Megan Rondini's 'rapist' files to have lawsuit dismissed -

The prominent Tuscaloosa businessman who allegedly raped University of Alabama student Megan Rondini is demanding to have her family's wrongful death suit against him dismissed on the grounds that under Alabama state law he cannot be held responsible for another person's suicide.

Yesterday DailyMail.com revealed that the attorney for Terry Jackson Bunn Jr took out an extraordinary full-page advertisement in the local newspaper claiming that he has text messages that exonerate his client just one day after the family had amended their suit.

The robust defense - and threatened character assassination of the 'victim's' character should the case go to court - came within 24 hours of the Rondini family's decision to extend the case against Bunn, Sheriff Ronald Abernathy and investigators Adam Jones and Joshua Hastings, to include the University and its President Stuart Bell.

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The family of Terry Jackson 'TJ' Bunn Jr. bought a full-page ad in a local newspaper to defend him after Megan Rondini's family accused him of rape in her wrongful death lawsuit. DailyMail.com has learned he is attempting to have the civil case dismissed

Rondini hanged herself after reporting she was 'raped' by TJ Bunn Jr. He is trying to have her family's wrongful death lawsuit against him dismissed citing the the Alabama state law that says he cannot be held responsible for another person's suicide

TJ Bunn Jr's legal team filed a motion to dismiss the Rondini family's wrongful death lawsuit on July 31, claiming Bunn could not be held responsible for the 21-year-old's death because he does not fit the criteria of someone who would be held accountable

Now Bunn's attorney, Ivey Gilmore, has hit back once again with the claim that there is nothing to legally tie 37-year-old Bunn Jr - the scion of a powerful Tuscaloosa family known locally as 'Sweet T' - to Megan's suicide.

The filing states: 'In Alabama law suicide constitutes an efficient, intervening cause which breaks the causal connection between the alleged wrongful act and death.'

It goes onto explain that there are only two exceptions: when a defendant's actions create an 'uncontrollable impulse in the plaintiff to commit suicide,' or when the defendant has a 'some sort of special relationship [with the plaintiff] where one would be expected to interfere or prevent the other from harming themselves.'

Let down, bullied and victimized by law enforcement and her school Megan was just 21 when she killed herself on February 26 last year, almost eight months after she claimed that Bunn Jr raped her.

But according to Bunn Jr's attorney Megan's death was not caused by anything that allegedly occurred some eight months earlier. Instead, he stated, her death was caused 'by her intentional act of hanging herself.'

While Bunn's attorney has described all allegations of sexual assault as 'false and malicious,' DailyMail.com has been told that Megan, who felt betrayed and victimized by law enforcement and her school, is not the only girl to have reported being sexually assaulted by the 37-year-old scion of one of Tuscaloosa's most powerful families.

The Bunn family printed a full-page ad to defend TJ amid the civil lawsuit. He claims the sex was consensual

Rondini didn't leave a suicide note, but left the intake forms for the mental health center at Southern Methodist University by her bedside

At least one of these previous accusers has stepped forward to offer her support to the Rondini family in a case that, their attorney Leroy Maxwell Jr has vowed, will see Megan 'vindicated' in a court of law.

Captain Gary Hood of the Tuscaloosa Sheriff's Department denied that Bunn has any prior record of sexual assault. But sources close to the case have insisted to DailyMail.com that at least one girl has filed a report and that criminal records relating to Bunn that 'should be public' have been inexplicably 'sealed.'

Speaking to DailyMail.com Maxwell said: 'It's absolutely horrific. Megan was a bright star and everything was going well in her life academically and personally until the night the incident occurred. From there everything went down hill.'

Megan didn't leave a suicide note. But the intake forms for the mental health center at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, to which Texas born Megan had transferred, were found by her bedside.

In them she stated she would be 'better off dead.' In response to a question about loss, change or crises in her life she wrote: 'Raped, bullied by police, changed university.'

It was a devastating conclusion to the promising student's downward spiral that began on July 1, 2015 when Megan went to Innisfree Irish Pub's trivia night with her sorority sisters.

The pub is a couple of hundred feet away from ST Bunn Construction, the family business of which Bunn Jr is Vice President that proudly boasts of having 'paved every street in Tuscaloosa.'

