Jury awards girl $390,000 in Grosse Pointe Woods sex case
Detroit News - 6/29/01

Three years after a Grosse Pointe Woods high school sex case made headlines, a jury awarded a $390,000 verdict Friday to a victim in the case.

The jury in the civil case deliberated for six hours before finding Daniel Granger, 21, negligent and responsible for getting the girl, then 14-years-old, drunk and for sexually assaulting her.

The girl and her parents filed suit in 1998 against Granger and his parents, Richard and Laurie Granger, for alleged sexual attacks during drinking parties at the Grangers' Grosse Pointe Woods home.

The suit, which sought more than $1 million, claimed that Granger sexually assaulted the girl. Michigan's age of sexual consent is 16.

The suit also alleged Granger's parents knew the assaults were taking place.

Jurors said that the Granger parents could not be held accountable for the alleged attack on the girl.

"The parents were negligent to the point of maybe having more guidelines, but they were not responsible for the so-called rape," Gerri Loree, a jury member from Lincoln Park, told the Detroit Free Press.

Granger had been set to attend the University of Michigan after posting top grades and serving as the senior class president at Grosse Pointe North.

But after the accusations were made public, Granger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of minors -- avoiding a possible felony sexual assault conviction. He served four months in the Wayne County Jail.

Granger declined comment on the verdict Friday.

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Civil trial under way in rape case
Victim waits 3 years to hear offender's side
June 19, 2001

BY JOE SWICKARD FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Three years and three days ago, Daniel Granger was about to launch himself into the world, propelled to the University of Michigan and beyond with top grades and a senior class presidency at Grosse Pointe North high School.

The next day -- June 16, 1998 -- Granger's aura of achievement and affluence was shredded as he and three pals were charged with sexually assaulting a group of 14-year-old girls at drinking parties in private homes.

On Monday, in a high school reunion where the shared memories are accusations of bitter betrayal and fouled dreams, Granger and one of the girls faced each other as a civil suit came to trial in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Opening arguments are scheduled this morning before Judge Amy Hathaway. The girl and her parents are suing Granger and his parents for the alleged attacks at the Grangers' home in Grosse Pointe Woods.

The girl's lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, told the six-woman, two-man jury panel that he would be asking for damages "far in excess of $1 million."

In the three years since the accusations were made public, Granger's U-M dreams gave way to a guilty plea to misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of minors -- avoiding a possible felony sexual assault conviction. He served a 4-month stint in Wayne County Jail and has since taken classes, according to his deposition, at several smaller colleges after U-M withdrew his admission.

Granger, now 21, left court Monday, declining to comment on the case or the turns his life has taken. Lawyers in the 1998 criminal cases said the charges were an overblown response to high school misconduct.

In the wake of the incidents, the girl and her family moved to the Flint area, her father said, where she's just graduated from high school and earned an academic scholarship to college.

"Things have turned around and she graduated on time," said her father, Rick Tallarigo, outside court.

He said the trial is important, not only to help his daughter, now 18, close a chapter of her life, but also to get Granger on the witness stand and examine the full extent of what happened during the 1997-98 school year.