DOVER, Del. (AP) - Attorneys for a young woman who claims in a lawsuit that she was sexually abused by former Republican Sussex County Councilman Vance Phillips asked a Superior Court judge on Monday to find Phillips liable because he has not explicitly denied the allegations.
Citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Phillips has refused to address the allegations by the 21-year-old woman, who was once his political protegee, even though he has previously said that he looked forward to telling his side of the story to a jury.
The Associated Press does not normally identify possible victims of sexual assault.
The woman’s lawyers argued that the judge should grant partial summary judgment in her favor regarding liability because Phillips has not disputed the allegations.
“The defendant wholly failed to address the claims at issue,” attorney Brian Brittingham told Judge William Witham Jr.
Brittingham said Phillips’ decision to invoke the Fifth Amendment does not amount to a denial or a defense, but was simply “the avoidance of an answer.”
After a brief hearing, Witham gave no indication on when he would rule.
Delaware State Police investigated Phillips in 2012 after members of the General Assembly received an anonymous letter claiming he was involved in a relationship with an underage girl. No criminal charges were ever filed, but Phillips invoked his rights against self-incrimination in the civil action after the lawsuit was filed in May 2013.
Kurt Heyman, a lawyer for Phillips, told Witham the court cannot infer his liability based on the assertion of his Fifth Amendment rights, especially on a motion for summary judgment. He also said inconsistent and contradictory statements the woman has made about her relationship with Phillips and the allegations of abuse preclude summary judgment in her favor, and that a jury must determine whether she is believable.
“It’s for the jury to decide which version of her story to credit,” he said.
Heyman noted that the woman initially told police that Phillips did not sexually assault her, and said she also told a detective that some of the alleged sexual encounters were consensual, which she now denies. He also said she kept returning to Phillips after the alleged abuse began and that phone records show she continued to initiate contact with him afterward.
Brittingham, the woman’s attorney, said she has never said the sex was consensual and that she has explained the inconsistencies in some of her accounts, which Brittingham suggested were the result of fear, shame and threats from Phillips.
In the complaint, the woman claims Phillips, who lost a re-election bid last year, repeatedly sexually assaulted her after encouraging her to become involved in politics. The lawsuit alleges that Phillips forced sex on the woman several times starting in May 2011, a few weeks after she turned 18, and includes graphic details involving bondage and sex toys during encounters that she says happened in Kent and Sussex counties.
The woman also says Phillips warned her not to tell anyone, boasting in a text message that he was “a powerful politician with lots of power over the courts and judges,” according to the complaint.
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