A woman who was a passenger on a Margaritaville at Sea cruise says a ship bartender raped her in her cabin in May, leading to a pregnancy she “was forced to terminate,” according to a lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
The West Virginia woman, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, is seeking damages in excess of $75,000 from Classica Cruise Operator, which does business as Margaritaville at Sea. Her attorney Spencer Aronfeld told The Washington Post that the figure is included to establish a civil suit in federal court, but “we think the damages here are in excess of millions of dollars.”
The lawsuit alleges that Classica failed its duty to protect a passenger from sexual assault and/or sexual battery by a crew member. According to court documents, Doe “suffered serious complications” from ending her pregnancy. The lawsuit says she suffered physical, emotional and psychological pain as well as an “aggravation and activation of preexisting conditions” and “sustained disability” that prevents her from leading a normal life. She says she has paid for medical and mental health treatment as a result of the incident.
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Aronfeld said his client is a 40-year-old wife and mother, and a “deeply religious person.” Ending the pregnancy was “not something that was easy for her to do,” he said: “She had to go out of state. She’s in a very conservative state where she was not able to obtain an abortion.”
The lawsuit alleges that the bartender, Hoobesh Kumar Dookhy, entered a cabin Doe was sharing with a friend and raped her after the two women had gone to sleep following a night of drinking on May 5, while the ship was sailing from the Port of Palm Beach to the Bahamas. Crew members had access to the victim’s room number and cabin key to charge her for drinks, the lawsuit says.
In a criminal case, Dookhy, 24, pleaded guilty to a charge of abusive sexual contact against Doe’s cabinmate on the same night. Doe’s friend is identified as H.B. in Doe’s case and in her own pending lawsuit against Classica Cruise Operator, in addition to court documents related to Dookhy’s criminal case.
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According to an affidavit submitted by an FBI agent in May, Dookhy told federal investigators H.B. had given him the room key to the cabin, and they had sex while Doe was asleep. Doe, who was identified by a different name in Dookhy’s criminal case, told investigators she awoke to Dookhy touching her face, and she tried to get Dookhy to leave the room before he went to her friend and touched her breast. Doe took photos of Dookhy touching her friend that were shared with cruise ship security and the FBI.
Dookhy was initially charged for having sex with Doe’s cabinmate when she was physically incapable of consent, but that charge was dropped in a plea deal. Dookhy could serve up to two years in prison and faces a maximum fine of $250,000 for abusive sexual contact. A sentencing hearing has been reset for Jan. 30, according to court files. Dookhy is listed as an inmate at the Federal Detention Center, Miami.
Doe and her husband had not been sexually active for months before the cruise, and she had not engaged in any sexual activity with anyone else, Aronfeld said. He also cited the gestational age and fetal weight at the time of the abortion as proof his client was impregnated during the cruise. “Her medical records are all consistent with her story,” Aronfeld says.
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The affidavit from the FBI agent does not include any testimony from Doe saying Dookhy raped her, only that he touched her face.
“Only when she was pregnant was she sure what actually occurred,” Aronfeld said. “She has a clear recollection of her being naked in bed and him being on top of her.”
Aronfeld said Doe reported her accusation to the FBI by phone in October. When asked Thursday, the public information officer for the Southern District of Florida would not comment on whether Dookhy is under investigation or faces any additional criminal charges.
“A lot of victims of sexual assault and rape often repress these emotions because of various things like guilt and confusion and embarrassment, sometimes for months and years,” Aronfeld said.
The Post contacted a probation officer and a public defender assigned to Dookhy’s case but was unable to reach Dookhy for comment. A representative for Margaritaville at Sea shared a statement from the company dated Jan. 3 regarding the latest allegation against Dookhy.
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After the initial incident, “the crew member was immediately terminated from employment and we took all possible steps to assist not only the FBI throughout its investigation, but the United States Attorney’s office in its prosecution,” the statement says. Margaritaville at Sea also said it did not receive Doe’s accusation against the former crew member “until the time of this lawsuit.”
Sexual assaults are the most common crimes reported on cruise ships, according to Transportation Department data. Over the last three months of 2022 — the last period for which the department shared statistics for crimes reported on cruises — there were 30 alleged sexual assaults reported across 13 cruise lines, including 21 involving passengers. The previous three months, there were 20 reports of alleged sexual assaults. Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line, which was rebranded as Margaritaville at Sea company, reported no sexual assaults in 2022, per Transportation Department data.
A DOT spokesperson said Thursday that the agency has been working with the FBI to update their incident numbers and expects to release 2023 figures soon.
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