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Was Megan Rondini The Victim Of A Drug-Facilitated Rape?
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on July 21, 2017
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on July 21, 2017
GHB, or Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, is a central nervous system depressant that is commonly referred to as a "date rape" drug. GHB is illegal in Alabama. The drug has attracted numerous slang names, including: G, Gina, and Liquid Ecstasy.
GHB is available in liquid form, powder form, or as a pill. Due to its power as a sedative and naturally odorless liquid form, GHB is often added to a victim's drink without her knowledge.
Criminal investigators can specifically test for GHB in urine and blood. GHB is more likely to be detected in urine than in blood. A urine test provides a detection window of up to 12 hours.
Blood tests generally provide the most accurate information in regards to degree of GHB intoxication. Since GHB concentrations are known to peak within the plasma in approximately 20 to 45 minutes post-ingestion, a blood test must be conducted as soon as possible after suspected ingestion. GHB may remain detectable in the blood or plasma for up to 8 hours.
If a drink has been spiked with GHB and unknowingly consumed by the rape victim, she will usually experience unexpected changes in her mood or sensory perception such as feeling happy, groggy and sleepy, or generally disorientated. She may not be able to remember many things that happened to her after ingesting the drug.
GHB makes it relatively easy for rapists to gain control of their victims. Perpetrators do not have to overcome any form of resistance. They do not have to use physical force. They do not have to threaten to harm the victim to get compliance. They do not have to be concerned about a victim's screams attracting attention. GHB basically immobilizes and silences the rape victim.
Evidence of a Drug-Facilitated Rape Was Ignored by Investigators in Megan's Case
On July 2, 2017, the parents of Megan Rondini filed a wrongful death lawsuit against (a) Terry Jackson "Sweet T" Bunn, Jr., Megan's alleged rapist; (a) Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy; (c) two of Abernathy's investigators; and (d) two University of Alabama employees. The complaint alleges, among other things, that Megan became either intoxicated or drugged at Innisfree Irish Pub on University Blvd. on the night of July 1, 2015. Sweet T and his friend Jason Barksdale were in Innisfree at the time. They were not part of Megan's social group, but left the pub when Megan left.
Sweet T says he gave Megan a ride to her apartment. Once there, they had drinks and left for Sweet T's house in Tuscaloosa County. Megan had no recollection of going back to her apartment that night with Sweet T and Barksdale.
When the three arrived at Sweet T's house, Barksdale went straight to sleep. Afterwards, Sweet T and Megan proceeded upstairs to Sweet T's bedroom where they had a sexual encounter in his locked bedroom. Megan claims the encounter was a rape. Sweet T claims it was a one-night stand.
After the encounter, Megan took a series of actions to escape from Sweet T's house while he was sleeping. She climbed out of a second floor window and jumped to the ground. She fled the scene of the alleged rape with the help of a friend she had summoned to the house during the ordeal. Megan was immediately taken to a local hospital. Once there, she reported the alleged rape to hospital staff and law enforcement officials. A rape kit exam was performed and a urine sample collected. This evidence was delivered to law enforcement officials.
The Tuscaloosa Sheriff's Department deliberately failed to send Megan's rape kit and urine samples for forensic testing to ascertain whether Megan had been drugged despite the fact that Megan exhibited multiple signs as the victim of a drug-facilitated rape. She had gaps in her memory about how she left the pub and how she ended up in Sweet T's car. Yet, the investigators failed to ask Megan key questions to determine what she did and did not remember. They did not try to pinpoint any point on the night of July 1, 2015, when someone may have unobtrusively administered an incapacitating drug to her.
The investigators, who were working under the direction of Sheriff Ron Abernathy, never developed the body of evidence available to them that Megan's sexual encounter with Sweet T was likely the result of a drug-facilitated rape. As we have reported before, Abernathy ordered investigators to "script" the investigation by doing the bare minimum required to classify Megan's rape report as a "special inquiry".
When he gave his order to "script" the investigation, Abernathy was well aware that (a) a drugged rape victim is rarely able to kick, hit, fight, or physically resist her rapist and (b) other alleged rape victims had reported similar drug-facilitated sexual assaults involving Sweet T to law enforcement officials prior to July 1, 2015. In fact, Megan's case represents the second time Abernathy has been known to intervene in a rape case where Sweet T was the accused rapist. Each intervention was intended to help Sweet T.
Megan's Rape Case Was "Fixed" for the Benefit of Sweet T
The failure to test Megan's rape kit and urine samples in a timely fashion guaranteed that there would be no scientific answer to the question of whether Megan was administered GHB by Sweet T or Jason Barksdale. The totality of evidence does not support an inference that Barksdale drugged Megan. The same cannot be said for Sweet T.
The failure of investigators to test the rape kit and urine samples made it convenient for former district attorney Lyn Head to rubberstamp the "scripted" evidentiary narrative that no rape occurred because Megan did not "resist" Sweet T's sexual encounter. Head, who accepted laundered campaign cash from ST Bunn Construction Company and Sweet T himself both during and after her race for district attorney, went along with Sheriff Abernathy's scheme to "fix" Megan's rape case for the benefit of Sweet T.
In late July of 2015, Lyn Head informed Megan's father, Mike Rondini, that she was closing Megan's rape case. In March of 2016, Head used a local grand jury as a prophylactic measure to cover up her prosecutorial "fix" in Megan's rape case.
Megan's Stress and Depression as an Alleged Victim of a Drug-Facilitated Rape
Megan never recovered from her one-time sexual encounter with Sweet T. He gave Megan gonorrhea that night. Sweet T ruined her life emotionally, mentally, and physically. What he did not kill in Megan, Ron Abernathy, his investigators, and Lyn Head did.
After her alleged drug-facilitated rape, Megan left Tuscaloosa newly-diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Megan transferred to Southern Methodist University in her home state of Texas where she completed an intake form at SMU's mental health center. On the intake form, Megan indicated that she felt she "would be better off dead more than half the time".
In response to the intake question, "have there been major losses, changes, or crises in your life, " Megan wrote, "Raped, bullied by police, changed university." Megan never turned in the intake form.
On February 26, 2016, Megan committed suicide by hanging herself. Ironically, Sweet T was arrested that day for his second DUI. He has yet to go to jail for any offense.
Coming Next --- Was Sweet T tied to the underworld of "date rape" drugs and sexual abuse in Tuscaloosa?
