(WWJ) – Two women have come forward, claiming in a lawsuit they were sexually assaulted by a manager at a Wayne County motel in 2019.
Attorney Leonard Mungo on Tuesday announced a recently filed amendment to a lawsuit, identifying Kimberly Turrentine and Chelsea Cummings as victims of Kosu-Raju Babu-Rao, who lived and worked at the Super 8 Motel in Belleville.
Cummings was recently added to the lawsuit, originally filed last August against Jagu, LLC, who owns the motel.
Cummings checked into the motel around 9:30 p.m. on July 31, 2019 and Babu-Rao was working at the front desk at the time, according to the lawsuit. He allegedly approached Cummings uninvited and “forcibly hugged” her.
She was shocked and rejected the hug and pushed him away and expressed resentment towards Babu-Rao, according to the lawsuit.
After settling into room 112 with a friend who is now deceased, Cummings went to get ice and while doing so noticed Babu-Rao standing in the doorway of his room, 108, and watching her as she got ice, the lawsuit alleges.
As she was returning to her room, Babu-Rao allegedly forcibly grabbed both of her breasts and fondled them, before she was able to fight him off and return to her room and immediately tell her room, according to the lawsuit.
After calling a Super 8 corporate phone number, Cummings filed a police report the next day, but he was not arrested, the lawsuit says.
Nearly four months later, Turrentine checked into the same Super 8 around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 29, 2019, according to the lawsuit. Around 4 a.m., she noticed her TV and phone in her room weren’t working, so she went to the front desk and told Babu-Rao.
He came to her room, under the pretense that he was going to fix the phone and TV, according to the lawsuit, but as she was standing and watching him, he grabbed her on the buttocks and she screamed and pleaded with him not to touch her.
Babu-Rao then allegedly used both hands to push Turrentine onto the bed got on top of her, pulled down his pants and tried to rape her, the lawsuit alleges. She kicked and hit him until he got off her and left the room.
At the time of the alleged attempted rape Babu-Rao had a warrant out for his arrest for the previous alleged sexual assault.
Prior to leaving the Super 8 Motel Cummings found and told two housekeepers what he had done to her.
She was told by the housekeepers that he has sexually assaulted a number of women at the motel, but no one had filed a police report because they were too afraid or embarrassed to do so.
The lawsuit claims the Van Buren Township Police Department "failed and or refused to arrest Babu-Rao for the criminal sexual assault upon Plaintiff Cummings for approximately four months allowing Defendant Babu-Rao to continue working at the Super 8 Motel in Belleville, Michigan with ongoing opportunities for perpetrating violent criminal sexual assaults upon other women, namely Plaintiff Turrentine and potentially minor female guests staying at said motel."
At a press conference Tuesday Mungo said it is “impossible to comprehend."
“How is it that a person who is known to have sexually assaulted a patron, an invitee, a customer of Super 8 Motel would be allowed by the owner and Van Buren Police Department to continue to work there unarrested for four months until the second victim was sexually assaulted?” he said.
Mungo also says he has reason to believe this is not the first time that the employee has sexually assaulted women in the hotel, which may have potentially included young children.
WWJ has reached out to the Van Buren Township Police Department for comment but has not heard back yet. Employees at the Super 8 Motel in Belleville said no one authorized to talk was available.
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