The woman who was allegedly raped by a Florida International University professor is speaking out about her ordeal in the hopes she can help someone else.
The victim, a housekeeper hired to clean FIU professor David Ralston’s Fort Myers home in April, said she was drugged. “He drugged me, and I didn’t really remember a lot,” she said during a phone interview. “I was completely out of it for at least nine hours, with no memory, complete amnesia.”
The victim likened the alleged sexual assault to a shadowy nightmare. “It’s like he erased my memory from whatever,” she said. “He offered me a drink and I took it, and I was only there just cleaning house.”
But investigators said Ralston, 69, had other plans, raping the victim on his back patio and leaving her begging for help.
Police said Ralston’s own surveillance cameras captured the entire assault. “I didn’t imagine this could happen to me, but from what the detective says, the video is horrendous,” she said. “It’s horrible. I haven’t been able to see it yet.”
U.S. Marshals arrested Ralston on Thursday.
FIU released a statement that reads, “We are aware that FIU Business Professor David Ralston has been arrested. He was last at the university at the conclusion of the spring semester and has no summer assignment.”
His new assignment? Sitting behind bars at the Broward County Jail.
His alleged victim said she will testify against him. “I was so afraid to come forward, but I thought to myself, ‘You know what? If he’s done this to other people … it needs to be stopped,'” she said.
Ralston will be sent back to Lee County in the next few weeks.
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