Friday, December 15, 2006
Lawsuit: Vick kept seeing underage girl
Marcus Vick, then-Virginia Tech quarterback, ignored 2004 court orders to stay away, lawsuit says.
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A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Montgomery County Circuit Court contends that then-Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick continued to have sex with an underage Christiansburg girl for nearly two years after a judge ordered him to stay away from her.
In 2004, Vick was told three times by the courts to have no contact with the girl, who claims in the lawsuit that her sexual relationship with Vick continued through December 2005.
Vick, now a 22-year-old rookie with the NFL's Miami Dolphins, is being sued for $6.35 million by the girl, who is now 17, and her grandmother. The girl accuses Vick of sexual battery upon a minor, intentional infliction of emotional distress, willful and wanton conduct, and fraud.
"As a direct and proximate result of Marcus Vick's unlawful sexual intercourse with Jane Doe, the plaintiff suffered, and will continue to suffer, psychological trauma associated with the child sexual abuse perpetrated by defendant Marcus Vick," the lawsuit states.
The girl identifies herself in the lawsuit as the one who had sex with Vick on the January 2004 night that led to his arrest and conviction that year for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The lawsuit states that the girl, identified only as Jane Doe, was a 15-year-old honor student at Christiansburg High School when she first had sex with Vick in January 2004.
According to the lawsuit, the pair also had sex eight more times -- in February, March and April of 2004, and in January, February, March and December of 2005. The sex took place either at Vick's apartment, the apartments of two unidentified Tech players, or the girl's grandmother's house.
The girl's lawyer, D. Stephen Haga, said the girl came to see him about a month ago.
"This relationship, she was under the impression there was going to be something to it," Haga said Thursday. "She was being misled. Now she's kind of realized she was being used, abused. ... She is angry at the way she was taken advantage of."
Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Brad Finch declined to comment when asked if he was going to investigate the matter and whether Vick could face criminal charges.
Larry Woodward, Vick's attorney and agent, said: "I'm going to defend Marcus on the civil case ... and if anything else comes up, certainly we'll deal with that."
Woodward refused to comment on whether the girl's allegations were true.
The lawsuit also states that in April 2005, Vick persuaded the girl to have oral sex with him while she was having sex with another Tech player who was not identified in the lawsuit.
On another occasion, the lawsuit states, Vick "conspired" with a second unnamed Tech player to use that player's apartment so Vick could have sex with the girl and evade "scrutiny by the Blacksburg Police Department and news media."
Vick "made repeated misrepresentations to plaintiff Jane Doe, including that defendant Marcus Vick was in love with her; that defendant Marcus Vick wanted her to have his child; that a sexual relationship between an adult male of his age and a female child of her age was acceptable; and that it was acceptable and necessary for plaintiff Jane Doe to engage in sexual intercourse with other adult men in order to please him," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit notes that the girl was "unable to legally consent" to the sexual activity.
"Plaintiff Jane Doe has suffered injury to her physical, mental and emotional health, injury to her body, and shock and injury to her nervous system, all of which injuries have caused and continue to cause plaintiff great mental, physical and nervous pain and suffering and emotional distress," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit states the girl dropped out of high school the semester she met Vick because she suffered "severe emotional distress, including humiliation and ridicule."
The lawsuit states Vick, the brother of former Tech quarterback and now Atlanta Falcons star Michael Vick, maintained "frequent and continuous contact" with the girl by phone and other means from January 2004 until he moved from the area in December 2005.
The girl observed Vick and the first unnamed Tech player smoking marijuana during several visits to Vick's apartment, according to the lawsuit. Vick offered the girl alcohol and marijuana at various times during their relationship but she refused, according to the lawsuit.
Vick, Tech linebacker Brenden Hill and then-Tech running back Mike Imoh were each convicted in May 2004 in Christiansburg by Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Robert Viar of three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for giving three underage girls liquor and encouraging them to strip. Vick had confessed to police that he had consensual sex with one of the girls that night. The girl who allegedly had sex with Vick invoked her Fifth Amendment rights when called to the stand at the trial. All three men appealed.
It was said at the trial and in a 2004 search warrant that the offenses and the first sexual encounter took place at the Blacksburg apartment of Vick and Hill on the night of Jan. 27, 2004, after the girls met the players at a Tech women's basketball game that night. But the lawsuit states that the night in question was on Jan. 24, 2004, after a different Tech game.
Vick was charged in the matter in February 2004. According to the lawsuit, as a condition of his bond, Vick was ordered to have "no contact with the victims or witnesses while this case is pending." The lawsuit states that was also a condition of his bond when he was convicted three months later.
In August 2004, hours before he was convicted of reckless driving and possession of marijuana in New Kent County, Vick was suspended by Tech for the fall semester.
Vick pleaded no contest in September 2004 to one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was convicted and ordered by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Bobby Turk to have no contact with the three teenage victims in the case. Vick received a suspended 30-day jail sentence, 24 hours of community service and a $100 fine.
Tech athletic director Jim Weaver said he was notified of the lawsuit Wednesday in a letter from the girl's attorney. Tech was not named in the lawsuit.
Vick earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors in 2005. But in January 2006, after he received a speeding ticket and stomped on a Louisville player in the Gator Bowl, he was kicked off the team by Tech officials.
Vick was signed by the Dolphins as an undrafted free agent. He is a third-string receiver and third-string quarterback, and has yet to appear in a game.
Staff writer Paul Dellinger contributed to this report.





