Rape victim who was jailed reaches settlement with county
March 1 , 2007
Adapted from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A rape victim who was jailed by police because they didn't believe her has reached an out-of-court settlement in her federal lawsuit with the county.
The 21-year-old will receive $45,000 from the county's law enforcement insurance carrier.
Meanwhile, her attorneys are preparing to go to trial against the government entity which employs the officers who had arrested her.
The woman was working as a clerk at a service station when an assailant entered the store, sexually assaulted her at gunpoint, then stole $606.73 from the station.
She called police for help but the detective and the officer didn't believe her account of what had happened. They thought she had made up the story to cover a theft of the service station's money.
She was charged by the officers with making false statements, theft and receiving stolen property. She lost her job and spent five days in jail while she was pregnant.
A month before she was to stand trial, a 44-year-old man was caught by police in the act of raping a woman at a convenience store in another county.
During a state police interrogation, he admitted to a series of sexual assaults, including the assault on the 21-year-old woman.
The county district attorney immediately withdrew the charges against her.
She filed suit in U.S. District Court, asserting a range of constitutional violations, including false imprisonment, retaliation, malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The settlement acknowledges no wrongdoing on the county's part or its employees. The judge had no comment on the settlement except to say "the decision was up to the insurance company."
The woman has another lawsuit pending against the hospital. The suit based on records that were disclosed by the hospital to police following her rape, said one of her attorneys.
"The police focused on her as a perpetrator and not the victim of a heinous crime. It was a truly tragic set of events, and she continues to try to cope with them as best she can,'' said one of her attorneys.
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