A federal lawsuit filed Friday accuses a Ferguson, Mo. corrections officer of raping a pregnant inmate.
Jaris Hayden, 29, was arrested last Wednesday following an FBI investigation and released on $10,000 bail, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Charging documents accused Hayden of having sex with a female inmate in exchange for allowing her to escape, according to the newspaper.
Hayden’s lawyer told the Post-Dispatch that his client entered a not guilty plea, but the lawyer would not comment on the civil rights lawsuit brought against the officer and the city by the inmate who alleges Hayden raped her.
The lawsuit, which was obtained by the Huffington Post, identifies the woman only by the initials J.W. It states that she was arrested in October 2013 after being pulled over for an expired license plate and charged with giving a false name.
While Hayden was booking J.W. at the jail, he allegedly told her “you smell good” and acted in a “sexually provocative manner” toward her even though she told him she was several months pregnant and complained of pain, according to the lawsuit.
J.W.’s boyfriend bailed her out. Hayden then allegedly removed the victim from her cell and took her to a boiler room where he told her to give him oral sex and then had sex with her, according to the lawsuit.
Afterward Hayden allegedly ordered J.W. to leave the jail by a side door and gave her instructions to avoid being spotted by security cameras, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit links J.W.’s case to a larger pattern of violence among Ferguson law enforcement.
“Law enforcement Officers of the City of Ferguson have been involved in many other acts of violence including the shooting of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014,” the suit reads. “On information and belief discovery will produce other acts of violence, all contributing to a pattern and practice of allowing violence and sexual assault on members of the public.”
Read the lawsuit below via the Huffington Post:
Ferguson Correctional Officer Jaris Hayden Accused Of Raping Pregnant Woman by Sebastian Murdock
Image via Shutterstock / sakhorn
This post has been updated.
