Attorney: Mahoning County settles sheriff's deputy jail rape lawsuit for $650,000
A settlement has been reached between Mahoning County and a former Mahoning County sheriff's deputy who was raped at the Mahoning County Jail in 2022.
According to federal court documents, the settlement was reached Monday and the case was dismissed with prejudice by Judge John R. Adams of the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio.
The two parties settled for $650,000, according to Subodh Chandra, the attorney representing the victim.
“We hope this resolution, along with the discipline of relevant personnel, will help our client as she moves forward—and that county officials will ensure that nothing like this ever happens again," Chandra told 21 news.
This stems from a complaint filed last year by the deputy, who was raped in 2022 by inmate Rondell Harris. The complaint alleged the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office failed to take reasonable and appropriate steps to secure Harris and prevent the incident.
Before the incident, Harris was convicted of attempted gross sexual imposition against a social worker in Marion County in 2009 and has been known to exhibit "disruptive and grotesque" behavior since he arrived at the Mahoning County Jail with officials placing him in a disciplinary unity, according to the complaint.
Additionally, the suit states Harris had a record of performing sexual actions in front of the victim regularly while she stood next to the door to his unit. In April of 2022, he wrote a sexually explicit note to another female member of the staff.
Before the incident, an email was sent to jail supervisors by staff members concerned for their safety when dealing with Harris.
The suit named Jail Warden William Cappabianca, Assistant Warden Kenneth Kountz, and Captain Joseph Hood as the parties who had the authority and responsibility to take corrective and preventative measures when this information was reported, but notes that they "failed to act."
Despite these warnings, the complaint says the deputy was assigned to guard Harris' unit alone the day the incident happened, adding that no one came to help the victim during the act.
The complaint was originally filed in Mahoning County Common Please Court before being moved to federal court.
Last year, days before this complaint was filed, Harris was sentenced to up to 31 years in prison for the rape.
Kountz had been demoted and Hood had been transferred to a different position outside of the jail following the incident.
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