TOMS RIVER -- Shannon Dugan was in her hotel room at the Hyatt Regency in St. Louis in April 2016 when she awoke to what appeared to be a nightmare — a strange man on top of her in bed, sexually assaulting her.

Though half-asleep and startled, Dugan, a sergeant with the Ocean County Sheriff's Office, had the presence of mind to send herself a text message recording the time of the assault — 1:30 a.m. on April 18, 2016.

After Dugan reported the assault to the hotel and the special victims unit of the St. Louis Police Department, the hotel refused to turn over surveillance footage capturing a hotel security guard using a master key to enter her room about 1:30 a.m. and then fleeing from it.

And, when the security guard called the hotel's human resources director the next day to say he was leaving town, the hotel did not relay that information to police, despite knowing authorities were looking for him.

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Sgt. Shannon Dugan, Ocean County Sheriff's Office

Making matters worse, Dugan later learned Hyatt hired the guard, despite his having a history of arrests accusing him of deviate sexual assault and sodomy, masturbating in public, making sexually harassing phone calls to a 13-year-old girl, and sexual abuse of and making harassing phone calls to a mentally disabled woman.

Dugan, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff's office, chose to speak out now about her ordeal, after the Missouri Court of Appeals, in a recent ruling outlining the above facts of the case, upheld a jury verdict awarding her a $177 million judgment in a civil lawsuit against Hyatt Corp.

Attorneys for Hyatt did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Dugan hasn't seen a penny of the award, as Hyatt is appealing the recent court ruling.

But for Dugan, she said it's never been about the money. It's about the hotel chain making changes to ensure what happened to her doesn't happen to other guests.

"There's no amount of money that will take away what happened," she said in an interview Tuesday. "What would help me is if they've made some changes in their hiring and their supervision and their training. What would make me feel better is if they make some changes as a result of what happened on one of their properties."

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'They heard me and they saw me'

What went through Dugan's mind when the jury returned its verdict at the civil trial in 2022 was not the size of the award, but that the people on the jury heard her.

"This whole time I've been going through this for the past nine years, I've never really felt heard about anything that happened in dealing with Hyatt,'' Dugan said. "The first day that I felt heard was when that jury came back and saw the injustice in all of this, just like I did.

"I cried tears of joy because somebody — not somebody — there were 12 people who heard me and realized this was very unfair and unjust,'' she said. "To have the Court of Appeals also agree, I'm extremely grateful that they heard me and they saw me.''

The appeals court, in its December ruling, rejected Hyatt's challenge to the jury's award of $149 million in punitive damages to Dugan, on top of $28 million in compensatory damages.

The decision emphasized Hyatt's failure to follow its own policies requiring thorough background checks, proper supervision of employees and cooperation with police investigations.

"In fact, the jury heard that Hyatt did not just fail to voluntarily assist police, but Hyatt hindered the police's investigation," the appellate court wrote.

"In our judgment, Hyatt's conduct in this regard epitomizes a conscious disregard for the rights and interests of its own hotel guest who suffered a sexual assault in her hotel room at the hands of Hyatt's own security guard," the decision said. "Instead of following its policies and putting Dugan's interests first, the jury appears to have concluded that Hyatt, from the top of its corporate governance, prioritized its own interests."

'I'm a police officer, and this is happening to me'

The appellate court decision set forth the following facts:

Dugan and a colleague traveled to St. Louis in April 2016 to attend a seminar on death investigations. On April 18, 2016, they attended classes all day and then went to a Cardinals baseball game before returning to the Hyatt about 11 p.m.

Dugan went to her room, took a shower and went to bed. Her colleague later could not find his cellphone, so, thinking Dugan might have it, called her cellphone and knocked on the door to her room.

Concerned that Dugan did not answer, the colleague contacted hotel security around 11:30 p.m. and requested they conduct a wellness check.

Despite Hyatt's policy requiring security guards to do wellness checks in pairs, a guard identified in court papers only as D.W. volunteered to do the wellness check alone because the other guard wanted to go outside to smoke.

Dugan's co-worker accompanied D.W. to Dugan's room. When Dugan didn't answer a knock on the door, D.W. used a master to key to open it and go inside while Dugan's co-worker stayed out in the hall.

D.W. emerged from the room and told the co-worker he couldn't rouse Dugan. Neither he or the other security guard summoned medical assistance for Dugan.

D.W. later left his security post and, using his master key to let himself into Dugan's room, sexually assaulted her while she slept. When Dugan woke up and found D.W. on top of her, D.W. ran out of the room.

"When I woke up, I said to myself, 'What do I do here? I'm a police officer, and this is happening to me. What do I do?'" Dugan said.

Dugan said she was embarrassed.

"But, I said it has to stop with me. If I don't speak up, this is going to continue," she said.

According to the appellate court decision, Dugan went to the hotel security desk seeking records on whether a master key was used to unlock the door to her room, but the security director refused to let her see the records and told her she would need a subpoena.

Hyatt's written policy mandates personnel assist victims of crimes occurring on hotel property by informing police. Despite that, Hyatt did not contact the police, so Dugan and her colleague proceeded to the nearest St. Louis police station to report the assault, the court decision said.

Detectives later confirmed with Hyatt personnel that D.W. was seen on surveillance footage entering Dugan's room around 1:30 a.m. By then, Hyatt had already secured the relevant footage, but refused to share it with police.

The detectives also asked Hyatt personnel not to communicate with D.W. until they could locate and question him, the appeals court said. Hyatt did not tell police when, the day after the assault, D.W. called human resources to say he was leaving town.

Dugan said D.W. ultimately was arrested in connection with the assault.

Her attorney, Scott S. Bethune, said D.W. pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault and first-degree burglary and, as a result, is now a registered sex offender.

Bethune explained that Missouri law requires the names of witnesses in civil cases, such as D.W.'s in Dugan's case, be redacted or that the witnesses only be identified by initials.

Not his first arrest

Although D.W. had been arrested multiple times in the past, the assault on Dugan represented his first criminal conviction, Bethune said.

D.W. passed his pre-employment background check because Hyatt only looked for convictions, not prior arrests, Dugan said.

"Had they done an arrest background check they would have discovered a lot more of his personality because he did have previous arrests for sexually deviant behavior," Dugan said.

"I think it comes down to how much money they're willing to spend on each background check," she said, saying it costs less to search only for convictions and not arrests.

"In my case, had they done their due diligence and properly vetted him, he probably wouldn't have had access to over 900 hotel rooms with sleeping guests in them," Dugan said of D.W.

"There's no way I was the first person this happened to," Dugan said. "I'm speaking out to protect and support other survivors and to shine a light on the systems that enable assaults to take place in hotel environments."

Rather than feeling embarrassed and questioning their own sanity, Dugan encouraged survivors of sexual assaults to come forward and report them.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about," she said. "I didn't do anything wrong, so I shouldn't have to hide myself.

"Coming forward and pursuing the offenders and getting our voices out there so that this stuff stops is the only way to make change," she said.

Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.

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