In Indiana, 28 female inmates filed lawsuits alleging that their civil rights were intentionally or negligently violated when a group of male inmates were allowed into their cell block last October.
A pair of federal lawsuits recently filed have named Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel and then-corrections officer David Lowe, who is accused of accepting money in exchange for a key that allowed the men to enter the women's pod, the New York Times reported.
The lawsuits allege that what was believed to be a routine check at Clark County jail in Jeffersonville, Indiana, quickly turned violent when two male inmates entered the women's section of the jail. The inmates, wearing towels and blankets as masks, began threatening to kill the women if they alerted the guards that they were there.
The two male inmates left and returned with more men, yelling obscenities, groping, and showing their genitals to the women, the suits say.
The encounter has been described as "a night of terror" by the women, according to the lawsuits.
The men reportedly raped two female inmates, holding one of them, named on the filing as Jane Doe 1, against a wall while other men threatened her to keep quiet. Another female inmate became pregnant from the rape but later miscarried, the lawsuits say.
Unable to escape the men, the women reportedly hid under blankets and in bathrooms.
Both lawsuits claim that the sheriff and the jail guards working for him allowed the men to gain access to their pods, either on purpose or by accident. It also alleges they failed to help as the men attacked them for more than two hours.
One of the lawyers representing eight of the women, Steve Wagner, shared with The Washington Post that those working at the jail didn't do the one job they were supposed to.
"A sheriff at the jail — they have one job, and that's to keep inmates safe and secure. And it's just a complete, utter failure that allowed this to happen," Wagner told the Post. "And so we want answers as to how it happened."
However, one of the attorneys representing the Clark County Sheriff's Office, Larry Wilder, has claimed that the attack had nothing to do with the sheriff. Instead, he says it was "the unforeseeable criminal actions of a rogue corrections officer" that allowed inmates access to the jail keys for monetary gain.
One of the federal lawsuits claims that Lowe took $1,000 in exchange for the keys that allowed the two male inmates to roam freely throughout the jail. However, Lowe told the Post he never took any money.
The corrections officer told the Post that he did not sell the key to a prisoner but was instead "coerced and assaulted into making a false confession."
Lowe says the inmates stole the keys because he made a mistake, which he claims he made because he had been overworked in the weeks leading up to the attack.
Lowe, 29, had only worked at the sheriff's office for a year when the incident happened and was fired days after the attack. He has been charged with felony official misconduct, helping an inmate escape, and trafficking with an inmate. All three charges could see him spend up to 9½ years in prison.
After the attack, the women were reportedly punished by jail officials, losing "dark privileges," meaning the lights were on for 72 hours straight, the pods were put into lockdown, and things like pillows, blankets, and personal hygiene items were confiscated.
To make matters worse, the days after the attack, the keys were still missing, and jail officials refused to change the locks to the pod, the suit claims.
Wagner also shared that none of the male inmates have been charged in the attack, which he called "a continuing insult to the women."
Nonetheless, Wagner shared that he hopes the legal process will allow the women to find out what happened that night as no one came to their rescue for two hours while they were terrorized.
"Did people intentionally look the other way? Were they just not doing their jobs?" Wagner said. "What happened that night to allow this to happen?"
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