - A woman claims her company had her drugged and raped "for the purpose of currying favor with business partners and officials." Her rapist, she says, was Michael Misick, the last premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Jane Doe sued Nikki Beach Hotels and Resorts, Penrod Management Group, and her former boss, Michael Penrod. Misick, though named throughout the complaint, is not named as a defendant.

Doe says: "Nikki Beach, through the various defendant corporations, operates hotels and nightclubs at beachside locations. Its marketing and business plans rely on the allure of sex."

She claims Nikki Beach hired "attractive young women" and send them to "potential business partners and officials it wished to influence ... encouraging the consumption of alcohol and narcotics and providing the same, and thereby providing opportunities for potential business partners and officials whose approval they sought to sexually assault these women."

Doe, a design consultant, says Nikki Beach sent her to the British Territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands in late March 2008. She says Penrod, "a high-ranking executive" with Nikki Beach, ordered her to attend a "social function," there, and arranged for her transportation. She says she went against her wishes.

She was taken to Misick's home, she says, where she "was given wine that, unknown to her, was infused with a narcotic."

The complaint continues: "After she was in an altered state, her supervisor, who was present and was aware or should have been aware of the risk that Misick would assault her, knowingly and purposely abandoned her at the home of Misick in that altered state. ...

"In the morning of March 28, 2007, Misick raped Jane Doe."

The complaint adds: "In fact, Penrod and Nikki Beach regularly transported young, attractive women into such dangerous settings in order to improperly curry favor to the benefit of Nikki Beach.

"Nikki Beach intentionally transported Jane Doe from Miami-Dade County to a dangerous setting, with foreseeable and known dangers, and abandoned her there."

Doe says that "Nikki Beach was aware that Misick was corrupt, that he engaged in criminal activity, and that he engaged in lascivious behavior. It sought to gain favor with him by presenting him with attractive young women in settings in which he could take advantage of them."

In fact, the complaint states, Misick was so corrupt that the British Parliament "issued a report charging Misick with enriching himself and fellow ministers by selling off Crown land. Because of Misick's corruption, the United Kingdom resumed administrative control of TCI and the position of Premier was abolished."

After she was raped, Doe says, she returned to her hotel, and returned as soon as possible to Florida, because a co-worker "told Jane Doe that he believed her life to be in danger due to the power that Misick exercised on the island."

In Miami, Doe says, she went to a hospital and had a medical examination that concluded she had been raped.

"When she arrived in South Florida, her corporate email account had been shut off, signaling her termination by Nikki Beach," the complaint states.

"Penrod and Nikki Beach spread the story that she had been fired for misconduct."

She claims she was a victim of a corporate practice: "Nikki Beach would allow management employees to encourage sexual encounters or inappropriate behavior between young female employees and business partners, officials and customers, and then turn and dismiss the female employees for the behavior, while encouraging the supervisors to repeat the pattern. Nikki Beach would allow these management employees to purposely endanger their young female staff."

An attorney for the hotel, Steve Savola, called the lawsuit "totally frivolous," adding that the claims were shot down in federal and police investigations.

"Three years ago, the FBI and Turks and Caicos law enforcement conducted a thorough investigation into this matter and submitted their files to the Turks and Caicos attorney general who did not believe there was sufficient evidence to file charges," Savola said in a statement. "The story outlined by 'Jane Doe' in her lawsuit filed yesterday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court is pure fiction and utterly without merit.".

Nikki Beach is headquartered in South Beach, Miami, and has beach club locations in eight countries, including France, Spain, Mexico, Morocco, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic. Savola said the hotel may countersue.

Doe sued Nikki Beach Holdings LLC; Nikki Beach Hotels and Resorts LLC; Nikki VIP LLC; Penrod Management Group Inc.; Penrod Management International LLC; and Michael Penrod. She seeks damages for defamation, negligence and endangerment.

She is represented by John Thornton in Miami-Dade County Court.

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