Pinellas jury awards two women millions in rape case

The women say a money-loving rapist took everything from them. They get $6-million each.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 3, 2002

CLEARWATER -- Gregory Wilbanks bragged about his money and possessions. He liked to give tours of his $500,000 Oldsmar home or show off his Lincoln Navigator. He talked ceaselessly about his Las Vegas gambling trips.

"Money meant the most in the world to him," Meagan E. Wideman, a bank teller who watched him routinely deposit $10,000, said in an interview Monday. "It was all about his power and possessions."

Wideman and another woman told a Pinellas civil jury Monday that Wilbanks took everything from them when he raped them: career, security, happiness. They asked the jury to take away from Wilbanks the one thing that he valued most: his wallet.

The jury obliged, awarding Wideman and Kelly J. Smith $6-million each in actual and punitive damages. The award came after 15 minutes of deliberations and after a judge granted the women a directed verdict in their lawsuit, finding Wilbanks raped the two bank employees in 1999.

Wilbanks, 47, who was convicted of raping Smith in 2000 and is serving eight years in prison, did not contest the case at trial. He was never criminally charged with assaulting Wideman.

"Money meant everything to him," Wideman testified. "I want to take everything away from him now."

While the St. Petersburg Times does not normally name rape victims, both women gave the newspaper permission to identify them.

It is unusual, though not unprecedented, for the victims of a criminal defendant to file suit in civil court to collect damages. But most defendants aren't as well-heeled as Wilbanks, described by prosecutors as a millionaire.

"There's a definite cross-over between criminal and civil courts," said Tom Carey, an attorney representing Smith and Wideman. "The O.J. Simpson case is the most famous example. Typically, the biggest problem is finding the defendant's assets."

That may be the hitch with Wilbanks.

During the two-hour trial, Carey and co-counsel Jodi Leisure described Wilbanks as a man with easy access to cash but no discernible career. Wilbanks talked about being in the insurance business but didn't have a valid insurance license.

The lawyers said he traveled to Colombia and even married a native of that country. But finding assets has been difficult.

"I think it is going to be an uphill fight," Carey said. "Though he appears to be quite wealthy, finding assets might be difficult."

That may have to wait until his release from prison in six years.

"Once he gets out of prison, he can't live without money," Wideman said after the verdict. "He has to have that wealth and power to survive. That's just him. He won't be able to hide it."

Carey and Leisure described Wilbanks to jurors as a serial rapist who preyed on bank employees who were lulled into trusting him as a bank customer with lots of cash.

Both Smith and Wideman met Wilbanks through their bank work. Smith was a bank manager for Republic Bank at a branch in Belleair Bluffs. Wideman was a teller supervisor at a SouthTrust Bank branch at Walsingham and Keene roads.

Smith testified Monday that she went to Wilbanks' home to open a new business account for him. Making house calls was part of her job, and she didn't think twice about the trip.

After she walked into the house, Wilbanks grabbed her, dragged her into his bedroom and raped her. She said she pleaded and screamed, but he wouldn't stop.

Ms. Smith, 40, a Clearwater single mother of three, didn't report the assault until she heard that Wilbanks had been charged with committing a lewd and lascivious act on a teenager.

Wilbanks had asked Wideman, 22, out on dates. She refused. She was ordered by her boss to visit Wilbanks at his home to talk about a loan.

She testified that Wilbanks raped her in his office as she screamed for him to stop.

Both women said the rapes effectively ended their careers. Wideman said she felt like her bank was trying to protect a rich client. At one point, Wideman said she tried to kill herself.

"I just wanted it all to be over with," she testified. "I didn't want to have to remember it."

But she got over her suicidal feelings, she said. "I decided I wasn't going to let him take anything else away from me."

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