SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- A federal judge ruled last week that a woman who said she was physically and sexually assaulted in 2020 at the hands of a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter based in Springfield is blocked from suing the government over the incident.
The woman's suit, filed in 2023 in California before it was transferred to Massachusetts, said Marines at Recruiting Station Springfield knew that she was staying at military recruiter Sgt. Sumon Bagui's apartment while she was applying to the Marine Corps, but they failed to ensure her recruitment complied with policy. Furthermore, the suit claimed Bagui's supervisors and colleagues allowed her to return to his apartment after he threw her down at a party.
Officers and Marines "stationed at Recruiting Station Springfield owed a duty to Plaintiff to supervise, manage, and oversee the recruiting process to ensure that she and other applicants to the United States Marine Corps were safe from exploitation and abuse," her complaint states.
On Thursday, however, Judge Mark Mastroianni dismissed the woman's lawsuit saying he lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case because the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows some exceptions to government immunity from lawsuits, prohibits negligence suits against the government over "any claim arising out of assault, battery or other specified intentional torts."
Mastroianni said in his five-page order that the intentional tort exception applied because "her assailant's status as a government employee is central to her claim, and there would be no basis for a negligence claim against the government had Bagui not been a government employee."
The judge ordered her case to be closed.
Neither Recruiting Station Springfield nor Brian Lawler, a San Diego-based attorney representing the woman, returned requests for comment.
The suit claimed Bagui convinced the woman, 19 at the time, to travel from San Bernardino, California to Springfield to complete her enlistment. He even gave her money for plane tickets for her and a friend.
Once at Bagui's one-bedroom apartment on Willow Street in Springfield, the woman continued to stay for about two weeks. The suit states that the friend slept on an inflatable mattress in the living room while the plaintiff slept in Bagui's bed.
Bagui even told coworkers and his superiors at Recruiting Station Springfield that the woman was living with him while he was recruiting her for the Marine Corps, the suit alleges. At various times during her stay, Bagui bought alcohol for her even though she was underage, according to the complaint.
The suit alleges that on Sept. 16, 2020, the woman became intoxicated while Bagui was at work. When he returned to his apartment, he made sexual advances that she rejected, the lawsuit says. The complaint then says he forcibly sexually assaulted her.
On the evening of Sept. 19, 2020, Bagui brought the plaintiff to a party at the house of one of Bagui's coworkers where she was served alcohol. There, allegedly in front of his friends and superiors, Bagui became angry and grabbed the plaintiff around the neck and threw her to the ground, the complaint says. None of the attendees objected when Bagui took the plaintiff from the party to his apartment, according to the complaint.
Later that night, the woman "fled Mr. Bagui's apartment" and returned to California the next day, her complaint says.
Mastroianni wrote in his order that the "predatory recruiter" was court-martialed in October 2022 for violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice's prohibition on sex acts with a person applying for military service.
Bagui pleaded guilty to one count of abusing his position as a military recruiter, according to his court-martial records. He was demoted and fined $2,560. He was also sentenced to serve 45 days confinement. He was discharged from the Marine Corps following his sentence.
As for the woman, the Department of the Navy denied her administrative claim in 2023, Mastroianni wrote. Her lawsuit against the government was filed months later.
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