Real estate agents deny drugging and sexually assaulting client | CANADA - Property News AU/NZ | propertynoise.co.nz & propertynoise.com.au

PHOTO: Bowman Rutledge, left, and Andy Rogers, seen in a marketing photo from 2016, deny all allegations of sexual assault against them. (Facebook – image credit)

Two Victoria Realtors accused of sexually assaulting a client at their real estate office in 2018 have filed a statement of defence, denying the allegations.

The men, Bowman Rutledge and Andy Rogers, are responding to a civil suit filed against them last month in B.C. Supreme Court by a former client.

She says she hired the two men in December of 2017 to sell her house. It sold two months later and changed possession in May of 2018.

The plaintiff, who CBC has agreed not to name because she is an alleged victim of sexual assault, says in August of 2018 she agreed to meet Rutledge to celebrate the sale of her home.

Instead, says her statement of claim, she was met by both Rutledge and Rogers, who lured her to their place of business, Engel & Volkers Vancouver Island, on the premise of having to do some paperwork before heading out.

She alleges that upon arrival at the office, she was handed a glass of wine that was drugged and quickly began to feel ill and disoriented.

She says that’s when both men allegedly sexually assaulted her. The suit also names the real estate agency.

The statement of defence says both Rutledge and Rogers “support survivors of sexualized violence and deny the alleged acts attributed to them.”

The response says Rutledge and the client had been longtime friends and became closer as they worked on the process of selling her home during the winter of 2017-2018.

It says the two regularly exchanged messages on social media, including the client “sending nude photographs of herself to Rutledge.”

After her house sold, says the response to the suit, Rutledge and the woman behind the civil suit stayed in touch via social media.

“Specifically, [the plaintiff] continued sending suggestive messages and often sought to, and in fact did, engage Rutledge and Rogers, in social settings,” it says.