Third woman reports rape after sailing from Port of Palm Beach on Margaritaville cruise
WEST PALM BEACH — A third passenger who set sail from the Port of Palm Beach aboard a Jimmy Buffett-themed cruise said she was raped during a weekend trip to the Bahamas.
She sued Margaritaville at Sea Paradise in June, two weeks after the cruise line signed confidential settlement agreements with two other women who accused a bartender of sneaking into their room and raping them while they slept.
In the latest lawsuit, a Missouri woman said she was attacked in the seaside hotel on Grand Bahama island where Margaritaville arranged for passengers to stay during an overnight trip in August. The woman said that when she stepped out of her hotel room to get a glass of water, an employee forced her into the hotel's theater control room and raped her.
The woman's attorney, Luis Perez of Coral Gables, said the cruise line should have warned passengers about prior instances of sexual abuse at the Wyndham Viva Fortuna Beach on Grand Bahama island. Perez pointed to a 2016 review on TripAdvisor, in which a different woman said she was gang-raped by four hotel employees on her wedding night.
"Please do not stay here," the 1-star review concluded. "Protect your friends and family from this happening to them."
The lawsuit does not mention criminal charges stemming from either the plaintiff's report or the 2016 one. During a 2016 interview about the incident described in the TripAdvisor review, a general manager for the hotel told reporters that police found no evidence of rape.
Last month's lawsuit names the cruise's parent company, Classica Cruise Operator, as a defendant, along with three companies associated with the Wyndham Viva Fortuna Beach and the accused assailant, who has not yet been identified.
Two cabinmates sued Margaritaville at Sea Paradise and Classica last year after they said a bartender plied them with alcohol, pocketed one of their room keys and later raped them while they slept. One of the women said she became pregnant and "was forced to terminate the pregnancy, from which she then suffered serious complications."
The bartender, Hoobesh Dookhy, admitted to having sex with one of the women but told investigators their encounter was consensual. Faced with the possibility of life in federal prison for sexual abuse, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge — forgoing his right to a trial by jury but cementing a deal with prosecutors to have the worst of the charges against him dropped.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon sentenced Dookhy to two years in prison in January. He is scheduled to be released before his 28th birthday. According to court records, he will remain on supervised release for five years and must register as a sex offender.
Attorneys for Margaritaville at Sea Paradise cruise declined to comment in the wake of the confidential settlements and did not respond to subsequent requests concerning the latest lawsuit.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Rape allegations mount against Classica Cruise, Margaritaville at Sea
