MELBOURNE, Fla. – A Brevard County woman who claims police mishandled a sexual battery investigation after she was raped as a child in 1990 can pursue a negligence lawsuit against the City of Melbourne, a judge ruled Monday.
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, detectives did not question him at the time and he was never arrested, according to police records.
[VIDEO: Rape victim allowed to refile lawsuit]
While Bradshaw was still a child, she said she was told by her mother that the perpetrator had committed suicide.
But decades later, Bradshaw learned the man was still alive after reportedly seeing him inside a Brevard County gas station.
When Bradshaw contacted the Melbourne Police Department in 2022 about the status of the child rape investigation, she discovered that physical evidence collected by police on the night of the 1990 attack, including a rape kit and her semen-stained nightgown, had been “disposed.”
[VIDEO BELOW: Woman seeks justice in her 1990 rape case]
Without that evidence, the state attorney’s office said it was unable to prosecute the man, who still resides in Brevard County. News 6 is not identifying him since he has never been charged with the crime.
In an amended lawsuit filed in October, Bradshaw accused the city of negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Although the complaint 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.
“An officer of the Melbourne Police Department destroyed evidence in the active rape case of an 11-year-old child,” Bradshaw said at the time.
Besides failing to arrest the suspected rapist and disposing of evidence that could have potentially been used in a civil case against him, Bradshaw claims police caused her further emotional distress in 2022 while trying to elicit a confession from the man.
That’s when officers reportedly recruited Bradshaw to make two phone calls to the suspect using her personal phone.
“During the first call, Plaintiff had a severe emotional outburst, yelling at the perpetrator, asking why he raped the Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states. “The perpetrator denied wrongdoing and hung up.”
The man refused to speak to Bradshaw during a second attempted phone call, and he later denied involvement when questioned directly by police.
““I know I would never do that,” the man told detectives before declining to speak further without an attorney present, records show. “I don’t know how I ended up there, if I ended up there.”
An attorney for the City of Melbourne said what happened to Bradshaw is “abhorrent and tragic” but sought to dismiss her lawsuit, arguing governments generally do not have a duty to provide police or security protection to specific individuals.
Bradshaw’s attorney claims an exception applies to Bradshaw’s circumstances.
The city also argued it is entitled to sovereign immunity, which generally shields government entities from lawsuits. In certain types of injury cases where sovereign immunity is waived, damages are capped at a maximum of $300,000.
Bradshaw’s complaint demanding a jury trial does not specify the damages she is seeking.
Following a hearing Monday, Brevard Circuit Court Judge Scott Blaue denied the city’s motion to dismiss Bradshaw’s lawsuit.
“I think there’s enough here taken as true to state a cause of action,” said Blaue. “Whether that is supported by the factual evidence, I think, is for discovery.”
The City of Melbourne must now formally respond to Bradshaw’s complaint in court.
“Today we won the first battle in a long war to achieve justice for our client,” Bradshaw’s attorney Damon M. Baxley said in a statement to News 6. “Exactly how long (and expensive) this war will be is up to the City of Melbourne.”
A spokesperson for the City of Melbourne said it could not comment on active litigation.