A judge rules that 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 Brevard County woman who was raped as a child in 1990 will be allowed to refile a negligence lawsuit against the City of Melbourne after a judge agreed with the city’s request to dismiss her original complaint.

A Brevard County woman who was raped as a child in 1990 has filed a negligence lawsuit against the city of Melbourne that accuses the city’s police department of mishandling the decades-old sexual battery investigation.

Evidence related to the 1990 rape of an 11-year-old girl was disposed by the Melbourne Police Department sometime over the past three decades, a newly released audit reveals, but the agency cannot determine when or why it was destroyed or who authorized it.