A woman filed a lawsuit Tuesday against former Kentucky police officer Brett Hankison alleging that he sexually assaulted her in 2018, ABC News reported.
22-year-old Margo Borders filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court in Louisville, alleging that Hankison sexually assaulted her while she was intoxicated and unconscious after giving her a ride home from a bar April 20, 2018, according to ABC News. Hankison was working as a security guard at the Tin Roof bar in Louisville when he offered Borders a ride home after she had met friends there for drinks, the lawsuit said.
Former Louisville officer charged in Breonna Taylor case sued over alleged 2018 sexual assault. https://t.co/g7sHjH0l7Q
— ABC News (@ABC) November 11, 2020
She accepted the ride home, according to the lawsuit. Borders claimed that she had known Hankison for about a year and that he would frequently contact her on social media, according to the report. (RELATED: Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron Announces Grand Jury Indictment Of One Of Three Officers In Breonna Taylor Shooting Case)
“Margo had no objections to a ride home from a police officer,” the lawsuit said according to the report. “She wouldn’t have to pay for an Uber and felt protected with an officer making sure she got home safely.”
When they got back to Borders’ residence, Borders allegedly went into her room to change and left Hankison on the couch in the living room.
“She’d had plenty to drink and went to sleep rather than returning to the living room. While Margo was unconscious, Hankison went into her room, stripped off his clothes and willfully, intentionally, painfully and violently sexually assaulted Margo,” the lawsuit said.
Borders yelled at Hankison to get off of her when she regained consciousness, at which point he grabbed his clothes and left, according to the lawsuit. Hankison allegedly messaged Borders the next day and suggested the relations were consensual.
Tin Roof told ABC affiliate WHAS in Louisville that Hankison was fired last spring.
“We feel there is an obligation to provide a safe environment for guests as they enter and exit the venue and would never deliberately put the safety of our patrons at risk especially by those contracted to serve and protect,” Tin Roof said in a statement, according to the report. “We find the allegations to be reprehensible, and our company does not tolerate abuse of power or discrimination in any form.”
Borders first posted about the incident in June in a Facebook post.
“It took me months to process what had happened and to realize that it wasn’t my fault and I didn’t ask for that to happen by allowing him to give me a ride home,” she said on Facebook according to ABC News. “I never reported him out of fear of retaliation. I had no proof of what happened and he had the upper hand because he was a police officer. Who do you call when the person who assaulted you is a police officer? Who were they going to believe? I knew it wouldn’t be me.”
The lawsuit alleges that Hankison engaged in a pattern of behavior using his position working at bars across Louisville. It includes statements from some women claiming that Hankison offered them rides home from a bar before making unwanted advances towards them.
Borders’ lawyers also represented the family of Breonna Taylor, who received a $12 million settlement from the City of Louisville after Taylor was shot and killed September 23 in her home by police. Hankison is the only officer who was charged in relation to Taylor’s death. He faces three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree for firing shots into a neighboring apartment.