Dallas developer Bill Hutchinson was in court Thursday for the beginning of a jury trial in a lawsuit where three anonymous plaintiffs claim that he sexually assaulted them and that Virgin Hotel Dallas, of which he is a minority owner, was negligent and aware of his behavior toward young women but failed to act.
The Dallas jury trial isn’t the first time Hutchinson has been to court as a defendant in a sexual assault case. In 2024, he was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to register as a sex offender by a California judge after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor sexual battery charge stemming from a 2021 assault of a minor.
A jury of 10 men and four women, including two alternates, will be tasked with deciding whether to believe the three women who in 2021 filed suit against Hutchinson, Virgin Hotels and Dunhill Partners over alleged assaults they say they endured in 2019 and 2020. Dunhill Partners is Hutchinson’s real estate investment company.
Counsel for the women, Maryssa Simpson of The Simpson Tuegel Law Firm, told the jurors during opening statements Thursday morning that the case is about a “powerful” man preying on young women.
“The evidence will show that this is a case about a powerful and influential man who preyed on young women and was enabled by his companies and by a huge hotel chain, the Virgin Hotels,” Simpson said. The three women allege they were assaulted by Hutchinson either inside the Virgin Hotel Dallas, at his apartment or at both locations.
During his opening statement, Levi McCathern of McCathern Law, who represents Hutchinson, told the jury they will have to decide whether the relationships were consensual and showed them screenshots of flirty text messages between each woman and Hutchinson. He admitted that his client is a “womanizer” but denied that he sexually assaulted any of the plaintiffs.
“I don’t want to see anyone taken advantage of,” McCathern said. “It’s not the story of this case, at all.”
Virgin Hotel Dallas had asked the Texas Supreme Court for emergency relief that would have stopped the trial from beginning Thursday, arguing that the three separate accusers should have to proceed in three separate trials. That request was denied Monday, and the parties were in court Tuesday for a daylong pretrial hearing, hashing out what exhibits and evidence the jury would be allowed to hear. Jury selection lasted all day Wednesday.
One of the exhibits Dallas County District Judge Bridgett Whitmore decided she will not let the jury see is a 2010 email from an unknown sender to Jeffrey Epstein regarding a meeting with Raul Leal, who oversaw the launch and development of several Virgin Hotels, including the one in Dallas.
Hutchinson, well known in Dallas as a developer, was exposed to a national audience on the reality TV show Marrying Millions, where the premise is that “an incredibly wealthy individual” develops a romance “with someone from the opposite end of the income scale.”
The show was a success for Hutchinson, who met and married his wife, Brianna Ramirez, during filming. But the jury will not hear about that, after Virgin Hotels objected to the use of clips from the show, and Judge Whitmore ruled they were irrelevant.
Another topic during Tuesday’s pretrial hearing was whether the jury would get to hear about certain text message exchanges. According to court documents, both Hutchinson and the plaintiffs deleted certain text messages prior to trial that could have been used as evidence. Judge Whitmore said Thursday morning that she had concerns that some of the data could have been manipulated and would only allow raw data from the phone company.
Virgin Hotels also objected to the jury hearing about its human trafficking policy, arguing that because there are no human trafficking allegations in this case, discussion of the policy would be confusing and misleading for the jury.
Simpson, counsel for the women, argued the language in the policy regarding guests bringing in people who may look nervous, checking IDs and verifying ages was relevant.
Judge Whitmore did not immediately issue a ruling on the issue.
The parties agreed that the plaintiffs can discuss how they felt at the time of the alleged assaults but cannot say they know for certain they were “drugged.” The parties also agreed to avoid saying “accused of” to avoid any criminal association.
During opening statements, Simpson told the jurors to remember three rules.
“Rule number one is don’t rape or sexually assault women — no excuses. Rule number two is don’t enable predators to rape and sexually assault people. Rule number three is that no one is above the law, and rapists and their enablers should be held accountable,” Simpson said.
One of the women who alleges Hutchinson raped her met him at a political event at his house in 2017. She claims she developed a relationship with him because she wanted to get into commercial real estate.
In 2019, when she was apartment hunting, Hutchinson offered to show her an apartment at Dunhill Apartments, where his corporate apartment was, which is across the street from the Virgin Hotel. Simpson said the evidence will show that Hutchinson forced himself on her, and she said “no.” The woman had previously had consensual sex with Hutchinson but didn’t want to continue the relationship, Simpson said.
Another woman had direct messaged Hutchinson after watching Marrying Millions in 2020. She was a student at Baylor University in Waco at the time. The two began texting, and he sent a car for her to come to Dallas. Simpson said the woman became “extremely intoxicated” during lunch with Hutchinson, who then took her to his nearby apartment, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her.
Jurors also heard that one alleged victim claims that she went to a dinner with Hutchinson and a group of people in hopes of making connections. She claims she woke up the next morning in a room at the Virgin Hotel with Hutchinson. Simpson said she had a breakdown after the alleged assault and didn’t leave the hotel room for days.
Simpson told jurors that one of the plaintiffs was spending time with Hutchinson at the Virgin Hotel pool when he told her he was going to introduce her to some friends in a room upstairs. When she got there, she alleges he raped her.
A few weeks later, she was at the Virgin Hotel pool when she ran into Hutchinson and they had dinner together. Simpson said the woman became so intoxicated she couldn’t stand. Hutchinson allegedly held her up as he walked her to his apartment across the street, where he raped her.
Simpson went through a presentation showing the jurors some of the documents they will be seeing throughout the trial. One of the documents she showed was an email Hutchinson sent saying that the hotel needed to hire “sexy and attractive staff” and that “it’s not rocket science that sex sells.”
Hutchinson was banned from the hotel after the lawsuit was filed, Simpson said.
She warned jurors opposing counsel would attack the credibility of her clients.
“Looking for opportunities or connections is not gold digging or prostitution,” Simpson said.
Concluding his opening statement, McCathern gave the jury one rule to remember.
“Rule number one is don’t tell lies, especially for money,” he said.
Only two of the women have liability claims against Virgin Hotels.
Virgin Hotels’ counsel, Jazmine Pelayo of Taylor Anderson, told jurors that Hutchinson, who was a 2 percent investor in Virgin Hotels, was “for lack of a better term, somewhat of an obnoxious owner’s representative at Virgin Hotels,” who created friction with hotel leadership by offering opinions on what food should be on the menu, what staff uniforms should look like and what music should be played.
Despite that friction, and acknowledging an email exchange that was in evidence where Hutchinson told staff they needed to clean a model room where he had sex, she told jurors there would be “zero evidence” the hotel had “any type of concern” that he was sexually assaulting or sexually harassing anyone on premises.
The jury trial is expected to end June 18.
Beth Watkins and Morgan McPheeters of Kelly Watkins McPheeters and Michelle Simpson Tuegel and Andrew Tuegel of The Simpson Tuegel Law Firm represent the Jane Doe plaintiffs.
Brett Chisum, Daniel Hagood, Alexandra Hunt, Jennifer Falk, James Sherry, Kristin Gilligan and Reagan Rush of McCathern Law and Terri Moore are representing Hutchinson.
Luis Calvo and Donald Laidlaw of Taylor Anderson and E. Marie Jamison, Maha Ghyas and A. Lexus Srilamsingha of Wright Close Barger & Guzman are representing Virgin Hotels.
David McFarland and Emma Martin of Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons are representing Dunhill Partners.
The case number is DC-21-08859.