Ramael is featured on a poster for an April concert in Portugal. David Ramael’s Facebook
By Asia Fields
Content warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual assault.
In 2013, a Western student reported that David R. Ramael, then a music professor and orchestra conductor, sexually assaulted her. The survivor, now an alumna, says Ramael hasn’t faced any consequences.
Ramael resigned from Western, moved to Europe, presented at conferences and forums, won first prize in an orchestra conducting contest and created a professional ensemble, which is working on its first CD. He is a frequent guest in all the major concert halls in Belgium, according to his website, and guest conducts for the Belgium National Orchestra.
The survivor has spent the last five years learning to cope with trauma and anger. She let her emotions out through music, and in one instance, broke the E string on her violin playing Shostakovich’s 8th String Quartet. She wrote, went to the gym and focused on the four years of school ahead of her. She reminded herself it was not her fault.
The survivor said she was drunk when it happened and therefore unable to consent. She said she repeatedly told Ramael the reasons he should stop, but he brushed aside her concerns. Text messages she sent her friend the next morning, acquired by police, echo her account.
Western’s faculty code of ethics states it’s “legally questionable” whether students can even voluntarily give consent to their professors due to the power difference. Western’s Equal Opportunity Office found Ramael responsible for sexual harassment and “unwanted sex.” He received no sanctions as he had already resigned from Western.
The survivor told police Ramael encouraged her to drink, according to the police report. She said she was afraid to say no to him because she thought he might get angry or ruin her career.
Ramael was charged with furnishing liquor to a minor, which was reduced to a public noise disturbance charge with a $200 fine, according to court records.
The survivor says this was not enough.
“I get mad when I think about how much emotional trauma I had to go through, when he seemingly had none, continuing his career unscathed in his home country,” the survivor wrote to the AS Review.
Ramael is currently the artistic director of BOHO Strings, a professional ensemble based in Belgium he helped create. He did not respond directly to requests for comment.
His Bellingham attorney, Robert Butler, said in an email that Ramael did not participate in Western’s investigation at his direction and had no comment about the university findings or the survivor saying he sexually assaulted her.
Ramael told police at the time that he believed what happened was consensual.
The Belgian National Orchestra’s marketing manager, Pieter Lembrechts, sent a statement he said was from Ramael, claiming the case had been dismissed.
“I confirm that these indictments date from 2013. The case was investigated at the time but dismissed for lack of thorough reasons. I have therefore not taken part in the research at Western Washington University for which I am not working anymore for a long time. This case has been closed for more than 4 years,” the statement said.
While a law enforcement investigation did not result in a sex crime charge, as authorities thought it would be difficult to prove a lack of consent, Western did investigate and come to a finding.
The orchestra, BOHO String’s president and the ensemble’s agent, AULOS Music, all said on May 30 they will continue their relationship with Ramael when told about the university findings. Lembrechts said he wanted to contact Western to confirm the investigation findings.
Paul Cocke, director of communication and marketing, said in an email that Western does not discuss employment history and job performance, including findings of misconduct, unless the former employee signs a waiver allowing it.
None of Ramael’s associates responded to follow-up emails sent June 4 when told the survivor said Ramael raped her, except Lembrechts, who said the orchestra is not considering acting on the information.
“[Ramael] has made a new life in Europe and is successful, without any trauma to his well-being,” the survivor’s mother said in an email. “The cost to him has been very minor, and in the end may have actually helped his career.”
She said despite her daughter’s resiliency, the trauma Ramael caused still affects her deeply.
The survivor and her mother agreed to speak with the AS Review after a reporter reached out.
The survivor’s mother said she sometimes worries the #MeToo movement can subject the accused to the court of public opinion. But she decided to speak to the Review because she feels Ramael hasn’t faced consequences.
This previously unreported on case is one of five cases where Western found an employee responsible for sexual harassment or discrimination by sex between Jan. 2012 and June 2017, according to university records obtained through a public records request.
The AS Review does not name survivors of sexual violence without their consent.
The incident
It was the survivor’s first quarter at Western when Ramael texted her on Nov. 16, 2013 asking if she wanted to hang out. He said he got her number from orchestra audition paperwork, she told police.
