A former Louisiana Tech student has sued the university and several others, alleging that officials there allowed a man she says raped her to shuffle from school to school, despite state laws and policies that required them to do something about the threat he posed.
The suit, filed in Baton Rouge federal court, alleges that the UL system, the LSU system and Lafayette City-Parish Government all failed to communicate complaints against the man that accused him of multiple sex crimes, as is required of them by state law and policy.
"Jane Doe," who now lives in Indiana, alleges that the man raped her when they were both students at Louisiana Tech. When that happened in September 2018 he already had been accused of sexual crimes by five women at Louisiana universities.
"Defendants, however, chose to disregard their most basic duties under Act 172, refused to share information concerning reports of student sexual assault, continued to employ disjointed approaches to sexual assault complaints, and, in the case of Defendants Board and LSU, ignored student rights guaranteed by Title IX," the suit alleges. "All of which enabled and emboldened Victor Daniel Silva (“Silva”), a serial sexual predator who raped Ms. Doe in September 2018, when they were both students at Louisiana Tech University (“Tech”). Unknown to Ms. Doe at that time, from 2014 to 2018, and before Ms. Doe ever met Silva, five women had reported Silva to Louisiana public universities and law enforcement for rape and other criminal sexual misconduct."
After less than a year at LSU, he was banned from campus after the complaints, the suit alleges. However, LSU didn't say anything to UL when Silva transferred to UL. While at UL, he was accused three times of sex crimes by local women, who reported the alleged attacks to Lafayette Police.
"However, the Lafayette PD did not inform UL Lafayette of these reports, in violation of Act 172 and, with respect to the last two complaints, a contractual agreement between law enforcement and the university," the lawsuit alleges.
The only criminal charge filed against Victor Silva in Lafayette is a marijuana possession charge in 2015, records show.
After a UL official read a newspaper article about Silva being charged with a sex crime in Baton Rouge, Silva transferred to Louisiana Tech. It was later that year when he raped Jane Doe, the suit alleges.
"Three days after Ms. Doe reported the rape to Tech, Defendant Board of Supervisors permitted Silva to transfer out of Tech, did not withhold Silva’s transcript, and never investigated Ms. Doe’s complaint or otherwise held Silva responsible for the sixth report of his sexual misconduct against female students. Ms. Doe was informed that, because Silva transferred, Tech’s hands were tied and it could not take any action on her report," the suit alleges.
But in May 2021 Jane Doe read an in-depth article in USA Today about Silva, and that is when she found out about all the other allegations against him and about his transferring among schools that knew he was a threat, the suit alleges.
"She also learned for the first time that Defendant Board of Supervisors had permitted Silva to transfer back to UL Lafayette after she reported him for rape, where he remained under the Board’s control and authority as a student, without investigation or any disciplinary action, until he graduated in 2019," the suit states.
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The fact that she had no idea what the universities had done - or not done - until reading the news article is the reason why she feels her suit has been filed on time, the lawsuit alleges.
Here's a copy of the lawsuit:
