Woman files harassment suit against Portsmouth sheriff, deputy

Alleges she was ordered to expose herself to receive menstrual products while in custody

A woman is suing the Portsmouth sheriff and a deputy, alleging she was told to show her genitalia to prove she was menstruating while in jail last year.

Daneasha Martin was in custody on May 2, 2022, when she asked Deputy Cathy Adams for a sanitary napkin or tampon. The lawsuit claims Adams ordered Martin and other female inmates to expose themselves to get a napkin or tampon.

“The women reluctantly complied with Adams’ order,” the lawsuit reads.

Martin was facing charges of malicious wounding and conspiracy to maliciously wound stemming from a December 2021 incident in Portsmouth. Those charges were dropped, but Martin was sentenced in October to up to 10 years in prison on a conspiracy charge in the 2018 death of her cousin, Shavondes Martin, in Iowa.

The lawsuit is asking for $1 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages to be awarded to Martin, and lists one count of sexual abuse, one count of negligence and one count of intentional infliction of emotional distress. Martin is represented by Richmond-based attorney Mark Dix.

Sheriff Michael A. Moore, as well as the deputy listed under several spellings of the name “Cathy Adams,” are named as defendants. The lawsuit alleges Adams, as an employee of Moore, abused her authority and went against training regarding sexual harassment and the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

In an email sent to jail staff after the incident, provided to The Pilot by Dix, the chief deputy of jail operations, Dorothy Dildy-Clemons, told deputies not to do this.

“At no time are you to ask female inmates to pulled [sic] down their pants and undergarments to visually see if they are on their cycle,” the email read. “This can become a PREA [Prison Rape Elimination Act] issue that can escalate into a lawsuit.”

The Portsmouth Sheriff’s Office did not return calls for comment.

“This was unprofessional and morally wrong conduct by Adams,” Dix said in an interview. “Martin looks forward to Sheriff Moore and Deputy Adams making things right.”

In 2018, Virginia’s Department of Corrections announced a policy that barred visitors to state prison from wearing tampons, but the ban was suspended before it took effect. This past September, a former dental hygienist at the Augusta Correctional Center won a sexual discrimination lawsuit against the state’s DOC claiming she was fired when a tampon she was using was suspected of being contraband.