Lawsuit alleges faulty jail lock allowed male inmate to assault female detainee

ST. LOUIS – An exclusive FOX 2 News report exposes disturbing new allegations involving the troubled St. Louis City Justice Center.

A woman has filed a lawsuit against the City of St. Louis, saying she was sexually assaulted by a mail inmate; something her attorney would find impossible at a truly secure facility.

Male and female inmates are held separately at the jail, locked away from each other. The lawsuit, however, says a faulty lock allowed a male detainee to sexually assault a female detainee as she slept.

Recent years have seen a litany of issues at the jail: inmates repeatedly getting out of their cells, setting fires, holding a guard hostage and beating him, along with dozens of emergency responses for drug overdoses and inmate deaths.

“This is just one more example (of unacceptable issues at the jail),” attorney Sue McGraugh said. “There’s no way that in a jail that has even the most basic of structures that a female inmate should be sexually assaulted by a male inmate.”

McGraugh, who is also a St. Louis University law professor, is part of the legal team representing the woman who’s filed suit.

In that suit, the woman says she was sexually assaulted in March after being jailed for a minor trespassing offense.

The suit alleges the following:

• a jail lock, which has been non-functional for an extended period, allowed a male inmate to enter a pre-admission holding area for female inmates
• the woman was sleeping and “jarred awake” by the sexual assault
• the St. Louis City Counselor is in possession of video of the incident

McGraugh says the woman immediately reported the incident to jail staff and police.

“Not only was she not able to get assistance, she remained incarcerated,” McGraugh said. “If you’re going to lock someone up, especially for something so small, you really have an obligation to ensure that they’re safe.”

FOX 2 reached out to multiple city officials about the new allegations, including Jail Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah, who just returned to work after an unexplained three-month absence. A city spokesman responded, saying there would be no comment on pending litigation.

Clemons-Abdullah has said in the past that the city has spent tens of millions of dollars upgrading locks and security.

“I’ve been a criminal defense lawyer for 30 years. I have never ever seen close to the disarray at the jail,” McGraugh said. “While they have had problems in the past, the enormity of the situation right now is stunning to me.”

The suit seeks unspecified damages above and beyond a $25,000 legal minimum. The suit says the alleged assailant has yet to be identified, so there are still no criminal charges filed in the case. The suit says the alleged assailant has yet to be positively identified.