Subway rape victim comes forward after suit tossed against MTA workers who ignored her cry for help
This is just heartbreaking, from Daily News
It was after 2 a.m. She was writing in her journal and had headphones on when she felt a man touching her feet.Alone in the subway car, she tried to move away, but the man, wearing a camouflage hat pulled low over his eyes, edged closer.
Besedin missed her stop but managed to bolt from the train at 21st St. She was running up the stairs when the rapist caught her from behind.
"The guy was running behind me and started pulling me down the stairs," she recalled.
"I held \[the token booth clerk's\] gaze for at least five seconds, yelling and screaming, 'Help! Help!'.
"I saw him and I thought, 'Oh gosh, he's gonna see me, it's gonna be okay' and - nothing."Besedin thought she would die on that vacant platform.
"He held me, literally by the scruff of my neck, over the train tracks at 45 degrees," she said trembling.
"I was just shaking and thinking that I was dead, I was as good as dead."
Besedin was sexually assaulted several times on the stairs and at the far end of the deserted platform. When a train pulled into the station, she again hoped her ordeal was over.
But, like toll booth worker John Koort, conductor Harmodio Cruz also only alerted a command center, Besedin said. Her suit, which also named the Transit Authority as a defendant, charged they did nothing to save her.
The judge noted Koort pressed an emergency button in his booth and ruled the men had no responsibility to intervene and were following work rules. Lawyers for the Transit Authority and the employees argued they had no idea if the rapist was armed.
Besedin spent months in "hibernation" after the attack before speaking out. She first told her story to the Daily News last October, but this is the first time she went public with her face and name.
"I think it was beyond negligence, it was obvious that an extremely violent crime was going on."
"By the time somebody came, I mean, I had lost all my dignity, and it was over," she added
Comments
Thank you for posting this, it's a heinous outrage. Unfortunately, there seems to always be too much evidence available that we can't rely on our city agencies to protect us.
Posted by: Jason | April 15, 2009 10:24 PM