Cruise worker alleges rape, sues over handling

The woman claims that the company didn't give her proper treatment after she told them that two co-workers attacked her.

©Associated Press
December 20, 2002

MIAMI -- A Celebrity Cruises employee is suing the company, saying that after two colleagues raped her on the ship Millennium, the company didn't provide adequate medical treatment or counseling and didn't preserve evidence.

The 26-year-old woman's suit, filed Wednesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, seeks compensation for medical treatment and punitive damages. The Miami-based cruise line, which is owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., denies wrongdoing.

Bahamian police arrested Delatalas Theologos, 20, and Nikolaos Neamonitis, 27, last month and charged them with raping the woman Nov. 1 after a crew Halloween party. They were released on bail after surrendering their passports.

James M. Walker, the woman's attorney, said she was apparently drugged and was unconscious or semiconscious during the attack. The woman awoke to find the men videotaping her, Walker said. The men beat her when she tried to get the tape, Walker said.

Walker said the woman reported the rape to the cruise line, but instead of providing medical treatment or preserving evidence of the rape, Celebrity subjected her to numerous interrogations by male officers on the Millennium.

On Nov. 2, a Celebrity lawyer boarded the ship and interrogated her before she was finally allowed to visit the infirmary, the suit says. She was told not to mention her alleged attackers by name or tell the doctor she had been sexually assaulted, the suit says. The doctor refused to treat her, the suit says.

She eventually received treatment in the Bahamas, and on Nov. 3 Celebrity flew her to Miami, where she later received additional treatment, the suit says.

Celebrity spokesman Michael Sheehan said the company acted quickly and appropriately when it learned of the attack.

"We have a strong zero-tolerance policy regarding any alleged crime on board our ships," Sheehan said. "The allegations were immediately reported to the FBI and the Bahamian authorities, which are investigating."

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