{"id":162778,"date":"2026-02-20T17:15:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/162778\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T17:15:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:15:24","slug":"orlando-health-sued-over-botched-rape-kit-in-case-thats-gotten-national-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/162778\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Health sued over botched rape kit in case that’s gotten national attention"},"content":{"rendered":"

A real estate agent said she believed her drink was drugged and she was raped at an Orlando conference in a federal lawsuit that received attention in The New York Times this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, Kirsten Childress has filed another lawsuit, this time against Orlando Health<\/a>. She is accusing the hospital of botching her rape kit and failing to do toxicology tests that could have proven her drink was laced. The lawsuit was filed<\/a> in the U.S. District Court\u2019s Orlando division.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen think if they do everything right, and they go to the hospital, and they say they were raped, that they would get the testing that is required to be given \u2014 it just doesn\u2019t happen,\u201d said her attorney, Andrea Hirsch. \u201cWe\u2019re saying that serious mistakes were made and there was medical negligence and it had consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

With an incomplete rape test, the criminal case evolved into a he said-she said, and Childress\u2019 alleged perpetrator was never charged with a crime, Hirsch said. The accused man, Nicholas Blake Moore, said the sexual encounter where he had choked her was consensual, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Childress has turned to the civil courts to seek justice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not giving up,\u201d Hirsch said. \u201cShe wants her day in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orlando Health declined to respond to Childress\u2019 allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not comment on pending litigation,\u201d said Kevin Punsky, Orlando Health Assistant Vice President of Public Affairs and Media Relations.<\/p>\n

Childress, who lives in North Carolina, was in Orlando for eXp\u2019s 2023 Shareholder Summit.<\/p>\n

In the evening, conference attendees gathered at International Drive\u2019s Ice Bar for a special ticketed event to mingle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Childress \u201crecalls drinking 1-2 vodka cranberry cocktails over several hours while eating and socializing with colleagues. The next thing (Childress) recalls is being raped and strangled by defendant Moore in his hotel room,\u201d according to her first federal lawsuit<\/a> filed against Moore and eXp.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Childress) has only limited flashes of memory from that night and relies on witness statements, text messages, screenshots, law enforcement records, and medical records to piece together what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore had been a photographer at the summit, her lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

Childress\u2019 colleagues noticed Childress was slurring her words and acting belligerent as she ran off with Moore. They looked for her but couldn\u2019t find her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hotel staff later reported seeing a disheveled and confused Childress, who lost her phone and didn\u2019t know where she was since she was at the wrong hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt approximately 2:00 a.m., (Childress) returned to Rosen Shingle Creek by taxi. She was met by friends, collapsed into their arms, and cried out: \u201cThat wasn\u2019t my husband \u2026 he raped me,\u201d her first federal lawsuit said. \u201c(Childress) was bruised, trembling, and confused. Witnesses noted bruise marks on her neck and that (Childress) was in visible distress.\u201d<\/p>\n

EMS was called and Childress was admitted to Orlando Health\u2019s Dr. Phillips P. Hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her memory loss was documented, so were the bruises over her body, a red mark on her neck, and scrapes on her genitals, her lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s DNA was found from vagina swabs collected from the rape kit, her lawsuit also said.<\/p>\n

But Orlando Health failed to collect her blood and urine for toxicology results, her lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile the evidence is dissipating in her body because GHP metabolizes so quickly and seconds count,\u201d her lawyer said. \u201cIt\u2019s so rare for someone to actually get to the hospital within like two hours of being drugged and assaulted and that opportunity was wasted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing other litigation against eXp and reviewing her records and we can\u2019t figure out where\u2019s the toxicology? We\u2019re looking for it in the medical records because she went to the hospital to get a rape kit,\u201d Hirsch added.<\/p>\n

The Orlando Health lawsuit appears to be an example of where staff aren\u2019t properly trained, Hirsch said.<\/p>\n

She also believes it\u2019s a nationwide issue that is overlooked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a problem not isolated to Orlando Health and we don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s talking about this,\u201d Hirsch said.<\/p>\n

Childress was the sixth woman to sue eXp in the last two years, the NYT reported this Spring<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll have similar claims that they were given a laced drink and then attacked while attending an eXp event,\u201d the NYT said.<\/p>\n

The lawyers representing eXp did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A real estate agent said she believed her drink was drugged and she was raped at an Orlando…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[77858,77859,22921,77860,77861,139,141,6031,140,77862],"class_list":["post-162778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-andrea-hirsch","tag-dr-phillips-p-hospital","tag-federal-lawsuit","tag-kevin-punsky","tag-kirsten-childress","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-health","tag-orlando-news","tag-rape-kit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}