Woman Raped in Cambridge Office Sues Owners for Information About Building Security

A woman raped at knifepoint in the Cambridgepark office complex in May sued the property’s owners and management on Monday, demanding information about an alleged failure in building security systems which she claimed allowed her attacker to enter.

The woman, who used the alias “Joy Jones,” said in the suit that she was followed by a masked man with a knife into her office on the building’s third floor, where he coercively undressed and “brutally raped” her. The assailant has yet to be identified or arrested.

In the suit, attorneys for Jones — Carmen L. Durso and Michael J. Heineman — wrote that “the building access and security systems, which were supposed to be in place, failed to function properly,” leading to her assault.

Durso and Heineman wrote in court documents that they filed the suit to identify the parties responsible for temporarily changing the building’s security protocols, with the intention of pursuing a claim of negligent security.

“This is an action for discovery against the owners, managers, and their contractors and service providers, of the building at 125 Cambridgepark Drive, Cambridge,” the lawyers wrote. They added that there are “no records available to the plaintiff to determine which security company was providing security services during the relevant time periods.”

The office building typically requires an electronic key to access elevators during evening hours. But on the night of the assault, according to the lawsuit, individuals without keys could access elevators due to ongoing construction in the building. The lawyers also claimed that security cameras that could have captured the assault were inoperative.

The lawsuit names eight defendants, including two property management firms — Lincoln Property Company and Regus Management Group — and three firms named as property owners: King Street Properties, PPF Office 125 Cambridgepark Drive LLC, and Longfellow Real Estate Partners. Three construction companies working at the property at the time were also named.

Jones’ lawyers said in the suit that she “contracted” with Regus, a tenant in the building, to use an office from September 2023 until the month of the attack.

Though Longfellow Real Estate Partners is named in the suit as having ownership or managerial interests in Cambridgepark at the time of the incident, a spokesperson for the group said it had not been a part of the building’s management since last March and declined to comment further.

King Street Properties — which identifies Cambridgepark as one of its properties on their website — also declined to comment on the ongoing investigation. Lincoln Property Company did not respond to a request for comment. The other defendants listed in the case could not be reached for comment.

Cambridge Police Department spokesperson Robert Goulston wrote in a statement that the investigation into the assault is ongoing, adding that the department is “working very closely with the victim in the case.”

Goulston did not comment on the lawsuit.

Though Jones was unable to identify the security companies that were employed at the time of the assault, her lawyers wrote that she “reasonably believes” that there were two that were outsourced.

The lawsuit demanded the release of information regarding “ownership, operations, and management” of the defendants, pursuant to Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart or on Threads @laurel.shugart.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.