A woman has filed a lawsuit against Princess Cruises after allegedly being raped by an art gallery employee who infected her with HIV.
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The anonymous woman filed the suit yesterday, and the incident occurred in January 2022, according to the complaint. The employee, identified only as Aleksandr, worked for Park West, an onboard art auction hosting partner. She claimed she had been drinking all day when Aleksandr allegedly noticed her and persuaded her to participate in the auction. During the encounter, he allegedly inquired about the victim’s name and room number. Aleksandr contacted her after she returned to her room and told the victim to return to the gallery.
He allegedly forced her to drink more alcohol and led her up a flight of stairs moments later. He pushed her into a closet and raped her, she said. The victim claims she was too drunk to push him away, but she repeatedly told him she didn’t want to have sex.
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According to the complaint, the victim began to experience symptoms and went to her doctor to be tested when she discovered she tested positive for HIV. Her attorney, Michael Winkleman, told The Daily Beast that his client was finishing school and working in the medical field.
“I think she’s doing OK under the circumstances, She was 27 at the time of the cruise, she had basically just finished school. She’s in the medical field, and she was really just getting her life started. For her to have this horrific incident in and of itself was terrible, but then to have the added element of the HIV—it’s any person’s worst nightmare.”
Park West Galleries also told the outlet that the complaint for damages was recently filed and claimed no evidence supported the young woman’s claim.
“The nature of the acts alleged in this Complaint warrant a very serious examination of the facts that separates the facts from fiction. At this time, no evidence has been provided to support the Complaint’s allegations, and no notice of this alleged incident was provided to us, the cruise line, or law enforcement, even though the incident allegedly occurred one year ago. In the company’s 25 years of operating on cruise ships, there’s never been an allegation that any Park West auctioneer ever acted inappropriately sexually with any guest or passenger or anyone else,”
Princess Cruises did not release a statement regarding the lawsuit but this is not the first time they faced a lawsuit regarding their associates or employees. A Texas woman sued the company after her husband died from the coronavirus days after contracting it during their trip. She accused the company of negligence after they prevented him from leaving the ship to receive medical care and he later died at a California hospital.
“It is shocking to me that a cruise line that had just discharged coronavirus-infected passengers took on board a new group of passengers to then mingle with others who had been exposed. Princess had notice of the dangers, the Doretys did not,”