Bunn is a regular patron of the no-frills Innifree where beer and liquor are served in plastic cups. But at the age of 37 - 34 on the night of the Megan's 'assault' - Bunn was close to twice the age of the predominantly student clientele.

Bunn Jr said he picked up Rondini when he saw her walking alone near the Innisfree Irish Pub

The fact that a sexual encounter took place between Bunn and Megan is not in dispute.

Bunn told investigators that he picked Megan up when he saw her walking alone near the Innisfree. He claimed not to have seen her in the small bar that night despite his own admission to having been drinking.

He said that she invited him and a friend to her apartment where she made them drinks before agreeing to go with the two men to Bunn's sprawling home in the Tuscaloosa suburb of Cottondale.

Once there, Bunn put his drunk friend to bed and he and Megan went to his bedroom where they had consensual sex.

However, when law enforcement visited Bunn the morning after, he lied and said that Megan had not been there at all. When he later remembered her being in his bed, he claimed she was an enthusiastic participant.

ST Bunn Construction Ltd (pictured), and Bunn Jr personally, donated to PACs that funded the sheriff's and former District Attorney's campaigns

Rondini and Bunn Jr's accounts of the night of the alleged assault are both patchy. However, Bunn Jr initially lied to police and said he didn't remember her being at his house at all

Rondini's family names the University of Alabama and its President Stuart Bell (pictured) as defendants in Megan's wrongful death lawsuit

Megan's account is both patchy - showing 'clear impairment' according to the lawsuit - and starkly different.

She did not recall going to her apartment but remembered being in Bunn's white Mercedes as he drove towards his house. She felt 'intimidated' and worried that he was drunk and driving. Bunn has two DUIs on his record. But she complied when he told her to go to his bedroom because, she said, she was fearful of upsetting the man she knew to be part of an influential family.

When he said he wanted to have sex she resisted both verbally and physically - turning away from his kisses and rejecting his advances. But, the lawsuit states, 'Bunn insisted…he forcefully removed her clothing and forced her to engage in oral sex. He then used his superior strength to hold Megan down, and he forced himself on her and raped her.'

The attack, it states, lasted over 30 minutes. When Bunn finally passed out Megan discovered the bedroom door was locked and 'became frantic and immediately began contacting friends through multiple text messages…urgently seeking help.'

Ultimately she took $3 from the pocket of Bunn's pants, discarded on the floor, crawled through the second story window onto a flat roof and jumped down. Unable to find her keys in Bunn's room she looked in his unlocked car and found his loaded gun.

After the alleged assault, Rondini reported the attack to medical personnel and the Sheriff's Department

Bunn Jr was charged with his second DUI at 6.20am the morning after the alleged assault

She took it for protection but later admitted she did not know how to use it. In her panicked state she accidentally discharged it.

From there on, according to her family attorney Leroy Maxwell Jr, 'Megan did everything right.'

Her friends immediately took her to DCH Hospital where she reported the attack to medical personnel and the Sheriff's Department.

A rape kit and urine sample were taken and delivered to law enforcement. Immediately after the rape exam Megan went to the Sheriff's Department for a second interview. She had called her parents and her mother, Cindy, immediately got in her car to drive the 800-mile stretch that lay between the family home in Austin and her daughter.

Megan's father, Michael, contacted the University's Women and Gender Resource Center to ensure that an advocate was alongside Megan through her exams and interviews. The advocate did not show up for several hours and, when she did, she informed Megan that she knew her alleged assailant was Bunn and was aware of his prominence in the community.

She later 'abandoned Megan while she was being questioned by police.'

Rondini felt abandoned by her advocate from the University's Women and Gender Resource Center who was supposed to be with her during police questioning

Rondini's mother Cindi drove from Austin to be with her daughter the day after the assault. Her father Michael called to get her an advocate from the University to help her

Video footage of Megan's interview reveals the disturbing process by which she found herself converted from crime victim to suspect when investigator Adam Jones - who 'failed to take a single note' - turned his questions away from the sexual assault and instead focused on Megan's acts of taking the $3 and the loaded gun.

According to the lawsuit 'Megan's status as a victim of a sex crime was completely forgotten.' Instead she found herself facing criminal charges for Breaking and Entering and Theft of Property.

