Accuser Drops Charges Against Kevin Mahaney

The woman who in January accused notable alumnus and donor Kevin Mahaney ’84 of covering up rape dropped her charges against Mahaney from the civil lawsuit on Monday.

The plaintiff, who had been granted anonymity in the case, released a statement stating that Mahaney had no part in the assault, and that she was dropping all charges against him. The lawsuit will proceed against Howard Rubin, 62, who now remains the sole person accused in the lawsuit.

“Earlier this year, I decided that, to move on with my life, I needed to tell the story of what I endured and to seek justice through the court system,” the plaintiff said in the statement.

“As part of that effort, I brought a lawsuit against not only the man who committed the assault, Mr. Howard Rubin, but also against Kevin Mahaney, with whom I was friends at the time of the assault. I now realize my decision to include Kevin in the lawsuit was a mistake and that he bears no responsibility for what happened to me. Kevin played no role in the attack, assisted me in its immediate aftermath, and continued supporting me for months thereafter,” she said.

“I now understand Kevin does not know Howard Rubin.”

The plaintiff arrived at a voluntary discontinuance of the lawsuit, in which she agreed to drop the charges of aiding and abetting that she had submitted in early January. The lawsuit originally asked Mahaney for 17 million dollars in reparations, and accused him of helping to “cover up” the rape and torture that the plaintiff accused a wealthy Wall Street investment manager, Howard Rubin, of committing against her in 2015.

The lawsuit originally accused Mahaney of persuading the plaintiff to not seek legal or medical treatment in the wake of the alleged assault she experienced in a penthouse in Manhattan. Mahaney filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on March 12, claiming that he does not know Howard Rubin, and had no part in the alleged assault of the plaintiff.

Mahaney is the namesake of college’s Center for the Arts. Middlebury released a statement on Tuesday noting that the charges against Mahaney had been dropped.

The plaintiff’s lawyer did not respond to a request comment on the retraction of the civil lawsuit against Mahaney. All charges are still being held against Rubin.

Mahaney is president and CEO of the Olympia Companies, a real estate development company based in Portland, Maine. The Morning Sentinel, a newspaper in Waterville, Maine, reported on March 13 that Colby College had terminated a development project contract with the Olympia Companies in response to the lawsuit against Mahaney. Colby had hired the company in January to oversee the building of a hotel at the college.

When asked whether the college would reconsider the decision in light of the dropped charges, Kate Carlisle, a spokeswoman for Colby, said that they would not resume work with the Olympia Companies.

“We have already terminated the agreement, and are moving ahead to develop the property ourselves,” Carlisle said.