Jury awards $6.6M to woman raped in Mass. hotel parking garage
BOSTON - A woman raped in a hotel parking garage days after another woman was raped there has been awarded $6.6 million by a jury.
The jury found on Tuesday that JPA I Management Co. Inc., which owned the Radisson Hotel and its garage, and JPA IV Management Co. Inc., which operated them, failed to provide adequate security even though they knew another woman had been raped in the garage 12 days earlier.
Jurors found garage manager Laz Parking Limited LLC wasn't liable for the 2009 assault.
The lawsuit alleged the hotel should have warned customers and posted extra garage security. A man later pleaded guilty to both rapes.
The JPA companies' lawyer said they disagree with the jurors but respect their decision.
The woman who was raped and filed the lawsuit, Kira Wahlstrom, and her attorney said they hope the lawsuit will improve garage security and help other victims.
"It was about helping people and maybe changing the way that people run their parking garages and the way they treat rape victims and, hopefully, more men and women will speak out when things like this happen," she said in an interview with WFTX-TV.
The Associated Press does not usually identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse, but Wahlstrom has spoken publicly often about her case.