An 18-year-old woman is suing a downtown Dallas nightclub after she said she was sexually assaulted at the club in December.
The Denton resident alleges that Club VIVO, a popular Latin club, created the conditions that led to her violent assault and that security staff did not help her after her friend alerted a staff member of the assault in progress, according to legal documents filed last week.
“They’re basically creating an environment perfect for predators,” said Charla Aldous, the plaintiff’s attorney. “They allow these young girls to come in, they pour alcohol into them and then they stand by and do nothing when older men attack them.”
Representatives of Club VIVO did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Dallas Morning News.
The plaintiff’s legal team argues that the nightclub’s built reputation through social media and marketing campaigns and its atmosphere allows older men to exploit and take advantage of the underaged girls who are intoxicated and vulnerable by Club VIVO employees who wrongly serve them alcohol, according to the complaint.
The 18-year-old is identified as Jane Doe in legal filings is a college student. She was allowed into the two-story nightclub with an “X” on her hand, indicating that she was underage. The lawsuit alleges that regardless, bartenders served her alcohol and continued to even after she was intoxicated.
At about 1:30 a.m., an unknown man dragged her across the dance floor to an upstairs restroom and raped her in a bathroom stall, according to legal filings. During the assault, Doe texted her friend who had gone with her to the club, messaging her that she was being sexually assaulted.
When the friend told security, the lawsuit alleges that the security staff did not assist them.
The woman is suing Club VIVO for negligence, liability, and for violating a section of the state’s alcoholic beverage code. It enables people to sue bars and other alcohol-serving establishments when over-served customers present a danger to themselves or others and the intoxication was a proximate cause of the damages suffered.
She reported the attack to the Dallas Police Department. The investigation is ongoing, according to her lawyers.
