“I understand it’s the largest verdict ever” for “a sexual assault victim against a major cruise line,” said Daniel Courtney, the attorney for the woman who filed the lawsuit. Both the wife and Carnival Corporation may file motions to seek a different payment. Courtney said the process could drag on for years.
The jury found that Carnival was not negligent in the assault and that Anggara did not intentionally inflict emotional distress on the plaintiff. Carnival issued a written statement saying it denies the allegations in the lawsuit and intends to appeal the decision.
“The crew member admitted that he had a consensual sexual encounter with the guest, which is consistent with an investigation by the FBI that concluded the encounter was consensual,” Carnival said in a statement. The FBI did not file criminal charges against Anggara, Courtney said, and the lawsuit did not name him as a defendant.
Courtney said his client was “very intoxicated” and “shocked” at the time of the alleged rape because she hit the back of her head during a fall. “To say it’s consensual is really a disservice to it,” Courtney said.
According to Carnival’s statement, the company fired Anggara after the incident was reported because it has a zero-tolerance policy for “crew fraternizing with guests.”
“The safety and security of Carnival guests is paramount,” the statement said. “Carnival complies with all applicable rules and regulations for guest safety and security, including the US Cruise Ship Safety and Security Act and US Coast Guard requirements. Carnival is also certified by Rainn and follows its guidelines for handling and investigating alleged sexual assaults.”
The matter falls under federal jurisdiction under general maritime law. The Washington Post does not identify victims of alleged sex crimes. According to the civil complaint filed in Miami, the incident occurred aboard the Carnival Miracle on December 1, 2018, when the plaintiff was 21 years old. The lawsuit says it was her maiden voyage.
Anggara was waiting for the plaintiff while she walked up a flight of stairs by herself, the lawsuit states, at which point he locked her in a maintenance closet and raped her. Soon after, the lawsuit said, the plaintiff went to her room, told her friend what happened and “began hyperventilating and having panic attacks.”
According to the civil complaint, the plaintiff reported the alleged assault to Carnival staff, then was given a rape kit and interviewed by ship security and FBI agents.
The suit alleged that Carnival was liable for the rape because it failed to monitor dark public areas of the ship where women could be vulnerable to assault. He said the company should have exercised a reasonable level of care for guests because “on board its cruise ships there have been numerous assaults, battery, sexual assault and battery, rape and assault by crew on passengers.”
In court documents responding to questions from Carnival’s representation, the plaintiff described how the alleged assault changed her life. “I have episodes of depression,” she said in the documents. “I suffer from anxiety, especially in public. It has affected how intimate I am with a person.”
“At my lowest point I thought about killing myself,” she said in the documents. “I had a plan. I went to visit my friends and made memories for them to remember me by. I also wrote notes for everyone. I was hospitalized.”
In statistics kept by the Department of Transportation that show allegations of criminal activity on ships boarding and disembarking passengers in the United States, sexual assault is the leading offense. There were 82 allegations in 2018 and 101 in 2019. The pandemic forced a halt to cruise ship sailings in March 2020, and the agency has not updated reports since cruise ships began sailing again.
Attorney Michael Winkleman said his firm, Lipcon Margulies & Winkleman, handles a “large” number of sexual assault cases on behalf of cruise passengers. He did not work on the Carnival lawsuit that was settled this week. “I always say it’s a hidden epidemic at sea,” he said. He pointed to a lack of independent law enforcement on the ship and an abundance of alcohol as contributing factors.
“You have these unlimited drink packages that are on all the cruise lines,” Winkleman said. “It’s just a recipe for people who just dramatically underestimate themselves, consume dramatically too much alcohol, and then bad things happen.” He said most such cases result in confidential agreements. “It’s somewhat atypical for a case to go to trial as it did, and I think the outcome is a significant outcome,” he said.
Cruise industry officials have insisted over the years that allegations of serious crime on ships are rare, pointing to a commissioned report comparing violent crime rates at sea and on land.
Alice Crites contributed to this report.
