Jewish UCLA Fraternity Sued Over Sexual Assault
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — A female student at the University of California, Los Angeles has sued the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity there and one of the fraternity’s former members, accusing him of sexual assault.
The accuser, who is remaining anonymous in the lawsuit, says that Blake Lobato, a ZBT brother, forcibly penetrated her while she was drunk after a party in August 2016, according to the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper. Lobato had allegedly pressured her to drink to excess, then convinced her to go to sleep at the fraternity. The student says in the suit that she physically resisted Lobato and screamed at him to stop.
The student says she reported the incident to the then-president of ZBT, but the fraternity did not investigate the issue. Subsequently, Irving Chase, a lawyer who sits on the ZBT board, allegedly attempted to dissuade the student from reporting the incident to the school. ZBT is a historically Jewish fraternity.
The suit, filed Aug. 10 in Los Angeles Superior Court, names ZBT, UCLA’s Interfraternity Council, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon, where the party in question took place, for negligence. The student is also suing Lobato for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
