Keywords

appeal; case law; complaint; crime statistics; defendant; dismiss; hospital security; plaintiff; security program; rape

What happened?

A young female employee of Holy Spirit Hospital was abducted from the parking ramp, taken to an isolated area not far from the hospital, forcibly raped, and, during the rape, strangled to death and her body abandoned.

Who was being sued, and why?

The hospital was being sued by the victim’s surviving family members. The lawsuit alleged the hospital’s security program was negligent and inadequate.

Who was involved?

When did it happen?

On a Thursday evening in early December around 9:00 p.m.

How did it happen?

With no scheduled releases of inmates for the next two weeks, the McGraths planned on a well-earned vacation away from the residence and job as overseers of the state’s halfway house—that is, the strategy of temporarily housing and supervising newly released inmates in their transition back into society.

A week before the tragic crime, a riot in one of the prison’s cellblocks broke out. In the following pandemonium, inmate Robert Corley personally pulled a guard into a safe location, preventing any injury to the man, and in so doing incurred some risk to himself. This act of heroism came to the attention of Governor James Trenton who expressed his gratitude by authorizing an early release for Robert.

The unexpected release caught the McGraths off-guard. Should they cancel their vacation? After meeting and talking with Robert they felt comfortable with letting him stay alone in the halfway house in their absence. He understood the rules, which included no alcohol or drugs. They left Tuesday.

The week prior to the fateful event, the victim’s mother, Betty Rankowski, agreed to work a double shift on the next Thursday so a coworker could attend a party. It was a special favor for a friend. That meant that her daughter Vivian would have to drive home alone after the day shift. Because the newlyweds were struggling financially, they ate at Betty’s each evening, then went home in Danny Greene’s car to their small apartment. Each morning Danny would drop off Vivian at Betty’s house and the two nurses’ aides would drive to work together. At the end of the day they all gathered at Betty’s and had supper together.

On Wednesday, Robert, now enjoying his freedom and staying in the halfway house, borrowed a friend’s car and, with another ex-con, obtained marijuana, smoked it, and started partying with two female acquaintances. The partying included sex, along with smoking marijuana and consuming whisky, lasting into midday Thursday. During the partying, Robert’s friend injured his hand, either striking someone or something, and the two drove to Holy Spirit Hospital for emergency treatment of the injury.

Nothing eventful occurred during that daytime visit, other than Robert watching the staff.

That same Thursday Vivian and Betty drove to the hospital together in Betty’s car, reporting for work on the day shift. There was no evidence Robert saw either of them or they saw Robert.

At the end of the shift, Betty stayed at the hospital for the second shift and Vivian drove to her mother’s home where she met Danny and her little sister, Jo. The three ate while watching television. Following dinner, Vivian planned to drive her mother’s car back to the hospital’s parking ramp, followed by Danny. She would park on the third level, lock the car, walk across the skywalk into the hospital, and return the car keys to her mother. She would then return across the skywalk to the elevators in the parking structure and descend to the street level where Danny would be waiting at the curb.

Sometime right after Vivian drove out of that parking structure, Robert drove in, alone, and parked the car on the third level. It was a cold evening with a light dusting of snow. Not many cars were parked in the ramp and there was no parking attendant. The only planned oversight of the ramp was the periodic patrols of a hospital security officer. Robert sat in his vehicle with the driver’s door open, legs out, drinking whiskey, smoking, and listening to country music. One witness later testified she observed him and just assumed he was waiting for someone, although it struck her as odd because it was so cold and damp in the concrete structure and the young man didn’t appear to be dressed warmly enough. Another witness had a similar reaction.

Following supper and a couple television programs, Danny and Vivian cleaned the kitchen and prepared to return Betty’s car and go home. Vivian asked her sister if she would like to go with her. Jo said she’d rather watch television so they left her behind. Danny followed his wife and, as they approached the entrance to the hospital’s parking ramp, Danny parked parallel to the curb and watched his wife drive into the ramp’s entrance. He sat there with his motor running, headlights on, music playing, with the wipers moving slowly, whisking away the powdery snowflakes. He expected to wait for her perhaps 10 minutes at the most.

Robert, still sitting in his car (the only car in that area) watched Vivian pull into a space close to him, get out of her car, and start toward the skywalk. He stood up, pretending he was about to walk into the skywalk, and, as she passed near him, he reached out and grabbed her arm. She was startled and speechless. He pulled her to his car telling her he wouldn’t hurt her if she didn’t scream and complied with his instructions. She begged him not to hurt her, that she would do as he said, and that if it was drugs he wanted, she could get some because she worked in the hospital. He forced her into the passenger side of the car and told her he’d kill her if she screamed. She was anxious not to alarm him or trigger him into acting violently and acquiesced to each command. He told her to get down on the floorboard with her head under the glove box so she couldn’t be seen, and drove slowly out of the ramp. When he reached the exit and the street there was a car to his left with its headlights on. He made a left turn in front of the car and proceeded away with her still crouching on the floor.

