Male Rikers Island inmate who was ‘instructed to claim he was transgender’ raped female prisoner: lawsuit

[The Bobster]

Male Rikers Island inmate who was ‘instructed to claim he was transgender’ raped female prisoner: lawsuit

The troubling lawsuit was filed in late November.

nypost.com

Male Rikers Island inmate who was ‘instructed to claim he was transgender’ raped female prisoner: lawsuit​

By
Social Links for Olivia Land



Published Jan. 24, 2024, 1:31 p.m. ET





A former prisoner at Rikers Island claims she was raped by a male inmate posing as a transgender woman — with her repeated complaints to Department of Correction staff going ignored, according to a lawsuit.


The anonymous plaintiff – identified only as Rose Doe – was sexually propositioned, groped and raped by the prisoner within days of him being moved into the “protective custody” dorm at Rikers’ Rose M. Singer (RMSC) women’s jail on April 4, 2022, the suit alleges.


In addition to lying about his identity, Doe believes that her alleged attacker was “instructed to claim that he was transgender by DOC staff so that he could stay in the female dorm where he would have access to female inmates,” the filing states.


“The perpetrator informed [a trans inmate] that he was not transgender, or gay, but that he was just there ‘to get p–y,’” the lawsuit filed in November reads.


“We have some accounts from inside the prison that as the [transfer] request was being made…the [DOC] officer said something along the lines of ‘if you want to go into the women’s facility, all you have to do is say you’re trans,’” Doe’s attorney, Nicholas Liakas, added to The Post on Wednesday.


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A former prisoner in the women’s jail on Rikers Island is suing New York City. Google Maps
Complaints from Doe, then 21, and other inmates about the man’s transfer to their unit were allegedly ignored by correction officers Jennifer Cruz and Rashida King, who are named as defendants in the Bronx Supreme Court suit, along with the city.


“Defendant Cruz told Plaintiff and the other female inmates in no uncertain terms that she did not care what happened to them saying ‘I don’t give a f–k,’” the lawsuit alleges.


The alleged attacker — who is not named in the suit — had been implicated in at least five Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) claims, all of which were still open cases at the time of the transfer, according to the filing.


Doe was particularly nervous about the man’s presence because “officers were rarely at their posts,” the suit states.


Within the first two days of his transfer to the dorm, the alleged male inmate stared at Doe “while he masturbated” and once “exited the [bathroom] stall with his erect penis exposed and groped [her] buttocks,” the filing reads.


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The alleged attack occurred in April 2022. AP
During the latter incident, the jail guard present “did nothing except yell” for the man to leave the bathroom, according to the suit.


At that point, Doe wrote two complaints about the male inmate’s behavior, the filing states.


After reviewing the complaints, the Acting Warden of the RMSC, Floyd Phipps, sent an email that read “I feel that individual [Perpetrator] is not a suitable fit for RMSC….[Rose Doe] does not want to remain in the unit due to feeling unsafe.”


But correction staff still failed to remove the offender from the all-female dorm, the suit alleges.


The next morning, on April 7, “while [Doe] was sleeping in her bed, the Perpetrator, took the opportunity to sexually assault [Doe] again. . . .pull[ing] down her pants while she was sleeping and begin[ing] to rape her,” the lawsuit claimed.


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The plaintiff is identified only as “Rose Doe.” NBC
Doe eventually freed herself and alerted the guard who was supposedly “sleeping” in the plexiglass bubble, the filing states.


“The other women in the housing unit, did what Defendants repeatedly failed to do– they removed the Perpetrator from the housing unit by physically removing him from Plaintiff and ‘packing him up,’” the lawsuit said, describing how the female inmates chucked the man’s belongings out of the unit.


DOC staff – including Cruz and King – then allegedly barred Doe from seeking medical attention for most of the day, while also refusing to remove the man from the unit, the suit states.


The supposed rapist was “quietly” shifted back to his original dorm the next day – but not before Doe was moved to the general population “as punishment for reporting her sexual assaults,” the lawsuit claimed.


Doe, who was discharged from Rikers in August 2022, is now suing the city, several DOC officers, the acting warden and other jail officials for negligence and civil rights infractions.


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Several Rikers staffers are also named in the lawsuit. AP
Because she violated the policy of “‘holding it down’” – or not reporting abuses while in custody – Doe was “a target for retaliation from Corrections Officers,” the suit claims.


Rikers staff breached their duty of care to Doe when they “not only covered up [her] sexual assaults” but failed “to provide her with adequate medical and mental health services, failing to collect, document, and review evidence,” the lawsuit alleges.


Over two months after the April 7 incident, jail investigators told Doe there was “insufficient evidence” to rule on what had occurred, according to the court documents.


A spokesperson for the city Department of Correction said they could not comment on active litigation.


The alleged perpetrator – who has not been named publicly because he has not been charged related to the attack – was transferred to state prison in August 2023, the DOC rep said.


Doe decided to use an alias in part because her own criminal case is still pending, her attorney said.


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The lawsuit accuses the staffers of negligence. NBC
“She very well may be sent to prison. She’s afraid that if her name gets out there there will be retaliation in the prison system,” Liakas told The Post.


“It’s not necessarily that my office or Rose has an issue with [transgender people],” Liakas added, “This is more so a matter of safety, and the fact that someone can use this hot button issue as essentially a loophole to gain access to women inside of Rikers.”


“It undermines the transgender community that this person is able to do that,” he said.


Speaking to NBC New York, which first reported on her suit, Doe said she still lives in fear.