NEW BRITAIN — A former eight-year veteran of the CCSU Police Department has filed a lawsuit in federal court, accusing a fellow officer of raping her on three occasions.
The plaintiff, known as Jane Dow, says she was also subjected to sexual advances from officers. Also in the lawsuit, she claims she was raped by officer Cutis Lollar. Lollar was the subject of a report that came out in November regarding reported sexual assault at the department. That report led CCSU to change the police department. University President Zulma R. Toro announced actions aimed at restoring professionalism to the CCSU Police Department and rebuilding trust within the department and with the CCSU campus and community.
In the lawsuit, Jane Doe claims CCSU ignored her complaints. It goes on to say that Jane Doe was raped twice in 2014 and another time in 2016. Referring to Lollar, she goes on to say the university hired officers with ‘red flags’ in their background.
The lawsuit claims Lollar retired from the Hartford Police Department, but had a long, disciplinary history which included an arrest and a 56-day suspension. It’s unknown at this time why Lollar was arrested at that time.
The university sent out a letter to students:
We are limited as to what we can share related to the pending lawsuit, but I do want to express my concern and surprise by some new sexual misconduct accusations against CCSU police officers. We are reviewing the new allegations and will promptly investigate them.
There are other claims in the lawsuit that reiterate findings made by both our independent investigators and the review conducted by a law enforcement expert, and we took immediate action last fall to rectify many of them. The actions included the firing of Police Officer Curtis Lollar and changing the line of reporting of the police department to me. I also put new leadership in place in the Office of Diversity & Equity as we move forward to reengineer that office, in addition to the Office of Human Resources. Sexual harassment training was increased and new policies and procedures related to discipline and background checks were implemented. We also hired three new police officers, added staff, and increased the department’s budget.
As facts are confirmed, I will take immediate action to protect our students, our faculty, and the entire Central family.
Jane Doe was an officer from 2010 to July of 2018 when she went on family leave. She is seeking economic and punitive damages from the department.
FOX61 is still working on learning more about some of the claims in the lawsuit.