The survivor told him she didn’t feel comfortable doing so because he was her orchestra conductor, she told police. But she said she felt pressured to accept and thought it would be bad for her music career if she didn’t, according to the police report.
“The reason i went over there was because he said he promised he’d keep his hands off, that we’d just hang out,” she told a friend the following day in a text obtained by police.
She said he picked her up, took her to his house and encouraged her to drink, repeatedly filling her glass and handing it to her when she put it down on the table, according to Equal Opportunity Office documents.
Then he groped her, she said.
She told police she reminded him of their age difference of around 20 years, that he was her professor and that they were both in relationships with other people. She told him repeatedly they should not be doing this, but he kept telling her it was fine, she said.
He nonconsensually penetrated her, she said.
She said she was afraid to tell him no, but told police she told him several times what was happening was bad and that she should not be there. She was worried he would get upset and that it would negatively affect her in class, she said.
She also told police he slapped her three times during the assault.
She spent the night because she didn’t know where she was, didn’t have transportation and didn’t want him to drive her home after he had been drinking, she told police.
Ramael nonconsensually penetrated her again the next morning, she told police.
“The night felt like it lasted forever, like a nightmare I could not wake up from,” the survivor wrote. “When daylight finally came and I thought I could go home, he did it again.”
After, while Ramael was in the shower, she texted her friend. At first she blamed herself for getting drunk.
“I never said yes okay. I remember saying i shouldn’t be doing this and him saying you like it and me just saying nothing after that,” she texted her friend.
Self-blame is common among survivors, particularly when survivors perceive they were intoxicated and could have shown nonconsent more clearly, according to a 2017 study by psychologist Sapana Donde, who researched the neurobiology of trauma at the University of Texas at Austin. In these cases, survivors blamed themself rather than blaming the perpetrator for not seeking clear consent, according to the study.
It wasn’t until after the survivor’s friend told her consent can’t be given when drunk that she began to see things differently.
“So i was raped,” she texted her friend.
The survivor told Western’s Equal Opportunity Office that when she refused to get her back into Ramael’s bed, he said he could just intoxicate her again.
Ramael told the survivor multiple times not to tell anyone what happened because he was her conductor, she told police.
University and police investigations
After Ramael dropped her off on campus, the survivor went to the hospital for an exam and reported to police.
The survivor told Bellingham Police Department on Nov. 17, 2013 that Ramael had raped her. She reported to the Equal Opportunity Office the following day.
Ramael was put on paid administrative leave on Nov. 19.
When Bellingham Police Department questioned Ramael the same day, he said he believed what happened was consensual and admitted discussing how it wasn’t a good idea because he was her professor, according to the police report. He said he had deleted text messages with the survivor because he didn’t want his girlfriend to see them, according to the police report.
Right after police left, Ramael packed bags, was driven to SeaTac Airport and bought a plane ticket to Amsterdam, according to the police report.
On Nov. 21, he responded to an email from the Title IX coordinator at Western and said he was in New York, but would set up an appointment with her once he found a lawyer. He did not end up participating in the investigation, at his attorney’s request.
Ramael resigned from the university that quarter, according to university records.
On Dec. 18, Western found Ramael responsible for sexual harassment and that more likely than not, he took the survivor to his house, provided her with wine and had “unwelcome sex,” according to an Equal Opportunity Office investigation report.
The report found the survivor’s account credible and noted that Ramael decided not to participate in the investigation.
The survivor and her mother said they felt Sue Guenter-Schlesinger, vice provost of equal opportunity and the Title IX coordinator, was supportive.
The survivor said she is taken aback that neither the Equal Opportunity Office or Bellingham Police Department used the word rape in the reports, which she said is the word she used to describe what happened when reporting.
When asked about this and the use of the phrase “unwanted sex,” Cocke said the Equal Opportunity Office does not discuss details of its investigations.
Western’s faculty code of ethics states that any intimate relationship with a student may be investigated as sexual harassment.
Bellingham Police Department Lieutenant Michael Johnston said officers document to the best of their abilities what victims say happened, but that rape is a legal definition. He said the word rape does not tell anyone what happened and that officers need to know the details to see if it meets the definition of a crime.
Limits of the legal system
Ramael wasn’t charged with a sex crime, as police said a lack of consent would have been difficult to prove within the legal system.
