Woman raped in Jackson County jail four years ago gets $180,000 to drop lawsuit
Jackson County will pay $180,000 to settle the second of two lawsuits brought by two women who were raped nearly four years ago in the Regional Correctional Center by male inmates who’d gotten hold of a key to their cells.
The county legislature approved the settlement Monday. While her full name appears in the lawsuit, in the settlement resolution she was identified only by the initials of her first and last names, CC.
The Star does not typically identify victims of sexual assault.
The other woman, whose initials are LM, received a $275,000 settlement in 2017. Like CC, she split it with her legal counsel.
Together, county taxpayers have now paid $455,000 to limit any further liability from the mayhem that occurred in the early morning hours of Aug. 25, 2016.
The rapes received wide news coverage at the time because they highlighted security lapses in the Jackson County Detention Center complex at a time when a range of dysfunctional conditions were coming to light at the jail.
The FBI was then investigating guards who were later convicted of badly beating an inmate. The facility was dirty, had plumbing problems and many cell doors didn’t work properly. A county grand jury was convened to assess those and other troubling issues, some of which have since been corrected.
The Regional Correctional Center is one of four connected buildings occupying an entire block in downtown Kansas City that are under the control of the county’s department of corrections. Only detainees being held on minor, municipal violations were supposed to be held there at the time.
But Dontae Jefferson, who was in the Jackson County Detention Center awaiting trial for murder, gained access to a key that a guard left unattended and used it to gain access to the women’s cells four summers ago.
He beat and raped CC, then he and two other inmates sexually assaulted LM in her cell. CC heard her screams, her suit alleged, but guards didn’t in the short-staffed jail.
Jefferson was charged and convicted in LM’s assault. He is also serving a life sentence after being convicted of first-degree murder.
County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker did not bring charges in CC’s assault, even though she was convinced the rape occurred. She reasoned that Jefferson would never get out of prison from the other convictions and did not want to put CC through the ordeal of a trial.
CC’s attorneys filed suit last year against the county government, former corrections department director Joe Piccinini and the Kansas City government, which was then contracting with the county to hold people accused of municipal violations.
The lawsuit accused the defendants of negligence for failing to keep the women separated from inmates like Jefferson, who were facing more serious state charges.
Jefferson and his two accomplices were able to wander the halls of the jail for nearly two hours.
The assaults led to multiple studies and investigations that helped propel the county toward the possible construction of a new jail.
Legislators heard a brief progress report Monday on the planning for that project prior to approving the settlement. No decision has been made yet on how big the new jail will be, how much it will cost or where it will be located.
But Troy Nash with the consulting group JCDC Partners LLC said the process is on schedule. When it got the contract late last year to oversee planning and design work, the JCDC Partners’ timetable called for completion of a new jail in May 2024.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 4:10 PM.
