A woman filed a $15,000 lawsuit against UF's Delta Tau Delta Fraternity and two UF students, one of whom she had sex with in the fraternity house while the other secretly videotaped the act.
The 20-year-old woman claims invasion of privacy, outrage and fraud among other allegations in the lawsuit, which was filed July 29 in Palm Beach County.
The lawsuit stems from a Nov. 5, 2006, incident when the woman and UF anthropology junior Benjamin Farias, 21, had consensual sex in his room in the fraternity house, according to a Gainesville Police report.
Farias arranged for his fraternity brother, UF accounting senior Kyle B. Kraft, 21, to videotape while hiding under a blanket on another bed without the woman's knowledge, according to the lawsuit.
Kraft videotaped the woman naked for more than 20 minutes before she spotted the camera lens protruding from the blanket, the lawsuit states.
The woman then wrestled with Kraft to take the videotape, and she reported the incident to Gainesville Police.
Spencer Mann, State Attorney's Office spokesman, said a judge found Farias and Kraft guilty of misdemeanor voyeurism in May 2007.
They served 10 days in jail, did 50 hours of community service, spent a year on probation and paid $1,266 in fines, Mann said.
The woman was not a SFC or UF student, according to school officials.
In the lawsuit, the woman blames the fraternity for failing to supervise and control its members as well as neglecting to bestow a "general duty of care" toward the fraternity's guests.
Delta Tau Delta President Thomas Cockriel said Farias and Kraft have been suspended from the fraternity since spring 2007.
Cockriel deferred questions to Jim Russell, executive vice president of the fraternity's national chapter.
Russell would not comment on the specifics of the allegations in a telephone interview but said the incident "is not conduct that we would condone in any way."
Steve Orlando, UF spokesman, said UF conducted an investigation shortly after the incident happened in 2006 but ultimately found that the fraternity as a whole was not involved.
The fraternity's last legal run-in came in 2006, about four months before the taping, when two underage students were transported to the emergency room for drinking at the fraternity house in separate incidents, according to UF records.
The fraternity was put on social suspension through fall 2007 and could not recruit new members during spring 2006 and fall 2007, records showed. Orlando said the fraternity is in good standing.
The woman's attorney, Mark Auerbacher of Miami, did not return phone calls. Farias and Kraft did not return e-mails seeking comment.
