Georgia women’s prison inmate says she was brutally assaulted by guard
ALTO, Ga. - A woman incarcerated at Georgia's largest women's prison has filed a federal lawsuit alleging she was sexually assaulted by a correctional officer and had to undergo surgery after the attack.
The lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court in Georgia alleges the male officer "violently and forcibly raped her" in December 2022 at the Lee Arrendale State Prison in the northeast Georgia town of Alto. The lawsuit says the officer told her it was time for her to take a shower before he attacked her.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe of Murray County, Georgia, filed a federal lawsuit on Feb. 20.
The assault "was so brutal that Doe needed to have and did receive surgery for partial uterus removal," the lawsuit states.
The correctional officer in question was employed in the summer and fall of 2022, the lawsuit states. It was not immediately clear whether he was still employed as a correctional officer. A message sent to the Georgia Department of Corrections on Thursday was not immediately returned.
The lawsuit was filed in Georgia’s Northern District of U.S. District Court.
According to a list made in 2022, there have been at least four assaults on prisoners at Lee Arrendale State Prison since 2020. Under state law, a prison guard can be charged with sexual assault even if the prisoner consents.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.