Warning: This story comprises content material that some readers could discover disturbing.
A police informant raped twice throughout an undercover drug purchase in Louisiana has filed a lawsuit alleging her regulation enforcement handlers failed to observe her in real-time and allowed the assault to “play out” regardless of issues over how lengthy she was inside a identified stash home.
The swimsuit filed this week in Alexandria alleges Rapides Parish sheriff’s deputies “coerced” the lady into working as a confidential informant after her arrest on felony drug prices and did not preserve their promise to guard her if a purchase order went unhealthy.
The January 2021 incident was the topic of an Associated Press investigation that highlighted the perils police informants face searching for to “work off” felony prices in usually loosely regulated, secretive preparations with regulation enforcement.
The lady’s attacker, Antonio D. Jones, was convicted of rape in November 2022 and later sentenced to 10 years in jail. Prosecutors not too long ago requested a decide to rethink that sentence, saying it “deprecates the seriousness” of the rape and Jones’ intensive felony historical past.
The lady wore a hidden digital camera that recorded Jones forcing her to carry out oral intercourse on him twice in an assault so brazen he paused at one level to conduct a separate drug deal.
Authorities mentioned the gadget didn’t transmit the assault in real-time, however consultants advised AP the know-how to observe undercover transactions has existed for generations and may have been used to guard the lady on this case.
The lawsuit alleges that deputies ready close by feared for the lady’s security as a result of she was within the dwelling too lengthy and that one, Deputy Cassie Jolene Saucier, thought-about entering into earlier than in the end deciding to permit the undercover deal to “play out.”
Neither Saucier nor Rapides Parish Sheriff Mark Wood instantly responded to messages searching for remark. The lawsuit additionally names retired Lt. Mark Parker, the rating official overseeing the operation, who advised AP final yr that the sheriff’s workplace didn’t begin utilizing gear able to monitoring in real-time till after the lady’s rape and sometimes despatched informants into stings with none recording gear in any respect.
“We’ve always done it this way,” Parker mentioned. “She was an addict and we just used her as an informant like we’ve done a million times before. Looking back, it’s easy to say, ‘What if?’”
The lawsuit says the lady “has suffered excessive emotional ache and misery” from having to testify about the rape in open court. She, too, did not immediately respond to a request to speak to AP, which typically does not identify victims of sexual assault.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
