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Three women who were once detained at the Allegheny County Jail in Pennsylvania claim in a new federal lawsuit they were subjected to numerous incidents of excessive force in lockup — including being pepper sprayed while naked, strapped into restraint chairs for hours without food or water and shot with pepper pellets — by a sergeant with a history of such behavior.
April Walker, Lavonna Dorsey and Alexus Diggs, all of whom say they suffer from psychiatric disabilities, claim the warden and upper management at the jail knew Sgt. John Raible was prone to using excessive force and did nothing to stop it, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The women are suing the county, Raible, Warden Orlando Harper and others.
According to their civil complaint filed Dec. 1, each of the women say they were physically assaulted while being held as pre-trial detainees.
“[The plaintiffs] bring this lawsuit to defend their dignity, vindicate their rights and shine a light on the inhumane treatment endured by people incarcerated in Allegheny County,” the lawsuit states. “Sergeant John Raible brutally assaulted [them] by physically beating them, burning them with chemical agents, and immobilizing them in a restraint chair … [supervisors] knew that defendant Raible had an extensive history of assaulting incarcerated people and did nothing to prevent the assaults.”
Walker says Raible repeatedly sprayed her in the face with pepper spray and thrust her into a shower while fully clothed in December 2018 after she hesitated to follow another officer’s orders to enter a new cell she claims was filthy and full of garbage. Two months pregnant at the time and suffering from asthma, Walker was later taken to the hospital for treatment as a result of the incident, the lawsuit claims.
A year later, Walker says Raible handcuffed her, then slammed her head into a concrete wall and the floor before having her pepper sprayed, then strapped into a restraint chair for hours.
Walker has bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression, all of which were documented in her medical records at the jail, according to the lawsuit.
“No form of a medical or mental health assessment was conducted on Ms. Walker before Defendant Raible used force on her … nor was any attempt made to de-escalate either situation,” Walker’s lawsuit says. “To the contrary, Defendant Raible escalated both incidents.”
Dorsey, who also has asthma, bipolar disorder and depression, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and schizoaffective disorder — again, all documented in her jail records — says Raible assaulted her in August 2019.
After being handcuffed and forced into a “strip cage,” a shower stall surrounded by a locked steel cage, she says she was told to strip and throw her clothes out.
When she did, Raible allegedly sprayed her with pepper spray repeatedly, then moved her to another room where he strapped her into a restraint chair, naked, for seven hours and refused to let a nurse wipe the pepper spray off Dorsey’s body.
The third plaintiff, Diggs, says she also has bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety and complex PTSD, and has been hospitalized for treatment of those, all of which was noted in her records at the jail.
In December 2019, she claims that she was handcuffed and put in a strip cell under suspicion of having a pen, which was not allowed in the cell block she was being held in.
She was ordered to strip naked and says Raible shot her six times at close range with pepper spray pellets. Later, she was strapped into a restraint chair for eight hours for hanging a cover over the window on her cell door, she claims.
The Allegheny County Jail reported 720 uses of force on incarcerated individuals in 2019, according to Public Source. That is twice as high as the average for all Pennsylvania jails, according to the nonprofit Abolitionist Law Center.
The jail also used a restraint chair 339 times, more than three times as often as the average jail in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia County, which has five jails, never used a restraint chair in 2019.
In addition to Raible and Harper, the lawsuit names Chief Deputy Warden David Zetwo, Deputy Warden Jason Beasom and Capt. Jamie Merlino as defendants.
Merlino allegedly participated in two of the incidents involving Walker, she claims, tasing her while she was restrained.
Beasom and Zetwo are accused of ignoring reports of Raible’s use of excessive force and creating an unsafe environment for those incarcerated in the Allegheny County Jail.
Have you ever been subjected to excessive force while incarcerated? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Walker, Dorsey and Diggs are represented by Jaclyn Kurin of the Abolitionist Law Center; Anna Shabalov, David R. Osipovich, Jessica L.G. Moran and Elizabeth A. Hoadley of K&L Gates, LLC; and Alexandra Morgan-Kurtz of PA Institutional Law Project.
The Excessive Force Lawsuit is April Walker, et al. v. Sgt. John Raible, et al., Case No. 2:05-mc-02025, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
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4 thoughts onThree Inmates Claim Excessive Force by Sergeant at Pennsylvania Jail
There was an attempted homicide at Allegheny County Jail May 2021. A inmate was in a lock cell with cell mate when Two perpetrators enter with shanks stabbing him multiple time all over his body. Inmate was denied outside medical attention. Warden did nothing and it has been cover up. Although inmate is no longer there at ACJ he still continues to have medical issues. Warden denied speaking to inmates family and gave no information then nor did he update family. It was cell mate who contacted the family and the family who contacted the jail in immediate urgency.
Still being held in solitary confinement 23 and 1 entire jail! COVID rampid throughout the facility. No release of highly susceptible inmates population continues rise !!!
I didn’t have excessive force, but I was made to clean a cell in which the girl slit her wrist. This happened in the early 2000s. ACJ is a horrible jail state prisoners were put in with the worst of the worst maximum security. I was put in state prison for writing $3646 in bad checks which was a joke. My judge slammed me and definitely sentenced me harshly. I got 8) 6mos-12 mos sentences and 1) 1yr -2yrs and they were back to back 5-10yrs for bouncing my checks during an addiction. I was the laughing stock of the Erie Co Prison. I got more time then inmates who killed people.
During COVID break out inmate with out the COVID was place around inmates with the COVID, secret riot break out injured inmate family not notified, treatments not provided for injury’s, skipping dialysis treatments, left to suffer in cell.