Faulkner tennis player settles suit with Baldwin sheriff's officers over alleged jailhouse rape

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— A Texas man last week settled his federal lawsuit against a pair of officials from the

over an alleged sexual assault he claimed he suffered at the hands of a fellow prisoner at the local jail.

The man, identified only by the initials D.T., was an 18-year-old Faulkner State Community College student attending school on a tennis scholarship when police arrested him on a shoplifting charge in August 2009. He alleged that a “career criminal“ awaiting trial on a new charge raped him in the jail and that corrections officers failed to investigate it adequately.

A court filing last week stated that both sides would pay their owns costs and attorneys’ fees. Ian Brendel, who represented the plaintiff, said he could not discuss details of the settlement or other details of the case because of a confidentiality agreement.

An attorney for the defendants, Lt. Dean McGowan and Deputy Jason Kolbe, could not be reached for comment.

McGowan, an investigator, and Kolbe denied wrongdoing.

The lawsuit alleged that another inmate pulled D.T. down from the top bunk at the Baldwin County Corrections Center and threatened to cut him with knives he had in the cell before raping him. The assault occurred a day after D.T. had reported to corrections officers that the inmate was harassing him and had threatened physical harm.

A review of court records suggests that the inmate never was charged in connection with the alleged rape.

The defense admitted that there were no guards present at the time of the alleged assault, but denied that D.T. complained of being harassed or threatened.

D.T. contended that he and his parents reported the assault to officials with the Sheriff’s Office, and the suit alleged that that deputies discouraged them from pressing for prosecution. The complaint quoted one officer as saying, “What happens in Jail, stays in Jail.“

The defense denied allegations that sheriff’s officials intimidated D.T. into giving an incomplete account of the incident as he alleged.

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For a complete roundup of news from federal court, read Monday's Federal Court Digest.

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