Georgia women’s prison inmate files lawsuit accusing guard of brutal sexual assault

ALTO, Ga. (AP) — A woman incarcerated at a Georgia prison has filed a federal lawsuit alleging she was sexually assaulted by a correctional officer and had to undergo surgery after the attack.

The lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court in Georgia alleges the male officer “violently and forcibly raped her” in December 2022 at the Lee Arrendale State Prison in the northeast Georgia town of Alto. The lawsuit says the officer told her it was time for her to take a shower before he attacked her.

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe of Murray County, Georgia, filed a federal lawsuit Feb. 20.

The assault “was so brutal that Doe needed to have and did receive surgery for partial uterus removal,” the lawsuit states.

The correctional officer in question was employed in the summer and fall of 2022, the lawsuit states. It was not immediately clear whether he is still employed as a correctional officer. A message sent to the Georgia Department of Corrections on Thursday was not immediately returned.

The lawsuit was filed in Georgia’s Northern District of U.S. District Court.