Lawsuit: Transgender inmate raped at New Orleans’ new jail
NEW ORLEANS — A federal lawsuit says a transgender inmate was raped by a male cellmate after being locked up last year in New Orleans’ new jail — a $150 million facility that the local sheriff said would be a major factor in ending the violence that resulted in federal court oversight.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, says the transgender woman’s sex is male “but she chooses to live as a female.” She was arrested last September at age 19 for failing to appear in court on a misdemeanour disturbing the peace charge. Later that month, she was among inmates transferred to the newly opened Orleans Justice Center.
Her lawsuit claims she was put into a cell with a male inmate being held on an armed robbery charge, McArthur Mackey Jr., who raped her early on the morning of Sept. 21, 2015.
“At all times during the rape, Plaintiff repeatedly screamed for help, but no deputy ever came to the cell to investigate,” the suit states, alleging that a deputy was not at his station at the time of the rape.