BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Legal Newsline) – The man accused of raping a University of Alabama student and causing her suicide has hired a psychiatrist to “victim-blame” to help him fight a wrongful death lawsuit.
That’s the opinion of lawyers for Michael Rondini, who filed suit after his daughter alleged she was raped, developed post-traumatic stress disorder, moved home to Texas and hanged herself. Earlier this year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled he could pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against alleged rapist Terry Bunn, even though Megan’s death was at her own hands.
Her suicide was not an event that broke the chain of causation, the court ruled May 7 in response to a certified question from Birmingham federal judge R. David Proctor.
Proctor is now asked to exclude the testimony of Dr. Barbara Long, who prepared an expert report for Bunn that concluded, among other things, Megan possibly suffered from a mood or anxiety disorder because of hypothyroidism found by the medical examiner.
Long will also testify to possible alcohol or substance abuse issues and “possible sexual orientation questions.”
“Defendant has provided a report that fails to meet any of the accepted methods for establishing competent expert testimony,” attorneys at the Maxwell Tillman Law Firm wrote July 16 in a motion to exclude Long’s report
“Dr. Long’s 10-page report does little more than question Megan’s sexual orientation and opine that Defendant is ‘well-known in Tuscaloosa’ and, therefore, attacks on his character are meritless.
“In fact, the entirety of Dr. Long’s report is an attempt to victim-blame Megan and chastise her parents for bringing the present action.”
Judge Proctor has concluded there is substantial evidence that Bunn sexually assaulted Megan. The two met at a Tuscaloosa bar in 2015, while Megan was a student at the University of Alabama, and he allegedly drugged and raped her.
The motion to exclude says Megan, 20 years old at the time, was drinking beer at Innisfree Irish Pub with friends on July 1, 2015. Bunn, then 34, was at the same bar that night.
As she walked home “intoxicated and alone,” Bunn picked up Megan and took her to his house in Cottondale despite pleas to be taken back to her friends, the motion says.
Bunn raped her at his house and fell asleep, and Megan had to climb out of a second-story window to jump to the ground because of a locking mechanism on Bunn’s bedroom door, the motion says.
She reported the rape to staff at DCH Hospital. She then began suffering from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, her father says, leading her to leave Alabama to be closer to her parents in Texas.
Despite her transfer to Southern Methodist University, Megan’s emotional state did not improve and she hanged herself on Feb. 26, 2016, her father says.
Bunn was never criminally charged. His proposed expert, Dr. Long, says Megan's claims she was forced to comply with Bunn’s sexual advances were “speculative at best.”
Long says Rondini’s expert uses text messages beginning at 1:04 a.m. to her friends that pleaded for help because she was trapped in a bedroom with “some rich dude” to support his opinion Megan plausibly alleged rape.
But Long went back another hour to form her opinion on Megan’s state of mind.
“Dr. Ziv omits Megan’s texts that give a more complete context to the sequence of events,” Long’s report says.
“Beginning 12:08 AM, for instance, Megan texts Michelle Arcia (MA) from Bunn’s house: ‘We are going to guck.’ MA: ‘Do it. Wear a condom. Good luck.’ Megan: ‘Ewww but I’ll make it real good.’ MA: Haha like a tru horseback rider.’
“Videos show her giggling in the trophy room and a text stating, ‘I’ll shoot a zebra,’ inconsistent with an opinion that she was alarmed in Bunn’s house at that time.”
Long says texts from 2013 indicate Megan had been on antidepressants since eighth grade but was “still f***ed up.” Long also claims possible alcohol abuse because Megan had a fake ID and drank to intoxication “on a weekly basis.”
Lawyers for Megan’s father say nothing in Long’s professional background allow her to present any opinion on survivors of sexual assault. Long’s experience is mostly in workplace sexual harassment.
Her opinions on Megan are unsupported by any studies of sexual assault victims, they also argue.
“There is no model, no theory, no technique that Dr. Long puts forth as to whether the sexual assault caused or contributed to Megan’s suicide,” the motion to exclude says.
“In fact, Dr. Long expressly disavows any authority to render any opinion on causation...”
Long’s report includes the following conclusions:
-“Understanding Megan’s mental state prior to, during, and after the incident is challenging… Absent an opportunity to examine Megan personally, diagnostic considerations remain speculative.”
-“In my opinion, it is inappropriate to offer opinions on this issue of causality, particularly given the lack of a suicide note. Bunn is not specifically mentioned in the texts leading up to her suicide, and her remark about what she might have accomplished but for one man is enigmatic. The presence of illegal drugs and alcohol, which were found in her system at autopsy, is significant.”
Because Long, in these passages, admits she can’t offer an opinion on what caused Megan’s suicide, her testimony would not be helpful to jurors and should be stricken under the Daubert standard, Rondini’s lawyers argue.