This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Though Victoria Hewlett lost a lot the July 2015 night Jason Relopez raped her, she said she also gained things: courage, for example, and strength.
And, she told kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart, she wants to use those attributes to help other women.
Smart interviewed Hewlett as part of her correspondent role for an episode of the syndicated TV show "Crime Watch Daily" that aired Friday on Fox 13.
"I think what you've just said makes all the difference between a victim and a survivor," Smart told Hewlett.
Hewlett was a Utah State University student in July 2015 when Relopez, also a student and member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, locked her in his bedroom and repeatedly raped her. In May, Relopez was sentenced to a year in jail after admitting to sexually assaulting Hewlett and another female student, Morgan Klinkowski.
Hewlett now is suing the university, alleging officials were aware of multiple sexual assault allegations against Relopez more than a year before he was charged by Cache County prosecutors. In court documents, the school has denied it knew about the other allegations.
But school emails obtained by Logan police — and later released to The Salt Lake Tribune through an open-records request — show that in November 2014, an adviser from Klinkowski's sorority contacted Kevin Webb, USU's Greek adviser, to report that Relopez had sexually assaulted a student in that sorority and had "been verbally, emotionally and physically abusive" to other women.
Webb and two other Utah State administrators — all named in Hewlett's suit — then met with Relopez. They told him he "had been brought up in conjunction with a sexual assault," according to minutes from that meeting, and that he was on USU's radar and would be expelled if they found out the allegations were true.
A few months later, still a USU student, Relopez raped Hewlett. She reported him to police, who arrested him; he was subsequently suspended by USU.
The university states it could not discipline Relopez because Klikowski — whom the school did not name — had requested confidentiality and had not filed a complaint nor provided the details of the incident. Federal law allows universities to investigate without a formal complaint, and the emails show USU knew of others who had complained about Relopez's conduct.
Hewlett told Smart her life would be completely different if university officials had taken the other women's complaints seriously.
"If they had believed the women before me, if they would have taken it seriously that he is a danger and he wasn't safe to be on campus and to be living in a fraternity, he wouldn't have been able to prey on women, like he did to me," Hewlett said.
Hewlett also is suing the local chapter of Sigma Chi — Gamma Kappa — alleging that it was aware Relopez was a threat and did nothing about it. The national Sigma Chi corporation and the Gamma Kappa Alumni Foundation, which maintain control over the chapter's members and operations, also are being sued.
Hewlett claims Sigma Chi was aware that Relopez had raped Klinkowski in 2014 and that he had been abusive toward other women. All three fraternity defendants deny those claims.
"I never want anyone to ever have to go through what I went through and so I'm not going to stop until I see changes," Hewlett said.
Smart — who was kidnapped in 2003 at age 14 from her Salt Lake City home and held captive for nine months by Brian David Mitchell, who repeatedly raped her — applauded Hewlett for her actions.
"Bravo," Smart said. "Welcome to the team."
Twitter @alexdstuckey