To meet the legal definitions of rape in Washington state, it has to be shown that force, threats, incapacitation or clear verbal lack of consent occured.
The survivor said while she did not explicitly say no, she was drunk and therefore unable to consent, and repeatedly told Ramael all the reasons he should not behave sexually toward her.
Johnston said the case would be difficult to present in court, as Ramael claimed what happened was consensual, both said they were intoxicated, there was no apparent force or threats and all texts between Ramael and the survivor were deleted and unable to be retrieved. He said the texts between the survivor and her friend “may or may not” have been admissible in court or proved the facts.
Bellingham Police Corporal Tawsha Dykstra, the detective on the case, looked into charging Ramael with sexual misconduct with a minor, but the portion of the charge relating to students and school employees only applied to K-12, not universities.
“From reading the report it was a bad situation for the victim and like Corporal Dykstra I did not like what happened but it does not appear to meet the statutory requirement for rape,” Johnston said.
Although she didn’t mention it in the police report, Dykstra said she believes she called the county prosecutor’s office to discuss the case. She said she was referred to the city prosecutor’s office after it was suggested furnishing liquor to a minor might be the only charge that would stick.
Eric Richey, Whatcom County’s chief criminal deputy prosecuting attorney, said the detective may have called his office to discuss the case, but it was never sent in for review.
Detectives usually do not send cases to prosecutors for review if they feel there is not probable cause, but they usually do if they aren’t sure, Richey said. He said in this case, the detective likely didn’t send in the case because “they were sure there wasn’t a crime” based on the legal definition of rape.
Richey said usually prosecutors agree with law enforcement’s analysis of cases, but sometimes they do end up taking cases police don’t think are strong. He said if this case had been sent in for review, he would have taken an interest in it. However, Richey wouldn’t comment on the case and didn’t want to criticize police, who he said have to make difficult decisions.
Karen Burke, executive director of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services of Whatcom County, told The Western Front the legal system can be difficult for survivors.
“It’s hard to prove and with the justice system, there has to be proof,” Burke said in a June article by the Front. “When I’m working with survivors, I try to dismantle their sense of justice from the justice system. So they may or may not find that person guilty if they report, but that doesn’t mean the crime didn’t happen.”
Out of every 1,000 rapes, only 11 are referred to prosecutors and seven end in a felony conviction, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.
Ramael was charged with furnishing liquor to a minor, which was reduced to a public noise disturbance with a $200 fine a month later.
The survivor’s mother said while she knew the detective was considering the furnishing liquor charge, she was not kept informed and didn’t find out Ramael had been charged at all until she called the courthouse after the case had been settled. She was angry to see the original charge was reduced to a public noise disturbance.
“It has nothing to do with what happened,” she said.
She said she didn’t push for charges at the time because she wanted to protect her daughter and focus on her emotional well-being, and because she was told the case likely wouldn’t succeed in court.
“If you’re going to put your child through that questioning, you want to know they have your back,” she said.
In the January 2017 trial of former Cosmos Bistro owner Jamison Scott Rogayan, survivors were subject to hours of invasive questions such as whether they were aroused when they were assaulted, according to The Bellingham Herald.
The survivor’s mother said if the prosecutor had felt there was a case, they might have considered pressing charges after some time had passed and the survivor felt emotionally ready for it.
Looking back, she said the lack of charges ended up helping Ramael.
“In protecting [my daughter], we also protected him,” she said.
The survivor and her mother say there were other parts of the process that were harmful.
The survivor said at one point in the process, a police officer told her he guessed she learned her lesson for drinking with an older man.
The officer could not be reached, but the Bellingham Police Department said that he is now retired and the department cannot speak to what he said.
Moving forward
While the survivor’s anger has faded, her memory of what happened has not.
She feels stronger now and says she has been able to help those around her who have been sexually assaulted.
It was hard for her to stay in school, especially with other students in her program speculating about why Ramael left. One student blamed her for what happened, she says.
Despite the difficulties, the survivor graduated last year magna cum laude with a degree in music education and is now a successful violinist and teacher.
She says she’s determined not to let what happened define her and is pursuing her own career as an orchestral conductor and music teacher. Her next step is graduate school.
“I am not afraid of joining this profession,” she says. “I am not letting power-hungry men stop me from my lifelong dream.”