Law360 (October 26, 2026, 9:06 PM EDT) -- A woman who says a former Detroit police officer kidnapped and raped her at gunpoint in 2005 has filed a proposed class action seeking more than $10 million from the city, alleging officials ignored warnings about the officer and allowed nearly 12,000 sexual assault evidence kits to go untested, concealing his identity for two decades.

In a complaint filed Friday in the Eastern District of Michigan, the woman, identified as Jane Doe, alleges that Detroit and its police department systematically failed to investigate sexual assaults, mistreated victims and allowed former Officer Benjamin Wagner to continue patrolling despite allegations of sexual misconduct.

Doe, who was 18 when she said Wagner attacked her, alleges she did not learn his identity until March, when DNA evidence connected to Detroit's long-standing rape kit backlog identified him as her attacker.

"This case arises from a municipal failure with devastating consequences: The city of Detroit armed and employed Officer Benjamin Wagner, ignored warning signs, and buried the DNA evidence that could have exposed him as a serial rapist years ago," the complaint said.

The lawsuit alleges Wagner used his marked patrol car, badge and service weapon to target women over nearly two decades. Wagner now faces six counts of first-degree kidnapping and 14 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving at least six women, the complaint said.

Doe alleges Wagner approached her in October 2005 while she was walking home from a gas station near Wyoming and Puritan streets in Detroit, between 9 and 10 p.m.

Wagner allegedly accused Doe of violating curfew and ordered her to bring identification to his patrol car. When Doe approached, he pointed a handgun at her and threatened to shoot her if she ran, the complaint said.

Wagner then forced Doe into the vehicle, drove her to an abandoned area and sexually assaulted her while holding a gun to her head, the complaint said.

Before leaving Doe in the deserted area, Wagner warned that nobody would believe her and threatened retaliation if she reported the assault, the lawsuit said.

According to the complaint, Wagner told Doe that "one of his buddies" would "come and finish the job" if she went to the police.

Doe said those threats prevented her from reporting the attack because she feared for her safety and that of her young daughter.

The lawsuit claims Detroit officials had reason to investigate Wagner years before his 2026 arrest.

In 2002, Wagner was tried and acquitted of sexually assaulting his stepdaughter. Detroit subsequently returned him to unrestricted patrol duty without additional monitoring or investigation, allowing him to continue working for approximately 15 years, the complaint said.

"The 2002 trial put the city on notice that Wagner posed a risk of sexual violence," the complaint said. "The city returned him to the street anyway."

Doe also claims that Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison told her in March that he knew there was a problem with Wagner, which she contends demonstrates that department personnel had knowledge of concerns about the officer.

Wagner retired around 2017 and moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where he was arrested in March, the complaint said.

The lawsuit alleges Michigan State Police linked Wagner's DNA to an unresolved sexual assault as early as 2010 and that the FBI identified a lead connecting him to multiple assaults in 2023.

Despite those developments, Wagner was not arrested until more than 20 years after Doe's assault, the suit said.

Doe's allegations extend beyond Wagner to two other men she said sexually assaulted her and whose cases were affected by Detroit's handling of sexual assault evidence.

In February 2006, Doe said, she was raped by Lavelle Davis, a family friend who had sexually abused her as a child. Doe reported the assault and underwent a sexual assault examination at St. John Hospital, but responding Detroit police officers dismissed her allegations, the suit said.

Officers allegedly called Doe a liar, refused to record her statement and characterized her account as a "trick gone bad."

Doe's sexual assault evidence kit was stored without testing, the complaint said.

In December 2008, Doe alleges, a man later identified as Jesse Harris abducted her at knifepoint near Joyce Elementary School on the city's east side, while she was walking to a bus stop on her way to work.

After the assault, Doe underwent another sexual assault examination at Detroit Receiving Hospital, but police again refused to properly document her allegations and treated her as dishonest, the complaint said.

In 2016, Doe received a notification that DNA testing had identified Harris as her attacker. Doe claims in the complaint the notification led her to believe Harris was in custody, although authorities had only identified him through DNA and still needed assistance locating him.

Doe "later encountered Harris in the community, causing severe emotional distress," the complaint said.

Harris was prosecuted in 2016 but acquitted by a jury, the lawsuit said. Doe alleges that delays in testing sexual assault evidence prevented authorities from prosecuting other cases involving Harris because the applicable limitations periods had expired.

The complaint contends that Detroit's failure to investigate sexual assaults amounts to a long-standing municipal policy of treating women differently from victims of other violent crimes.

In 2009, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office discovered nearly 12,000 untested sexual assault evidence kits in a Detroit police warehouse. A testing initiative identified more than 850 serial rapists with connections to 40 states, the complaint said.

Doe claims Detroit police routinely processed forensic evidence in homicide investigations and other violent crime cases while allowing sexual assault evidence kits, predominately collected from women, to remain untested for years.

The complaint also claims that 81% of the survivors affected by the backlog, or approximately 9,186 people, were women of color.

"DPD's deliberate indifference to the rights of sexual assault survivors was systemic, longstanding, and shocking to the conscience," the suit said.

Doe seeks to represent a class of sexual assault survivors whose evidence kits were collected by or submitted to Detroit police and went untested or uninvestigated as part of the backlog during the applicable limitations period.

The lawsuit asserts 14 claims, including violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth amendments and municipal liability under a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case, Monell v. Department of Social Services, which allows a city to be sued for civil rights violations caused by officials or its policies.

Other claims include failure to train and supervise officers, denial of access to the courts, gender discrimination under Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, gross negligence, assault and battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress, as well as violations of the Michigan Constitution's due process protections.

Doe argues her claims are timely despite the passage of two decades because Wagner's threats and the city's handling of DNA evidence prevented her from identifying him until March.

"The city did not merely fail to protect plaintiff from a stranger. It armed, employed, and shielded the officer who raped her, while its evidence system concealed his identity for twenty years," the complaint said.

Doe invokes Michigan's fraudulent concealment statute and argues the limitations periods should be tolled because of concealment and duress.

In addition to seeking more than $10 million in compensatory damages, Doe requests punitive damages against Wagner and unidentified police personnel, exemplary damages under Michigan law and court-ordered reforms.

"The city of Detroit has demonstrated a disturbing, decades-long pattern of failing to investigate sexual assaults, dismissing the claims of sexual assault victims and denying equal protection to women — particularly women of color," Patrick C. Lannen of Stinar Lannen PLLC, who represents Jane Doe, told Law360 in a statement Monday. "Thousands of rape kits, including the evidence that could have stopped a serial rapist, collected dust in a Detroit police warehouse while the department allowed him to roam its streets with a badge, a gun and a patrol car. The women of Detroit who are survivors deserve justice."

The defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Doe is represented by Patrick C. Lannen, Parker G. Stinar, Erik H. Johnson and Brooke A. Seely of Stinar Lannen PLLC.

Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available Monday.

The case is Doe v. City of Detroit et al., case number 2:26-cv-14066, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

--Editing by Karin Roberts.

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