MELBOURNE, Fla. – The City of Melbourne has settled a negligence lawsuit filed by a woman who claims police botched an investigation into her 1990 rape when she was a child, News 6 has learned.
Elizabeth Bradshaw was 11 years old when she claims a family acquaintance snuck into the bedroom of her Melbourne home and raped her.
Although Bradshaw identified the man by name in 1990, Melbourne Police Department records indicate that detectives did not question him at the time and he was never arrested.
Bradshaw, 47, learned in recent years that physical evidence collected by police on the night of the attack, including a rape kit and her semen-stained nightgown and underwear, had been “disposed”.
Without that physical evidence, the state attorney’s office said it cannot prosecute the man, who still lives in Brevard County. News 6 is not identifying him since he has never been charged with the crime.
Bradshaw sued the City of Melbourne for negligence last year, alleging the police department mishandled the child rape investigation.
Although the lawsuit was filed under the initials “E.B.” to protect the plaintiff’s identity, Bradshaw publicly identified herself as the rape victim in a 2023 interview with News 6.
Last week, as the case continued to be litigated, the city’s attorney filed court papers indicating it had reached a settlement with Bradshaw.
A spokesperson for the City of Melbourne did not comment on the settlement, and city officials did not immediately turn over public records that might reveal how much money Bradshaw will receive.
Damages against government entities are usually capped at $200,000 per individual and $300,000 total per incident under Florida’s sovereign immunity law.
“No amount of money could ever provide full compensation for the Melbourne Police Department’s atrocious misconduct,” said Bradshaw’s attorney, Damon M. Baxley. “However, Mrs. Bradshaw’s bravery in speaking out about negligent police investigations will help other victims avoid similar tragedy.”
In November 1990, records show Melbourne police responded to the home Bradshaw shared with her single mother.
The 11-year-old told investigators she had been awakened in her bed by a family acquaintance lying on top of her.
Bradshaw said the man sexually battered her for five to ten minutes before leaving out the front door.
As investigators photographed the crime scene and collected Bradshaw’s clothing and bedding, records indicate an officer transported the 11-year-old to the emergency room where she underwent a sexual assault forensic exam, commonly known as rape kit.
Months after the attack, Bradshaw said she was informed the family acquaintance had committed suicide.
“My mom told me that my rapist killed himself,” Bradshaw said in a 2023 interview with News 6. “I had no reason not to believe her.”
But in October 2022, Bradshaw discovered her alleged attacker was still alive when she said she came face-to-face with him inside a Brevard County gas station.
“I hadn’t seen him in over 30 years, and I knew who he was. My whole body just kind of froze,” said Bradshaw. “I was crying, and I kept trying to tell myself he was dead.”
Bradshaw immediately contacted the Melbourne Police Department, which informed her the agency had disposed of all the physical evidence and most of the paperwork related to the 1990 child rape investigation.
Police officials gave Bradshaw a copy of the initial incident report that noted “the suspect was not located or contacted.”
The agency also found a Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime lab report confirming semen had been detected on vaginal swabs collected from Bradshaw at the hospital on the night of the rape. The nightgown and underwear Bradshaw had been wearing were also stained with semen, the lab report showed.
“It says right there in black and white, ’11-year-old little girl covered in sperm.’ I could not have done that to myself,” Bradshaw told News 6. “And they did nothing.”
Melbourne Police located a “chain of custody” log that indicates FDLE returned the physical evidence to the agency in October 1991, nearly one year after the reported rape, but police could not find the items in the department’s evidence storage room or other facilities.
The agency later conducted an internal audit but was unable to determine why the evidence was destroyed, who authorized the disposal, and when it occurred, records obtained by News 6 showed.
In November 2022, after discovering her alleged rapist was still alive, Bradshaw said she made a “controlled call” to the man using her personal cell phone as a detective with the Melbourne Police Department listened for a confession or admission.
During the call, Bradshaw had a severe emotional outburst and yelled at the alleged perpetrator while asking why he raped her, the lawsuit states.
The man refused to speak to Bradshaw and hung up, records show.
When detectives later confronted the man in his Brevard County mobile home community, he claimed he did not know Bradshaw and adamantly denied raping her when she was a child.
“I know I would never do that,” the man told detectives before declining to speak further without an attorney present. “I don’t know how I ended up there, if I ended up there.”
Although there is no statute of limitations in Florida for sexually battering a child under the age of 12, prosecutors told Bradshaw they cannot file criminal charges against her alleged rapist, in part because there is no longer any physical evidence that can be subjected to modern DNA testing and presented at trial.
“The perpetrator will never face criminal charges or civil litigation for the Plaintiff’s rape because of negligence of the Defendant’s police department,” Bradshaw’s lawsuit against the city stated.
In its original response to the lawsuit, an attorney for the City of Melbourne said what happened to Bradshaw was “abhorrent and tragic” but claimed the city was not liable.
“(The) Florida Supreme Court has long held that governmental entities owe no duty to provide police or security protection to specific individuals in the absence of a special relationship,” the city attorney stated in a motion seeking to dismiss the case. “At the core of the Plaintiff’s claim is that she was the victim of a horrible crime 35 years ago, it was reported, and the suspect was never prosecuted; this is what Plaintiff alleges caused her distress. However, the reporting of a crime does not create a special relationship sufficient to find a duty owed.”
A Brevard County circuit court judge denied the city’s request to dismiss the lawsuit in February.
The City of Melbourne was in the process of appealing that legal ruling when it filed court papers last week indicating the case had been settled.