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EX-INMATE CONTINUES FEDERAL SUIT ARISING FROM ALLEGED RAPE

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, June 24, 2004 8:05 AM CDT

DUMAS -- A Dumas woman who filed suit against the city claiming she was raped while she was a prisoner at the Dumas jail will appeal a federal judge's ruling dismissing the lawsuit.

On June 1, an attorney for the woman notified the court that Melissa Lazarus would appeal a May decision by Judge Susan Webber Wright dismissing the suit. That appeal was sent to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis on Tuesday.

The woman said in the suit that she was raped by a jail employee and a trustee at the city jail after she was arrested on drug related charges in 2001. The lawsuit seeking more than $4.5 million from the city, its mayor, police chief and others was filed in 2002.

Named in the suit in addition to the city were Mayor Clay Oldner, Police Chief Everett Cox, former jailer Elijah Finch, former trustee McClinton Cobb, and current and former City Council members P.C. Pickett, Raymond Riggins, Robert Milner, James Jackson, Diane Fisher, Roy Dalton, Dewayne Snyder and Spencer Berry.

Legal paperwork filed in the case said Oldner and City Council members were named in the suit simply because of their positions.

"There are no allegations that they had any personal participation or were even aware of plaintiff's treatment in the Dumas city jail," attorneys for the city said.

After an investigation by the State Police, criminal charges were filed against Finch and Cobb.

Finch pleaded guilty to sexual assault in the third-degree and was sentenced to 60 months in prison and Cobb pleaded guilty to the same charge and was sentenced to 180 months in prison.

Cox said the crime would not have happened had existing jail policies been followed.

He said those policies included requiring new employees to receive training and required a female jailer to be on duty when women prisoners were in the jail. If a female was not present the policies required that two male jailers be on duty together.

A former employee at the jail, Stephanie Jones, said in an affidavit those policies were "routinely not followed or enforced" by Cox.

She said male jailers and trustees frequently entered the cells of female inmates.

Minutes from several meetings of the Dumas City Council from 2001 indicated that the city was short of both jailers and police officers.

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