Hurdles remain for sexual assault survivors who report
BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
Julianna Czernyk said
that her rape at an off-campus
Bronx apartment near
Fordham University on the
night of Oct. 24, 2020, caused
the spiraling of her mental
health and delayed her educational
pursuits by a full year.
The 22-year-old told the Bronx
Times that while she was suffering
the trauma of a sexual
assault and subsequent investigation
by Fordham University
and lack of followthrough
from the local police,
the man she alleges raped her
while she was unconscious,
has continued to advance his
burgeoning law career.
“I’m a victim and everyone
labels me a victim and
everyone’s going to label me
as such, but I am also a survivor,”
said Czernyk, who
was in her senior year at the
time of the alleged incident.
“I survived the trauma, I survived
the rape. I’ve survived
the prevailing mental health
problems that he caused me.”
Czernyk is taking her
story to the Bronx Supreme
Court, fi ling a civil suit on
Nov. 5, 2021,against Michael
Bongiovanni — who is currently
a law student at New
York Law School following an
internship with the New York
State Supreme Court — on
charges of gender-motivated
violence, assault/battery, and
intentional infl iction of emotional
distress.
According to the civil complaint,
Czernyk never met
Bongiovanni before the night
of Oct. 24, 2020, but that he
allegedly raped her and attempted
to silenced her from
attempt to notifying Fordham
and local authorities. The suit
also alleges that Bongiovanni
had sex with Czernyk while
she was completely incapacitated.
Czernyk alleges that
Bongiovanni lured her to
his apartment that night to
smoke marijuana. There, she
vomited for hours in his bathroom,
stumbled out unable to
walk, when he convinced her
to sleep in his bed, and then
raped her in the middle of the
night.
Czernyk, who admits to
drinking and smoking marijuana
that night, said she
never consented to sex with
Bongiovanni.
“I woke up to him and me
both fully naked and him penetrating
me, his hairy chest
in my face, and I was unable
to think, speak or move. I
was basically lifeless,” she
detailed. “I was conscious
for about 30 seconds before I
passed out again. And then
my only other memory (I recall)
of the sexual encounter
was when he was forcing
me to give him (oral sex) and
then I remember him putting
on a condom before I passed
out again. So I really don’t remember
more than a minute
of the encounter. ”
In New York State, the “Affi
rmative Consent” standard
places the responsibility on
the initiator of sexual activity
to get a “yes” or otherwise ensure
that consent is accepted
before sexual contact is made.
Czernyk said she did not consent
to sex with Bongiovanni
on Oct. 24, 2020, and acknowledged
that since she was unconscious
— she could not
willingly give consent.
From the fear of being dismissed
by law enforcement,
institutional administrators
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, N 8 OV. 26-DEC. 2,2021 BTR
or facing repercussions,
whether personally, professionally
or from the perpetrator
themselves — many survivors
of sexual assault often do
not report their experiences.
Roughly 26.4% of female
college students experience
rape or sexual assault
through physical force, violence
or incapacitation, according
to Rape, Abuse &
Incest National Network
(RAINN), the nation’s largest
nonprofi t anti-sexual assault
organization. Unfortunately,
only 20% of female student
victims report the incident
to college administrators and
local law enforcement, and
even when they do, there is no
guarantee their claims will be
handled in a timely manner.
But Czerynk said she refuses
to be a statistic, and refuses
to let what happened to
her on Oct. 24, 2020, pass without
accountability.
“I want justice, I want justice
for his actions,” she said.
“What he did was wrong … he
raped me, he took full advantage
of my unconscious body.
And he needs to be held accountable
for that.”
In the complaint, Czernyk’s
attorneys state that
Fordham’s decision to fi nd
Bongiovanni not liable during
their investigation was
“clearly biased and unsupported
by the testimony and
evidence it had discovered.”
According to Czernyk,
the Bronx’s 46th Precinct declined
to investigate her complaint
for reasons that were
not made clear. Czyernk fi led
a police report with the precinct
on April 5, 2021.
A startling 60% of rapes
went unresolved or unsolved
by the NYPD in 2020, the highest
rate of unclosed rape cases
since the Department began
publicly releasing that data in
2018.
For every 100 rapes and
sexual assaults of teenage
girls and women reported to
police, only 18 lead to an arrest,
according to a study conducted
by three professors in
the School of Criminology and
Justice Studies. The decline
in arrests also took place as
the number of reported rapes
dropped from 1,794 in 2018 to
1,427 in 2020.
A spokesperson for the
NYPD didn’t return a request
for comment on those statistics
or why they did not follow
through with Czernyk’s
report.
According to the complaint,
Fordham University
conducted an investigation
where several witnesses corroborated
that Czernyk was
severely intoxicated that evening
and messages that corroborated
that Czernyk and
Bongiovanni had sex that
night. Fordham University
ultimately exonerated Bongiovanni
— who has since
graduated from the university
— and no disciplinary action
was levied against him.
Fordham University declined
to comment on their investigation
and it’s process in investigating
sexual assaults,
citing pending litigation. The
university is already under
scrutiny for allegedly covering
up the rape of a gay former
Naval training student —
who was attacked by the son
of a high-ranking military offi
cer, according to a new federal
lawsuit that was fi led in
August.
“In March 2021, Czernyk
fi nally found the courage to
report Defendant to Fordham
University,” an excerpt from
the complaint reads, “unfortunately,
the University’s response
was severely inadequate.”
Czernyk alleges in the
complaint that when she notifi
ed Fordham administrators
about the incident in March,
Bongiovanni took retaliatory
efforts to keep her quiet, an
allegation that Bongiovanni’s
attorneys vehemently denied
to the Bronx Times.
In the complaint and according
to Czernyk, in April
2021, Bongiovanni had approached
Czernyk at a party
and put his hands up to her
chest in a threatening manner.
Bongiovanni’s legal team
denied those claims, however.
Reporting of sexual as-
Julianna Czernyk, 22, fi led a civil suit in the Bronx Supreme Court on Nov. 5, alleging she was raped while in
college. Photo Aliya Schneider