A mother has sued the Aaron Family JCC of Dallas alleging that a fitness center employee molested and raped her then-14-year-old daughter.
The lawsuit, which was filed earlier in July, also names the Jewish community center’s CEO, Artie Allan, and the Jewish Community Center Association of North America, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The mother and daughter are not named in the lawsuit, according to the newspaper.
The suit alleges that when the mother tried to talk to Allen about the fact that the employee was harassing her daughter and rumors they may be dating — before she knew about the molesting and rape. Allen allegedly responded that “it takes two to tango.”
According to the lawsuit, the assaults began in 2014, when the unnamed employee began stalking the girl, who is now an adult, when he trained her at the JCC gym. The lawsuit charged that the employee also molested, sexually assaulted, threatened and raped her at the center and off-site.
The lawsuit said that two other girls told JCC staff members that the employee had sexually harassed them. It said the JCC neither launched an investigation nor disciplined the employee.
The newspaper reported that a former JCC employee, Randy Lee Adrian, was arrested in August on two charges of sexual assault of a child.
Adrian asked for the girl’s number to text her diet plans and workouts, but instead sent her explicit photos before sexually assaulting her over a span of 10 months, police told the newspaper. Police said he also threatened to kidnap and hurt her family if she told anyone about the assaults.
The Dallas JCC issued a statement saying it was aware of the lawsuit, “takes the matter seriously and will respond accordingly.”
“The JCC is committed to understanding the full and relevant story by a thorough investigation,” it said. “With a pending lawsuit, the JCC has no further comment at this time.”