In turn, Bunn informed the cops that he would be willing to drop charges against Megan if she dropped hers against him but that if she did not, he would 'play hard ball.'

In their notably congenial interview with Bunn. law enforcement officers told him, 'We just want this to be over. We're just kind of waiting to see how far she'll push this.'

Adam Jones went as far as to offer Megan a 'refusal to prosecute' form to sign telling her, 'Look at it from my side. You never kicked him or hit him or tried to resist him.'

But Megan did not sign. She wanted her allegations to be public record. She feared Bunn, who calls himself the Bubble Bath Bandit, might strike again.

Alleged rapist TJ Bunn Jr lives in a massive estate in Cottondale, Alabama. He boasted his family's company has 'paved every street in Tuscaloosa'

The only test that was submitted by the sheriff's office showed that Rondini had contracted an STD from Bunn Jr

But if she hoped for support from the University she was sorely let down. To her horror her initial counselor recused herself, admitting she knew the Bunn family only after Megan had shared intimate details of the incident.

Her next counselor refused to work with her unless she showed she was on medication for the PTSD with which she had been diagnosed following a trip home to Texas shortly after making her report.

Sheriff Ron Abernathy's department did not submit Rondini's rape kit or urine sample for forensic testing

Bit by bit, according to her family, Megan was backed into a corner legally and socially. The threat of criminal action against her loomed and would only be removed if she did not pursue her case against Bunn.

Inexplicably Sheriff Ron Abernathy's department did not submit her rape kit or urine sample for forensic testing. According to the lawsuit, 'Thus, the Department shut and locked the door on any evidence that would have established whether Megan had been drugged in addition to being raped.'

The 'clear impairment' evidenced in her patchy recollection of the evening is, her attorney said, highly suggestive of a drug assisted assault.

The only test that was submitted showed that she had contracted an STD.

Birmingham based attorney Donald V Watkins who has become a champion for Megan became intent on exposing what he describes as the 'corruption and cover up' at the heart of her case.

He believes Bunn's family connections have made him all but 'untouchable.'

Speaking to DailyMail.com, Watkins - who worked to expose the sexual and financial scandal that saw the state's governor Robert J Bentley resign in April - said: 'The odds were stacked against Megan from the start.'

He pointed to the financial links between the Bunn family and the University, Sheriff's department and then District Attorney Lyn Head as proof of conflicts of interest that should have seen the parties recuse themselves from any investigation.

ST Bunn Construction Ltd, and Bunn Jr personally, donated to olitical action committees that funded Sheriff Ron Abernathy and former DA Lyn Head's campaigns.

Rondini's sorority stands across the street from the Bryant–Denny Stadium. The Bunn family is a prominent donor to the University and the football program

The Bunn family jet frequently transports boosters and the University of Alabama officials to Crimson Tide away football games

The company is part of the Lifetime Giving Society of the influential Crimson Tide Foundation for having given between $99,000 and $500,000 to UA Athletics. The Crimson Tide foundation paid off football coach Nick Saban's $3.1 million home in 2013.

Bunn is an alumnus of UA and his father serves as a member of President Bell's 'President's Cabinet,' a consultative invitation-only group of elite donors and business people.

The Bunn family jet frequently transports boosters and the UA officials to Crimson Tide away football games.

Megan's sorority house literally stands in the shadow of the UA stadium. For her there was no escaping the Bunn family name and reminders of their influence.

Bunn family attorney Ivey Gilmore claimed Rondini's own text messages proved the encounter was consensual

Watkins, himself a graduate of UA Law School, said: 'This case was not handled; it was mishandled by the university, the sheriff's department and the DA.

'Megan paid the ultimate price for telling the truth but there are other victims, this has happened before and the truth will come out.'

Megan's story first came to light with the publication of a Buzzfeed article two months ago. Watkins's campaigning and relentless posting on his Facebook page, along with the family's decision to file their lawsuit has seen it explode into the public conscience to the point where, today, Tuscaloosa is a town palpably riven and in shock.

Its Sheriff's department and District Attorney's office are entrenched and the Bunn family is on the attack while other accusers wait in the wings.

