Penn State student sues housemate in federal court over thrown pasta and male guests
Two sorority sisters at Pennsylvania State University could be sharing both a courtroom and housing, after roommate drama escalated causing one girl to file a federal lawsuit.
Rachel Lader is claiming in a breach-of-contract and defamation lawsuit that the parents of her Alpha Sigma Alpha sister Molly Brownstein, used their influence and position as active donors to the university to encourage a disciplinary investigation against Lader that resulted in her being put on academic probation, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The rift between Lader and Brownstein, who will be forced to live together starting Monday, started when they were studying abroad and living together in Barcelona, Spain last spring.
In a memo filed with the university, Brownstein, who will be a senior this fall, and her parents claim that Lader bullied her throughout their international stay in Spain.
Clash: Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority members are pictured in 2013 - but none of the girls in the above photo are implicated in the lawsuit
The rift between Lader and Brownstein (pictured above left with her sister), started when they were studying abroad and living together in Barcelona, Spain last spring
Brownstein along with her parents, whose father is CEO of the Center City ad agency the Brownstein Group, contends that bullying brought her to contemplate suicide.
'Rachel bullied me to the point where I had to leave in the middle of the night in an area where people get stabbed outside my building,' Brownstein wrote in a memo that Lader, who is a rising senior and plans to be a lawyer, included in her lawsuit.
'Whenever I think about it, it brings me to a full on terrible place and makes me completely depressed.'
In the memo, Brownstein and her parents allege that Lader brought a male back to a shared hotel room on a trip to Prague that forced Brownstein to find another place to stay, played music too loudly in their Barcelona apartment and dumped a colander full of pasta onto Brownstein's bed.
In an eight-page memo titled 'A Mother's Perspective', Brownstein's mother claimed that Lader actively attempted to leave behind her daughter and even excluded her on a trip to Copenhagen.
Brownstein's mother filed the memo with the university.
'In the sorority, it is generally understood that you do not cross Rachel Lader — better to pretend to be her friend, than be her enemy,' Brownstein's mother wrote in the memo.
'The other girls were frankly scared of Rachel.'
In a memo filed with the university, Brownstein, who will be a senior this fall, and her parents (above) claim that Lader bullied her throughout their international stay in Spain
Brownstein (above) wrote in a memo: 'Rachel bullied me to the point where I had to leave in the middle of the night in an area where people get stabbed outside my building'
Lader denies the claims in the lawsuit and argues that she was the actual target of an attack to ruin her academic record - claiming that the Brownsteins used their connections to do so.
Back in March, the university started an investigation while both girls were still in Barcelona at the request of Mr and Mrs Brownstein, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Lader added that the allegations against her from the Brownsteins caused her to suffer migraines, anxiety and colitis which led her to be hospitalized for five days last month.
She is asking a federal judge to erase the disciplinary charges against her and award damages for defamation and subsequent emotional distress.
'This willingness of Penn State to acquiesce to the inappropriate and harmful demands of a large money donor shocks the conscience,' Maurice Mitts, Lader's lawyer, wrote in court filings earlier this week.
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Share'Similarly, the extent to which Marc A. Brownstein is willing to pervert his power and influence as a large money Penn State donor for the purpose of intentionally harming Rachel [Lader] is equally disturbing.'
In addition, Lader claims that Brownstein excluded herself from being around the other roommates in their apartment.
She adds that the male she brought back to the room they shared in Praque was a friend from high school who happened to be locked out of his own apartment.
Lader says the male slept on the couch during his stay.
Brownstein (above) and Lader signed a contract last year to live together this fall, but it's unclear if that will happen
In terms of the colander full of pasta being dumped on Brownstein's bed, Lader denies doing so. But she admitted to putting an empty colander in her bed to suggest that Brownstein was not doing her share of housework.
'The alleged conduct complained of by Molly Brownstein is without any merit and is nothing more than slander and harassment by [her]and her mother to have me thrown out of school,' Lader wrote to Penn State earlier this year.
Unluckily for both girls, they signed a lease last fall to share an apartment together this school year.
Penn State's apartment market forces students to establish and solidify their off-campus housing plans roughly a year in advance.
Emails filed in Lader's lawsuit show that Penn State offered to drop the investigation if she agreed to break her lease this fall, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
But Lader refused to do so and was charged with harassment.
Classes are scheduled to start Monday, and neither girl has broken the lease yet for the new apartment.
It's unclear if anyone has moved in it yet.
Penn State could not be reached for comment.
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