A woman who was allegedly assaulted by sailors and had videos of her naked self disseminated online has filed a $7 million legal complaint against the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense.
The victim, identified only as Jane Doe in the Federal Tort Claims Act administrative complaint filed Wednesday, alleges that a group of 10-15 Navy Sailors assaulted her in 2024 outside a San Diego nightclub. Videos of the female civilian, who is married to a sailor, were purportedly recorded and later circulated across social media and among the Navy community.
It is also alleged that the Navy’s security department was aware of the video’s dissemination through the broader service community “but ultimately allowed the videos to continue spreading without taking any action to stop it.”
A DOD spokesperson, when asked about the complaint, told Military.com that it does not comment on pending litigation. Inquiries to the Navy never garnered a response.
The complaint was filed by Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, whose attorneys Christine Dunn and Jillian Seymour represent 45 victims of Maj. Michael Stockin, a former Army doctor who was recently convicted of sexually abusing dozens of patients during medical exams at Joint Base Lewis–McChord in Tacoma, Wash.
They also represent eight victims of Blaine McGraw, a former Army doctor being prosecuted for sexually abusing and recording patients during gynecological exams at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Texas, and Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Military.com has extensively reported on both Stockin and McGraw.
Military.com asked Seymour about this Navy case and why $7 million is being sought by the victim.
“What’s important to realize is this is a case about sexual violence,” Seymour said. “Every time someone shared a video of our client, beaten, naked—every time someone posted that video on social media, and every time someone received that video, was an act of sexual violence.
“So, in our estimation, this is a case of broad scope and has certainly severely damaged our client psychologically, emotionally, and has really just disrupted her life.”
Jane Doe Attacked, Left ‘Naked and Exposed’
The 10-page FTCA complaint obtained by Military.com details what purportedly occurred one summer night at a popular Navy nightclub in San Diego.
Doe—a civilian married to a Navy sailor then stationed on the USS Carl Vinson—alleges within the redacted document that she and others were celebrating her birthday at the club in June 2024, in a section cordoned off from the rest of the bar patrons.
“At some point during my birthday celebration, I noticed several women whom I did not know sitting in our reserved area and watching me intently,” Doe said. “Their presence gave me a weird feeling, as they seemed to be intentionally disrespecting my boundaries by inserting themselves into our clearly restricted area.”
Upon leaving the club later that night, Doe claims 10-15 people “swarmed around me and began to brutally assault me.”
“The assailants stripped off my dress and underwear, leaving my body naked and exposed, including my breasts, buttocks and genital area,” she said. “The assailants beat me all over my body, including my intimate body parts, throughout the assault. One male assailant kicked me in the face multiple times.
I eventually lost consciousness as the assailants beat me.
Her husband was present and tried to help his wife fight back, according to Seymour, though they were wildly outnumbered. He suffered injuries as well, though not nearly to the extent as Doe.
Doe alleges that the incident, which has been claimed to have been recorded by eyewitnesses’ smartphones in addition to area surveillance cameras, was perpetrated by both men and women—including at least seven individuals of whom at the time were then-active Navy sailors stationed on the Carl Vinson.
After being transported to the hospital for her injuries, Doe was questioned about the attack by San Diego Police Department officials who she said treated the incident as a sex crime. She spent six days in treatment.
Video Account of Incident Disseminated Among Sailors
Doe and her spouse shortly thereafter got wind that video footage from the incident was purportedly being shared and viewed on the Carl Vinson.
When discovered, it is believed her spouse submitted a report with security department personnel. Among the claims made within that report was that sailors’ active viewing and sharing of such footage implicated serious violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
However, security personnel allegedly “minimized my assault, framing it as a drunken brawl between bar-goers rather than a coordinated assault by multiple Carl Vinson sailors,” according to Doe.
Seymour said that to her knowledge, the video has ceased to exist or at least be disseminated through the Navy ranks. It’s also believed that some videos recorded by bystanders were posted on Snapchat, an app where photos and images have a finite shelf life before they “disappear.”
Other videos were purportedly shared on social media platforms like TikTok and Reddit.
“I think just the nature of how these videos were spreading wouldn’t have been very difficult to locate, especially at the time that NCIS was investigating this case and why we think it’s so important that this case should have been investigated immediately,” Seymour said.
“That’s an aspect of the case that’s troubling, is that by the time NCIS is finally getting to this case…our suspicion is that the evidence just wasn’t going to be there at that time,” she added.
Slow Investigation Led to Legal Action
The investigation and timing behind it is viewed as egregious by Seymour and Jane Doe, one of multiple reasons the complaint has been filed roughly two years since the incident allegedly occurred.
“We had to submit a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request to get the investigation’s report, and we did not get that until recently,” Seymour said. “It took many months to get. We wanted to make sure that her complaint had as much evidence as possible.”
Fortunately, the report did have a lot of helpful witness accounts that corroborated what our client is saying.
According to the complaint, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) began an investigation into Doe’s case in October 2024, four months after the attack. That led to miscommunication between law enforcement and Doe.
San Diego Police are claimed to have initially told Doe that NCIS had jurisdiction over her case, though in the fall of 2024 NCIS informed her they had closed her case after interviewing her.
Doe’s legal counsel claims that NCIS never actually conducted an interview with her, which led to them reopening an investigation that spanned approximately 11 months and included interviews with witnesses and suspects.
Upon concluding its investigation, NCIS declined to raise criminal charges against any Navy sailor for either the attack or video dissemination.
Doe’s Injuries Worsened by Cross-Country Move
The year-long NCIS investigation coupled with the FOIA efforts have led to the present legal action, with the reasoning behind the purported attack and video dissemination still remaining a “mystery,” according to Seymour.
Doe’s injuries continue to be a physical and emotional hindrance, according to Seymour.
She suffered an acute orbital wall blowout fracture, causing double vision and extreme pain, and acute back, neck and facial injuries. Daily extreme physical pain, restricted mobility, and neurological issues have been routine post-attack, including numbing in her face.
The use of her eyes “significantly diminished,” making it difficult for her to read or write for long periods of time. She also stopped enrolling in college courses due to these various issues.
It’s had an even bigger impact on her entire family. Doe’s husband, who at the time worked in proximity to the purported assailants aboard the USS Carl Vinson, had to “regularly” deal with harassment that allegedly included taunting about the incident.
He is said to have obtained a no-contact order prior to seeking transfer to a different Navy base, which “after significant pushback from the Navy” was granted as part of a move to a Florida base. In effect, the family was uprooted from one side of the country to another with their four children.
Seymour pointed to Navy regulations requiring security departments to immediately investigate any type of criminal activity being skirted, painting a picture of both violence and ineptitude on the service’s behalf.
“Sexual violence encompasses many different types of violence, and it can look very different,” Seymour said. “This is something that we don’t have a lot of information about generally in the military, but the fact that the military recognizes it as a crime shows that they understand at least that this type of activity is sexual violence.
“We need accountability here because they dropped the ball.”
The Navy has six months to investigate this complaint. At that six-month mark, there will be an option to file a lawsuit on Doe’s behalf.
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