Danny watched a car slowly exit the ramp. His headlights fully illuminated the old Chevrolet and the young man at the wheel. There was absolutely nothing suspicious about this, but Danny had an unexplainable eerie feeling and was curious as to why the man turned left since it would only lead, some blocks down the street, to the railroad yards and a dead-end. Not four minutes had elapsed since Vivian drove into the ramp.

A couple minutes later, the same old car approached Danny from his rear. Danny was right about the driver turning in the wrong direction. As the car slowly passed him again, the same spooky feeling returned. He did not have a reason for this chilling feeling but did consciously make a mental note of the car’s license plate.

Robert drove with his victim still crouched on the floor to a remote location by the river and, while parked there, raped the young bride. In the process of raping the woman, he decided to choke her to death to feel any contractions that might occur during the process.

When he finished, he dumped her nude body in the weeds along the roadside and returned to the halfway house.

After waiting 15 minutes for Vivian, Danny became impatient and drove onto the ramp to see what was keeping her. On the third level he spotted Betty’s car. It was locked. He walked over the skywalk and into the hospital and found his mother-in-law and asked where Vivian was. Betty said she hadn’t seen Vivian. They conducted a search of the hospital. Security was asked to assist and one of the two officers joined in the search. It was finally concluded Vivian wasn’t in the hospital, wasn’t in the car, and wasn’t at Betty’s house. No one answered the phone in the Greene’s apartment, so the police were summoned to the hospital. During the on-scene investigation Danny informed the police of his observation of the old Chevrolet, described it and the driver, and repeated the license number he had memorized.

The next morning Vivian’s body was found by a passerby.

The police ran the license number through the department of motor vehicles but it didn’t match up with the suspect vehicle or its registered location in the state. The description of the vehicle, including the “bad” license plate number, was broadcast to all police agencies in the state. A short time later that morning a police officer on routine patrol spotted a car parked on the side of the halfway house fitting the description in the broadcast. The license plate bore the numbers provided by Danny except he had inadvertently transposed two numbers. Betty’s car keys were on the passenger’s side floorboard.

A groggy and hungover Robert was taken into custody and shortly thereafter confessed to the crime.

Assessment of the security program

Tom Case, a retired local city police officer, was the hospital’s director of security. He reported to the chief maintenance engineer. This was a classic mistake in organizational design because security had no mid-management voice in such matters as budgeting. Security requests by the director of security would be subject to the chief engineer’s priorities. This organizational design typically has the head of housekeeping and janitorial services on par with security.

Case had made frequent requests for additional security personnel, citing problems at this multistory, 400-bed hospital campus, and the inability of his small staff to cover the facility that spread over several city blocks. Those requests were ignored. The budget didn’t allow for a security supervisor for each shift. The only supervisor was the director himself. Indeed, his staff was comprised of off-duty police officers so the administration wouldn’t have to pay employee benefits. Most security experts agree off-duty police officers don’t make the best security officers for a number of reasons, including that their focus, identity, and loyalty is with their police service and departments.

Payroll and time-keeping records disclosed two security officers were on duty at the time of the abduction. One was assisting a maintenance man in relocating television sets in patients’ rooms and the other was temporarily serving as receptionist during the evening hours. Because activity logs, which typically reflect what officers do on a given shift, weren’t required, there was no audit trail to identify who patrolled outside and when. Both officers testified they conducted exterior patrols but could offer no specifics. Both claimed they patrolled the parking ramp but neither recalled seeing Robert. It was not possible for a patrolling officer in the ramp to not see Robert because he was parked in the very path leading to and from the skywalk and, as noted earlier, was engaged in obvious, unusual, and conspicuous conduct. The only logical conclusion I (or anyone) could make is the officers did not patrol the parking ramp, as required.

Hospital visitors saw Robert, but not security. Witnesses established Robert was in the parking ramp for two hours. And Robert, during his interrogation of the event by police detectives, stated he didn’t see security officers. It’s reasonable to assume he would have left the ramp had he seen such a patrol. Further, the security department didn’t have a dedicated patrol vehicle so they were obliged to go out and walk around the campus in the snow. Human nature, as it is, tends to take routes of ease and least resistance and avoid, if possible, unpleasant (and seemingly unimportant) tasks. I was of the opinion the security officers failed to patrol that ramp on an hourly basis, as required.

The news of what happened to Vivian spread like wildfire throughout the hospital, and Case was overheard saying, “I told them this would happen, I just don’t have the staff.”

Interestingly, because of a rape of a nurse at the other hospital in town a couple years prior, the hospital established a policy requiring a security officer to escort any employee or visitor out to his or her vehicle, upon request. There was no such security for those entering the facility from a parking area.

