A woman is suing Allegheny County and several officers at the jail alleging she was sexually assaulted in her cell last year and then retaliated against for reporting it.
The civil rights lawsuit, filed this week in federal court in Pittsburgh, lists nine officers as defendants.
Only one defendant, Asa Clark, who has since resigned as a corrections officer, is identified in the lawsuit by full name.
The other officers are identified by only last name in the complaint. TribLive is not reporting their names because their identities could not be verified.
A county spokesman said he could not comment on pending litigation or the existence of any criminal investigation.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff, who is listed in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, was being held pretrial at Allegheny County Jail on Aug. 9 when she said she was sexually assaulted in her cell by Clark.
The assaults occurred multiple times, the lawsuit said, and jail officials launched an investigation after learning of the allegations.
Brian Englert, president of the corrections officers’ union, said Clark resigned prior to a termination hearing.
No criminal charges have been filed against Clark. TribLive could not reach him for comment.
After the woman filed a formal complaint about the assaults, the lawsuit said, she became the target of retaliation by a captain at the jail and several officers.
According to the complaint, on Aug. 20, she was reassigned to a mental health unit at the jail, where she was unable to work, attend classes or take a GED test as was planned.
Her lawyers said the woman does not have mental health issues and should not have been put in the specialized unit.
Although the woman filed multiple grievances, asked for a transfer and said she didn’t feel safe in the mental health unit, she remained there.
On Dec. 1, the lawsuit said, the woman was told by a captain that she had been assigned to the mental health unit for her “protection.”
A week later, the complaint claimed, several officers forcefully removed the woman from the mental health unit and took her to solitary confinement.
The lawsuit accuses the officers of “aggressively and forcefully” holding the woman on the ground and removing her clothing without justification during the transfer.
In addition, an officer pushed his fingers into her nostrils, blocking her breathing, it said.
She was not resisting or threatening during the move, the lawsuit said.
“’That’s what you get for writing the captain every day like this isn’t jail,’” one of the officers told her, according to the complaint.
Although the woman said in the lawsuit she was transferred to another unit in January, she was still prohibited from working. In March, she said she saw a photo of herself on an officer’s desk with a note that said “’not a worker.’”
The lawsuit claimed other instances of retaliation: being denied food on multiple occasions; getting transferred to an uncomfortably cold cell; and having an officer turn off the call button in her cell, making her unable to communicate with officers or staff.
Elizabeth Tuttle, an attorney representing the woman, said the suit seeks accountability of jail staff.
“A person doesn’t lose their constitutional rights as soon as they enter a jail,” Tuttle said. “This is just another example of the constitutional violations that occur inside ACJ.”
The complaint includes claims for assault and battery, retaliation, conditions of confinement, excessive force and a due process violation for bodily integrity.