Woman says she was raped, neglected in Warren County Jail

Federal lawsuit also says evidence was destroyed following 2013 attack.

A former Warren County Jail inmate claims in a federal lawsuit that she was denied medical treatment and raped by corrections officers at the jail in 2013 and that a criminal investigation into her claims failed to collect forensic evidence, thwarting an FBI review.

The lawsuit names two jail corrections officers and six staffers. The woman says she was in the jail after turning herself in on May 3, 2013, on a four-year-old warrant for deception to obtain drugs.

The suit alleges she suffered from epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, battered woman syndrome and depression.

She claims the jail refused to provide her prescribed medicine to control her epilepsy, though she begged for it out of fear she would have a seizure.

By May 7, four days after entering the jail, her condition deteriorated and “at times, she was unconscious and incoherent because of her untreated epilepsy and medical conditions,” according to the lawsuit.

The suit claims her untreated medical condition left her “vulnerable” and alleges that she was raped by two corrections officers — one named in the suit and one not named. She suffered a broken shoulder during an attack, the suit says.

The woman was taken to Atrium Medical Center on May 10 because of her condition, according to the lawsuit. While there she took a urine test that found sperm in her urine which, the lawsuit alleges, had to come from someone at the jail. The suit says jail staff did nothing after receiving those results.

She was returned to the jail and continued to be denied medical treatment until May 14 when she was transported to Summit Behavioral Healthcare where she “was diagnosed with psychosis induced by the trauma of the sexual assault she endured at the Warren County jail,” according to the suit.

She was released on July 11, 2013.

Warren County Chief Deputy Barry Riley issued a statement this week saying the office does not comment on pending legal matters.

“However, none of the citizens of Warren County should take our silence about the lawsuit filed by one of our former inmates as an indication that there is any truth to her allegations,” the statement says. “We look forward to defending this case to a conclusion.”

The lawsuit alleges the sheriff’s office investigated the sexual assault claim but didn’t collect forensic evidence from the inmate’s clothing, bed or cell or the lab results identifying the sperm in her urine. It says the office disposed of the plastic mattress in the cell.

The woman filed a previous lawsuit in 2015, according to federal court records. The suit was voluntarily dismissed last year.

“I believe the first case was dismissed by the lawyer because he was waiting on the FBI to determine whether criminal charges would be filed, and as of today no criminal charges have been filed,” said Jennifer Branch, who is representing the woman in the new case.

Branch’s filing suggests the FBI was unable to bring charges in the case because much of the evidence was destroyed.

The lawsuit describes the conditions of the woman’s confinement as “horrific.”

“She was raped, her shoulder was shattered, she was left naked, covered in her blood and feces, without access to running water, forced to drink out of the toilet, and on at least one occasion Tazed,” the suit alleges. “She was so desperate for help she attempted to write on the cell wall, in her own blood, ‘God, please help me.’”