Assessment of crime statistics in the community

City crime statistics were on average with comparable cities in that part of the United States. That is, the nature and frequency of part-one crimes (i.e., murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, auto theft, and larceny) were comparable with other cities of similar size, nothing remarkable. In terms of any well-publicized crimes in recent history (the preceding three years), the other hospital in the city did experience a violent incident of rape of a nurse. Following that violent crime there was a clamor for more and better lighting at that hospital and nurses and staff at Holy Spirit took up the same cause. Lighting and the level of illumination at Holy Spirit wasn’t an issue in the Greene matter.

The distribution of crime within a city is usually divided into geographical districts or beats. For example, in some communities there’s an old and seedy downtown area with noisy and grubby cocktail lounges and bars. The area might be six blocks long and six blocks wide. That area is a beat or “reporting district”—let’s identify it as beat 10. Two miles away is a new residential housing district of the same geographical size, beat 22. Invariably more crimes occurred in beat 10 (e.g., 175 crimes) than in beat 22 (e.g., 50 crimes). So police beats or reporting districts will be classified as a high-crime area, an average crime area, or a low-crime area depending on the number of criminal incidents that occurred inside that area. Holy Spirit Hospital was located in a reporting district with an average amount of crime—that is, not high and not low.

As for the hospital campus itself, various crimes occurred, as reported to the police. In the three years prior to the Greene murder the only crimes against persons or a sex-related incident included a parking lot robbery of a visitor, an attempted sexual assault on a female staff member, and an indecent exposure to a visitor. Various other crimes, such as thefts, vandalism, intoxicated persons creating disturbances, etc. were ongoing and common to this kind of environment and not remarkable.

The parking ramp from which Vivian was abducted had more reported problems than the rest of the campus. Whereas the immediate area of the abduction was adequately illuminated (apparently because it was at the entrance to the skywalk) the rest of this multistory parking ramp was more dimly lit. A history of vandalism, breaking of lighting fixtures, graffiti, theft from vehicles, theft of vehicles, fighting, and gathering of youths who used the isolated upper floors for drinking and partying including smoking of marijuana, indicated it was a magnet for problems, as well as not properly policed or supervised.

The results of my assessment

My opinion, after an exhaustive review of all available information, as well as a personal inspection of the facility, was as follows:

The state district court judge disagreed and threw out the case (i.e., dismissed it) in response to the defendants’ motion for summary judgment— that is, the cause of action (the complaint) lacked merit and was not worthy of a trial.

The plaintiff law firm appealed the decision to the state supreme court, of which the justices decided the case was worthy of a hearing. The district court’s ruling was overturned and the matter was remanded back to the district court for trial. Such decisions are called “case law.”

The trial was the talk of the town. Local television coverage was the top of the evening news each day as the trial progressed. I had testified in numerous civil court trials prior to this matter and rarely do I see more than 20 spectators present in the courtroom. In this trial there was standing-room only. It was a matter of high drama and grave concern to the community. Here was an important Catholic hospital, practically an icon in the community, being sued. There were Catholics on the jury. Everyone knew the governor had released Robert. Everyone knew the McGraths had left Robert unsupervised. Everyone knew local off-duty policemen provided security for the hospital. This violent crime seemed to have touched everyone. Would the hospital win or lose this lawsuit?

I was called to the stand as the plaintiffs’ attorneys neared the end of their case. I testified as to my opinions. When cross-examined by the defense counsel, one of his first questions was, “Mr. Sennewald, how much are you being paid for your testimony?” My response, “I’m not paid for my testimony. No one can buy my testimony. I’m compensated for my time, and I charge an hourly fee.” He asked, “Well then, sir, what is your hourly fee?” knowing full well what my fee was because he had to pay for my deposition testimony some months earlier. When I answered there was an audible gasp throughout the entire court room. No one had ever heard of such a high hourly rate in this small city (unless they had the unfortunate experience of paying a top lawyer’s fees, which most people never do). Attorney fees and expert witness fees are relatively comparable.

Asking experts about their fees in front of a jury is a subtle strategy aimed at alienating the expert from one or more jurors who might resent someone charging such high fees. Most people automatically calculate hourly fees into 40 hours a week. Experts don’t work 40 hours a week on a regular basis.

Perhaps the heart of my testimony in this matter was reflected in the following exchange with the defense counsel when he asked, “Mr. Sennewald, are you suggesting to the good people of this small community that we need the same kind of security in our hospital as you’ll find in hospitals in Los Angeles?” My reply:

Yes. Every hospital must have security and the people of this community who work and visit your hospital are deserving of the same level of protection as those who work at and visit hospitals in Los Angeles. And I might add, sir, I note your community needs and has a police department, just like the people of Los Angeles need and have a police department. Crime happens everywhere.

The jury found for the plaintiffs, awarding them over a half million dollars, a remarkable award for that period of time in that part of the country.

Postscript

This tragic event weighed heavily on various people, as follows:

Following this tragedy, the security department’s budget was increased and its level of professionalism rose, more in keeping with the excellent reputation of the hospital itself.

Everyone recognizes there are no guarantees when it comes to human behavior and crime, but it’s unlikely such an event will occur at Holy Spirit Hospital again.