In the suit filed yesterday in Cook County Circuit Court, 28-year-old Audra Soulias alleges that after a night of drinking in 1999, Smith, now 43, forced her out of a cab and into his home, where he sexually assaulted her. She is seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
"She didnt report it to police because she was scared," her attorney, Kevin OReilly, told WLS-TV on today. "This is a powerful man, this is a wealthy man and hes got the ability to really scrutinize you in the public eye. This will go nowhere and ruin your life, and thats what she was afraid of at first."
In 1991, a jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., acquitted Smith of sexual assault and battery on a then 30-year-old woman he met in a nightclub. He said the sex between him and the accuser, Patricia Bowman, was consensual.
Soulias worked in 1999 as a personal assistant for Smith at the Center for International Rehabilitation, a group led by Smith that helps land mine victims, according to the lawsuit.
"He dragged me into his house, dragged me upstairs in his bedroom where he raped me," Soulias told WBBM-TV in Chicago.
Soulias alleges that afterward, Smith left her apologetic voice mail messages.
She and Smith later had a relationship that lasted several months, OReilly said, but he said it amounted to further victimization.
