Boca Raton- A day after the University of Florida was named the nation’s top party school in a national survey, a Boca Raton woman sued two UF fraternity brothers for secretly videotaping a sexual encounter she had with one of them.
Lauren Highley, 20, accuses Ben Farias, 21, of Delray Beach, and Kyle Kraft, 20, of Winter Haven, along with the Gainesville chapter of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, of invasion of privacy, outrage, fraud and negligence.
According to Highley’s complaint filed Tuesday, she and Farias went to his room at the fraternity house on Nov. 5, 2006, and engaged in “consensual sexual foreplay and were in a state of complete undress.”
Unbeknownst to Highley, Farias’ fraternity brother, Kraft, was also in the room, armed with a video camera and hiding beneath a blanket on another bed. Kraft and Farias conspired to videotape the encounter without Highley’s consent, according to the suit.
When Highley got up to use the bathroom, Farias and Kraft discussed the best angle to tape Highley in the nude without her knowledge, the suit states.
After 20 minutes, Highley spotted the camera lens poking out of the blanket while “in a highly intimate setting.”
She wrestled the videotape from Kraft and reported the incident to police. In May 2007, the men were convicted in Alachua County court of misdemeanor voyeurism and sentenced to 10 days in jail, 50 hours of community service and a year of probation.
Farias will be a junior majoring in anthropology this fall, while Kraft will be a senior and is an accounting major, according to university spokesman Steve Orlando. The university has no record of Highley ever attending the school.
The university may have taken internal sanctions against Farias and Kraft via the student affairs judicial process, Orlando said, though those proceedings would not be public record. He could not confirm or deny that any action was taken against either student.
Highley accuses Farias and Kraft and the Delta Zeta chapter of Delta Tau Delta of wanting to use the videotape, which included sound, for the “entertainment” and “amusement” of the fraternity brothers.
UF’s Delta Tau Delta chapter is currently in good standing with the university, according to Orlando, though the chapter was placed on social suspension from fall 2006 through the fall of 2007 and was not allowed to recruit new members in the spring of 2006 or fall of 2007. That suspension stemmed from two separate incidents of underage drinking at the fraternity house.
Highley, Farias and Kraft could be reached for comment despite attempts by telephone. Highley’s attorney, Mark Auerbacher, of Miami, also could also not be reached.