Elise Clougherty, former Stanford student and Ford model, is accusing her college mentor of rape. The 24-year-old alumna first met 32-year-old Joseph Lonsdale at a bar in New York. A year later, Lonsdale was assigned to be her mentor in an entrepreneurship elective run by the university. The two then began dating for a year.
Clougherty affirms that Lonsdale – who graduated from the college in 2003 and is the co-founder of venture capital firm Formation 8 – used his power to make sure the two were matched up in the program.
Based on the police files, their relationship was far from a mentorship; Clougherty claims Lonsdale deprived her of food, was extremely violent with her, and raped her on several occasions, causing her to suffer from severe PTSD. She is seeking $75,000 in damages from Lonsdale and his firm, which she accuses of “negligent supervision.”
Lonsdale dismissed the allegations and claims that his ex-flame is trying to damage his reputation.
[H/T: Daily Mail]
