Developer Bill Hutchinson sued over allegations he repeatedly sexually assaulted teenage girl

Bill Hutchinson, the Dallas area developer who has already been charged with sexual misconduct allegations, was sued by the family of a Tarrant County girl who says he has repeatedly sexually assaulted her since she was 16 years old.

The teenager is the prosecutor in Hutchinson’s sexual assault case in Highland Park and one of two teenagers he is accused of molesting in California.

The lawsuit, which was filed in a Dallas County district court on Monday, also names its real estate firm Dunhill Partners and Virgin Hotels Dallas as defendants. It is seeking more than $ 1 million in damages.

A Hutchinson attorney was not immediately available for comment. The developer has previously protested his innocence and said in a statement: “Everyone who knows me in this city knows that I am not in a position to be attacked sexually or in any other way.”

Dunhill Partners and Virgin Hotels Dallas representatives were not immediately available.

In response to a previous lawsuit, Dunhill Partners said that “we are aware of and are concerned about the grave allegations” made against Hutchinson, but that the company remains focused on its business. In response to the same complaint, Virgin Hotels Dallas said it “takes all such allegations extremely seriously”.

Allegations of abuse

According to the lawsuit, the teenager befriended two girls who lived with Hutchinson in 2019 and became a frequent guest at his Highland Park home.

When her family moved to Tarrant County that spring, she stayed at his home so she could stay at the same school for the remainder of the school year, the lawsuit says – but her family turned it down when Hutchinson offered to be her legal guardian to become.

The teenager also accompanied Hutchinson and his family on vacation to his homes in Laguna Beach, California and Miami and to a resort in Arizona, trips where Hutchinson “often hung out on beaches and boats with bikini clad minors while they were alcoholic Drank drinks ”. “He gave them and smoked marijuana, the lawsuit says.

William Lewald “Bill” Hutchinson(Highland Park Department of Public Safety)

During a trip to California in April, the lawsuit said, Hutchinson began making “creepy and inappropriate” advances, massaging her feet in the hot tub, and then rubbing them against his groin, the lawsuit said.

The girl said his actions escalated and that woke up one morning when he rubbed against her while wearing only a robe. She confronted him and he said he wouldn’t do that again, the lawsuit says, but she said she woke up another morning when Hutchinson raped her.

At one point, according to the lawsuit, Hutchinson told the teenager that he couldn’t wait for her to turn 17, which is the legal age in Texas in the lawsuit. (In California, the consent age is 18.)

The lawsuit said the girl “felt confused, ashamed and indebted to Hutchinson for what she believed was his immense generosity” – he had showered her and her friends with extravagant vacations and meals in fancy restaurants, and they had drunk alcohol and marijuana let smoke – and so she didn’t tell anyone about what had happened.

The abuse continued when she accompanied him on another trip to Laguna Beach and his home in Highland Park later in April, the lawsuit said.

He suggested to the teen that she was “the new Bri,” referring to his 23-year-old fiancée, the lawsuit said, and told her he would pay her college tuition and get her any job she could wanted to. When the conversation turned to Jeffrey Epstein one day, “Hutchinson said of the late pedophile and human trafficker that Epstein was ‘a lover’,” according to the lawsuit.

In May, the girl refused another trip to Laguna Beach because she was pretending to be sick. One of her friends said Hutchinson sexually abused her, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit calls Hutchinson “a methodical and premeditated robber” and says the alleged abuse resulted in the teenager suffering lifelong trauma. Also, it is said that some of her friends now hold her responsible for Hutchinson’s legal troubles.

The lawsuit also alleges that Dunhill Partners – the real estate company founded by Hutchinson – and Virgin Hotels Dallas were aware of Hutchinson’s behavior but did nothing to prevent “the reasonably foreseeable” sexual assault the teenager is accusing him of.

Dunhill Partners funded the abuse through Hutchinson’s use of travel accounts and property, the lawsuit said. It accuses Virgin hotel employees of supplying the teenager with alcohol on Hutchinson’s orders, and it is said that Hutchinson arranged for her to work at the hotel.

“Mr. Hutchinson will soon learn the hard lesson that wealth, power, and fame do not permit anyone to sexually abuse children in Texas or anywhere else,” said Charles E. Soechting Jr., one of the girl’s attorneys, in a written statement .

Arrests, first lawsuit

Hutchinson was arrested in July on charges of assaulting the girl at his Highland Park home. He was admitted to Highland Park Jail on a sexual assault case and released on $ 30,000 bail.

Days later, Orange County, California, authorities filed a rape charge and five sexual harassment charges against Hutchinson, in cases involving the same girl and a second teenager. On his first appearance in the courtroom, he pleaded not guilty and was released on $ 100,000 bail.

His criminal defense attorney Dan Hagood said Hutchinson “absolutely denies the charges made against him” and plans to prove his innocence in court.

A Texas woman has also sued Hutchinson, claiming he tried to sexually assault her in a Dallas apartment after trying to establish a professional relationship with him. The lawsuit states that he harassed her with alcohol before attempting to impose himself on her in an incident that she recorded in part on her cell phone.

Development, fame

Dunhill Partners, Hutchinson’s real estate company, is responsible for much of the Dallas Design District revitalization, including Virgin Hotels Dallas, developed through a partnership with Richard Branson. The company manages millions of square feet of retail space in the United States.

Hutchinson resigned as Dunhill president in June and said he was “happy to pass the torch” but remained chairman of the company’s board of directors.

Following the July allegations, Hutchinson said in a statement that he was stepping down from his business roles, including at Virgin Hotels Dallas and W Hotel, “in the best interests of all concerned.”

Hutchinson had previously gained some notoriety when he appeared on the reality TV series “Marrying Millions” with his fiancée, 40 years his junior, whom he met when he was 18.

A few weeks ago, Hutchinson’s Dunhill Festival Fund sued the founders of the Kaaboo Texas Festival, accusing them of fraud and misleading investors about how lucrative the event would be.

[ad_1]