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An American family says the negligent security of a Bahamas hotel led to their 15-year-old daughter’s rape by an alleged drug dealer, new court papers say.
Henry Richard Nixon was criminally charged for allegedly raping the teenage guest of the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in Nassau on April 4, 2021. He faces a criminal trial May 22, according to a newly filed lawsuit.
Now the girl’s father has brought a $10 million case against the hotel for allegedly failing to protect his daughter, for lack of security and for allowing Nixon onto the property – despite his reputation as a local drug dealer, the papers say.
“Hyatt boasts its ability to provide families with a safe vacation, yet there were no security personnel which intervened to prevent this preventable crime,” the suit charges. “Defendant’s failure to take reasonable and necessary precaution caused T.H. to suffer a horrific, life-altering event.”
The victim – referred to as T.H. in the Florida federal lawsuit – left her hotel room barefoot early that morning to talk with a friend on the phone, the court papers say.
After, Nixon began chatting with her before luring her to a cabana on hotel property to rape her, the suit alleges.
T.H.’s family – who were visiting the Caribbean island from Pennsylvania for Easter weekend – noticed she hadn’t returned to the room and went looking for her, the filing says.
The dad tracked her phone to the cabanas behind the hotel where he discovered Nixon raping his daughter, the suit alleges.
“After the father ripped Nixon off, he found his daughter curled up on the ground, crying and in disarray, with her undergarments pushed to the side,” the court papers claim.
“I wanted to puke,” the dad told The Post. “I didn’t know this person.”
“I was so concerned for her safety,” the father said. “He was incredibly older than her. There was obviously something massively wrong.”
“She was crying. She was in a heap on the floor,” he recalled.
The dad explained that he and his wife had stayed at the resort before and felt it was safe enough to come back with their two daughters.
“We thought we were at an extremely safe hotel and to have this happen to us is incomprehensible. It’s beyond words, how this could have happened,” the dad said.
The father said that the incident changed his daughter and she will never be the same.
“It’s going to be with her for life,” the dad said, noting that she gets set off when she hears police sirens and she distrusts older men.
“She is on a journey and we hope the upcoming trial gives a bit of her power back,” he said of the May criminal trial against Nixon.
“This is a family’s worst nightmare and it was entirely preventable,” the family’s lawyer Michael Winkleman said in a statement. “This lawsuit is intended to hold Hyatt accountable for its negligent security, obtain justice for the victim and her family, and raise awareness about the hidden dangers of international travel even at high end hotels and resorts.”
Hyatt Hotels and Grand Hyatt Baha Mar did not immediately return a request for comment.
It was not immediately known who Nixon’s criminal defense attorney was.
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