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Corrections Officer Filed Suit In June, Was Raped While Guarding Prisoner
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- City attorneys are telling a Jacksonville correction officer who was raped while guarding prisoner Jonathan Tave she can't sue the city.
The unidentified woman filed suit in June. She said then the attack is something that will always be with her.
"It's like a death sentence that won't go away," she said. "It's going to always be there till I die."
City attorneys would not talk on camera because this is an ongoing court case, but in documents they've filed to dismiss the suit, it said the city is immune from liability because of Workman's Comp, or workers' compensation.
They suggest injured workers are already paid for medical treatments as a result of workman's comp.
The woman's attorney said in this case there were major mistakes made by the sheriff and the jail that go far beyond what workman's comp covers.
He said they did not protect the woman in any way. The attorney also said Tave's mother worked at the jail as a guard herself, and because of that jail, officials gave Tave special treatment.
"When they consciously made decisions to disregard their own policies and gave preferential treatment to an inmate who is a very dangerous inmate," attorney Jay Howanitz said, "they put their employee in a situation where it was only a matter of time where someone got raped, maimed or injured."
But in court documents, the city argues: "One would be hard-pressed to conclude the guard was unaware of the risk or dangers of working in a jail or corrections facility, and that the city concealed those risk."
But the guard in this case said before that she had no idea this would ever happen.
"I did everything I could try to possibly do when he grabbed me," she said. "This guy is 6-feet-3, 200-something pounds. I only turned around for a half a second to get a case that he asked for at the last minute. He lifted me off the ground, so I was trying to breathe."
City: Officer Who Was Raped Can't Sue - Jacksonville News Story - WJXT Jacksonville
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- City attorneys are telling a Jacksonville correction officer who was raped while guarding prisoner Jonathan Tave she can't sue the city.
The unidentified woman filed suit in June. She said then the attack is something that will always be with her.
"It's like a death sentence that won't go away," she said. "It's going to always be there till I die."
City attorneys would not talk on camera because this is an ongoing court case, but in documents they've filed to dismiss the suit, it said the city is immune from liability because of Workman's Comp, or workers' compensation.
They suggest injured workers are already paid for medical treatments as a result of workman's comp.
The woman's attorney said in this case there were major mistakes made by the sheriff and the jail that go far beyond what workman's comp covers.
He said they did not protect the woman in any way. The attorney also said Tave's mother worked at the jail as a guard herself, and because of that jail, officials gave Tave special treatment.
"When they consciously made decisions to disregard their own policies and gave preferential treatment to an inmate who is a very dangerous inmate," attorney Jay Howanitz said, "they put their employee in a situation where it was only a matter of time where someone got raped, maimed or injured."
But in court documents, the city argues: "One would be hard-pressed to conclude the guard was unaware of the risk or dangers of working in a jail or corrections facility, and that the city concealed those risk."
But the guard in this case said before that she had no idea this would ever happen.
"I did everything I could try to possibly do when he grabbed me," she said. "This guy is 6-feet-3, 200-something pounds. I only turned around for a half a second to get a case that he asked for at the last minute. He lifted me off the ground, so I was trying to breathe."
City: Officer Who Was Raped Can't Sue - Jacksonville News Story - WJXT Jacksonville