Thirty-one year old Laurie Beth Kesterson did not know Megan personally but the Tuscaloosa native started the Justice For Megan Facebook group because, she said, 'It's time to stand up and put a stop to this. Everybody has heard the rumors but nobody will do anything to investigate it.

'Silence and secrets kill.

'This has happened before.'

Laurie Beth, herself a former student at UA, also reported being raped while there. Her experience was similar to Megan's - her 'assailant' was the son of a politically connected family and her drug test was never submitted for forensic testing. Her case files are now with the Rondini family's attorney in the hope that they can lend some weight to the case.

The Rondini family also listed The University of Alabama as one of the defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit

She said: 'My story validates Megan's and in a way her story validates mine.'

Laurie Beth spoke to DailyMail.com on the day the Bunn family bought a full-page advertisement in defense of Bunn.

In it, attorney Ivey Gilmore wrote, 'I have now had the opportunity to view ALL the evidence obtained by law enforcement in the case…the young woman's own text messages… make it clear her sexual encounter was consensual.'

Later he wrote: 'It is regretful that... a group of trial lawyers have chosen to potentially expose the most intimate and sensitive (and embarrassing) aspects of this young woman's life [and] …bring such embarrassment and intense examination for her friends and associates. But that is their choice and the result of their actions.'

This victim shaming is all too familiar to Laurie Beth who said: 'In this town they come together to shame and destroy you. And if that doesn't work they intimidate you. Megan wasn't from here she didn't know that, she wasn't prepared. I did.'

Last week Congressman Ted Poe put Megan's case firmly on the national stage with the introduction of Megan Rondini's Law which would require every hospital to have a SAFE nurse - one trained in dealing with victims of sexual assault - or a protocol in place to ensure that anyone making a report is seen by such a trained medic.

Speaking to DailyMail.com the Texas congressman - a former prosecutor and judge as well as chair of the Victim's Rights Caucus - described Megan's case as 'one of the worst' he had ever seen.

He said: 'She did everything right. She went to hospital, she went to the police, she went to her university and everybody she knew who could help her turned her down.

Texas congressman Ted Poe, a former prosecutor and judge as well as chair of the Victim's Rights Caucus, said: 'It's always a tactic of the accused to attack the victim'

Rondini told a friend she reported the rape because she was worried TJ Bunn Jr would harm someone else if she stayed silent

'She left school because of it and she got the death penalty for being a victim of a crime and that's what makes this a very sad case, because nobody in the system believed her.'

Investigators did not file her complaint under sexual assault or rape but categorized it as a 'special enquiry.' The then District Attorney Lyn Head declined to bring it to a Grand Jury because Megan did not use the specific word 'rape' in her report, instead calling it a, 'sexual assault.'

As for the Bunn family's ad Congressman Poe said: 'It's always a tactic of the accused to attack the victim. 'We will shame, we will attack, we will destroy the victim and thus we are not guilty.'

'People blame the victim for being in the wrong place, or being under the influence or alcohol but it's not the victim's fault. It's the perpetrator's fault. Sexual assault is NEVER the fault of the victim.'

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He added: 'What seems to support the victim's statements in Megan's case and speak to the truth of it is that she paid the ultimate price - she killed herself.'

Bunn was charged with his second DUI at 6.20 am that same morning. He still has his license.

Writing to a friend, beaten down and dismayed, Megan said, 'I have no idea who else he knows and has influence over in the system. The only reason I wanted to press charges in the first place is because I don't want this to happen to anyone else.'

Elsewhere she wrote, 'When all is said and done I wonder what I could've accomplished if one man didn't completely rip everything away from me.'

Yet according to the lawsuit and her champions it was not just one man who 'ripped everything' away from Megan. It was everything that followed that made her life unbearable.

It was the actions and inactions of those named in the suit - the University of Alabama, its President Stuart Bell, Sheriff Ronald Abernathy, investigator Adam Jones, Deputy Joshua Hastings - and the counselors who let her down again and again.

Tuscaloosa District Attorney's office did not respond to repeated requests from DailyMail.com to speak with them regarding records relating to a prior assault reported against Terry Bunn Jr.

Bunn Jr's attorney, Ivey Gilmore declined to comment.

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