Transgender woman settles lawsuit over sexual assault at Allegheny County Jail

A transgender woman who was repeatedly assaulted at Allegheny County Jail when she was housed in a protective custody cell with a known sexual offender for four days in 2015 has settled a federal lawsuit.

Jules Williams will receive $300,000 in the settlement.

“Her main goal with this lawsuit was to protect other people from the harm she suffered, and she has achieved that,” said Alec Wright, one of the attorneys who represented Williams.

A spokesman for the jail said they had no comment on the settlement.

Williams, 42, was born a boy but began living openly as female as a teenager. She had surgery in 2008 for breast augmentation and to remove her testicles.

She filed the civil rights lawsuit against Allegheny County on Nov. 30, 2017, alleging that, despite being documented as female on her birth certificate and state-issued ID, when she was housed at the jail in September 2015 on a theft charge, she was placed into protective custody in a two-person cell with a man who was a convicted sex offender.

She said in a lawsuit that the inmate repeatedly raped her.

The lawsuit also included allegations stemming from two others stays Williams had in the jail, including being forced to undress and shower in front of male inmates and corrections officers; and being subjected to strip searches by men.

At the time Williams filed her lawsuit, Amie Downs, a spokeswoman for the county, said jail policy requires any transgender inmate to appear before a committee of jail staff, medical and mental health professionals within 72 hours who then make a housing recommendation.

However, that policy was not in place in 2015, said Sara Rose, an attorney with the ACLU of Pennsylvania who also represented Williams. Instead, classification at that time was made based on gender assignment at birth.

In addition, Rose said that if the jail would have followed the required regulations of the Prison Rape Elimination Act, Williams would likely not have been harmed.

Since 2012, Rose said, when a person goes through intake in a correctional facility, they are required to undergo an assessment to see whether they are vulnerable to being harmed, or to see if they are likely to be predators.

“She was put in a cell with a man known to be a registered sex offender,” Rose said. “They’re locked in 23 hours a day.”

In Williams’ file, the reason listed for her to be placed in protective custody read “because she’s in fear for her life,” Rose said. Then she was placed with the man.

Following her release from custody, Williams attempted suicide multiple times, the lawsuit said. She has been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, Rose said.

“Jules is still struggling. I hope this settlement and bringing this case to a close will help her move forward,” she said. “That’s a really hard thing to overcome.”