Suit claims jail ignored threat of sexual assault
An unnamed inmate at the Allegheny County Jail said in a federal lawsuit that she was sexually assaulted by her female cellmate in 2017 after the jail guards turned off the emergency intercom in her unit.
The woman’s lawyer, Steve Barth, filed suit Monday on her behalf in U. S. District Court against various jail guards and officials, saying her constitutional rights were violated.
In her suit, the plaintiff — listed as Jane Doe — said she was placed Aug. 7, 2017, in a cell on Level 4, Pod F with another woman who was a sexual predator. Ms. Doe said she was several months pregnant at the time.
Ms. Doe claimed that the other woman was known to be a threat to any cellmate. Her suit says she repeatedly used the intercom system to try to tell the corrections officer on duty, identified in the suit as Kiah Mack, that she was at risk.
She said Officer Mack shut off the intercom system. On Aug. 8, she said, the other inmate sexually assaulted her repeatedly.
In addition to Officer Mack, the suit names as defendants the jail and Warden Orlando Harper; Deputy Wardens Latoya Warren and Simon Wainwright; and guards Daniel Bosi, Rich Price, Dan Hancock, A. Devlin, Kevin Hoffman and Alexis Anderson.
The suit says the defendants acted with “deliberate indifference” to Ms. Doe in not protecting her from the other inmate.
Among her claims, Ms. Doe said that jail officials failed to properly train the staff and failed to install cameras in areas of the facility that are not covered by security cameras and where assaults have been known to happen.
She said Mr. Harper and Mr. Wainwright also had a “rape/ sexual assault tolerance policy established” at the facility by failing to punish employees who did not intervene in assaults or protect vulnerable inmates.
“This created a culture whereby rapes, sexual assaults and sexual harassment of inmates could not only continue, but were both tolerated and permitted,” the suit says.
County spokeswoman Amie Downs said the county had no comment.