EAST ST. LOUIS – Troy Bozarth, veteran defense counsel in civil litigation, has taken the plaintiff side for former prison inmate Terrance Daugherty of Chicago in U.S. district court on a claim of sexual abuse at Lawrence correctional center.
Bozarth deposed warden Dede Brookhart so well that he quoted her as a corroborating witness in a brief on April 6.
She said investigators of Daugherty’s complaint under the Prison Rape Elimination Act didn’t take it seriously.
When Bozarth asked if the report was up to standard, she said absolutely not.
“I believe that they made some judgment errors in terms of how they needed to handle the case,” Brookhart said.
Investigators didn’t interview anyone but Daugherty.
They classified his complaint as unsubstantiated in 2018.
He sued at district court in 2019.
He wrote that he arrived at Lawrence on Sept. 13, 2017, and “was abstracted from intake holding” by an officer he named John Doe.
He claimed the officer handcuffed him and took him to the health care unit.
He wrote that the officer “radioed for someone to lock the outside door at the health care unit’s inmates bathroom.”
He wrote that the officer “ordered me to derobe my yellow jump suit while I was in handcuffs and bend over the sink.”
He claimed the officer informed him he was angry about events in his time at Big Muddy Correctional Center.
“I persuaded him not to rape me by oral sex,” he wrote.
“Instead he chose to fondle my genitals while making me hold my penis and masturbate with him.”
He claimed the officer exposed his penis, got on his knees, “and threatened me with death if I looked at him or his name tag.”
He claimed an officer knocked on the bathroom door because he thought there were two detainees in the bathroom.
He claimed he started screaming and the second officer eventually opened the door and caught the first officer on his knees with his pants unfastened.
“Upon exiting the washroom after roughing up John Doe #1, he told me, ‘Don’t you even think about it,’” he claimed.
He claimed another officer choked a nurse psychologist and threatened her to shut up and mind her business or else it was going to be really bad for her.
He claimed defendants kept the situation unannounced which prevented him from feeling safe enough to file a complaint at the prison.
He sought compensatory and punitive damages, $1 million each.
Later in 2019, he identified Andrew Gangloff as the first officer, Ethan Clary as the second and Joshua Crawford as the third.
In January 2020, the state released Daugherty on parole.
He moved for appointment of counsel, and he attached letters from firms and nonprofits that declined to represent him.
Magistrate Judge Mark Beatty granted the motion and appointed Bozarth, who practices at Hepler Broom in Edwardsville.
Last year Bozarth deposed warden Brookhart, who held the position of assistant warden when Daugherty arrived.
Bozarth asked her what “unsubstantiated” meant.
“It means that the majority of the information that the investigations unit collected led them to believe that there was no way to substantiate the claim made by the offender,” Brookhart said.
Bozarth pointed out incorrect dates and other errors in the investigation report and asked if it was a sloppy example.
“This was probably pretty convoluted,” she said. “The dates were messy and a mistake was made, that’s all I can say.”
Bozarth asked if anyone was interviewed besides Daugherty.
She looked at the report and said, “It says no other witnesses could be located.”
Bozarth asked if an investigator could determine who worked that day and she said, “Sure.”
He said, “That could be done?”
She said, “It should be.”
Bozarth said Daugherty claimed he saw an officer abuse an employee of health contractor Wexford.
He said, “You would think if the investigator was taking this complaint seriously as they should, that’s something they would want to check out, right?”
She said, “Correct.”
He asked if she believed the investigator took the complaint seriously.
She said, “Not in the manner that I would expect, no.”
He said, “This is not up to the level that a Prison Rape Elimination Act investigation should be, correct?”
She said, “Correct.”
Defendants deposed Daugherty, who said an inmate needed to use the restroom and pissed on himself because of the length of time he was with Gangloff.
Daugherty said the inmate ran and screamed, “That’s how we got caught. That’s how I got saved.”
He said he heard everybody running.
This March, assistant attorney general Areda Johnson moved for summary judgment in favor of Gangloff, Clary, and Crawford.
“Plaintiff’s claims are easily disproven,” she wrote.
She claimed Crawford didn’t work on Sept. 13, 2017.
She claimed Gangloff and Clary didn’t work where Daugherty said he saw them.
She claimed intake duty qualified for extra pay, and Daugherty’s allegation would require a conclusion that they were entitled to it without receiving it.
She claimed Gangloff and Clary weren’t allowed to leave their assigned housing unit except for lunch in the administrative building.
She claimed Gangloff was entitled to public official immunity because he “acted within the scope of his duties and had no contact with plaintiff.”
Bozarth responded on April 6, claiming Brookhart’s testimony corroborated Daugherty’s testimony.
He quoted her saying a busload of transfers is an “all hands on deck” situation.
He denied that Gangloff was unable to leave his assigned post and denied that Crawford wasn’t working or otherwise present.
He denied that Gangloff’s time card meant he wasn’t involved in transfers.
He denied that Gangloff escorted Daugherty to the health care unit for a legitimate medical purpose.
“Whether plaintiff’s allegations are easily disproven is a credibility question for the jury, not a question for summary judgment,” he wrote.