Rapist attacked victim again after hospital leaked her information: suit

A sex assault victim is suing a Kansas hospital for allegedly leaking her private health information to her alleged rapist — allowing him to attack her again.

The federal lawsuit accuses Atchison Hospital and former X-ray technician Janet Rawson Enzbrenner of “betraying” the victim of a “violent sexual assault.”

The woman says she went to the hospital in May 2017 for a rape-kit exam — and claims Enzbrenner accessed her confidential medical file, using it to contact the alleged rapist to warn him he was being accused.

The woman, who is not being identified because of the sexual nature of her allegations, was then “relentlessly harassed” by her alleged attacker through texts, phone calls and social media posts, her lawsuit claims.

“Such communications were highly threatening and contained graphic language and pornographic content,” the court papers claim. “The assailant also stalked Plaintiff in public and at her home. The harassment escalated to violence when, approximately six months later, Plaintiff was sexually assaulted by the same man a second time.”

The suit, filed in Kansas federal court on Wednesday, also accuses Enzbrenner of “repeatedly hounding and harassing” her with texts and calls.

A letter from the hospital’s CEO, John Jacobson, confirmed that the woman later allowed hospital staff to take screenshots of her texts as part of the investigation into alleged harassment. Enzbrenner was soon fired.

The letter also confirmed that the employee “did access some of your health information and apparently did disclose it to another individual without your permission.”

“We sincerely and deeply regret that this occurred,” Jacobson wrote in the letter that was included in the filing.

Jacobson told NBC News that hospital officials worked as quickly as possibly once they were alerted to the breach.

“While we are limited with what we can share related to this situation, we are deeply disturbed by the actions of this former employee,” Jacobson said. “In fact, when we were made aware of the situation, we took immediate steps to investigate, and within two days, we terminated this individual’s employment.”

The woman is seeking at least $75,000 on each count of invasion of privacy, breach of fiduciary duty and negligence, as well as punitive damages, according to the lawsuit.

A rep for the Atchison County Attorney told NBC that prosecutors were aware of the woman’s sexual assault allegations but did not file charges. The office declined to elaborate on why it chose not to prosecute after authorities were notified.

Enzbrenner could not immediately be reached.

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