Opinion ID: 8704897
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The August 5, 2009 Incident

Text: Ms. Konah was assigned to dispense medication to inmates on August 5, 2009, in a CDF housing unit known as Southwest. or SW 1. Unity SUF ¶44. Sgt. Jefferson was on duty at the Southwest bubble that day. On this occasion, Ms. Konah varied from her usual practice of waiting for an officer and entered the sally port unescorted. Konah Dep. at 100, 103. She began to dispense medications to inmates in the sally port, close to the front gate. Unity SUF ¶¶ 45-46. While she was there, the bubble gate opened and closed a few times, presumably to admit and discharge inmates obtaining medications. See Zabiheian Deck, Exs. D & E (SW1 Videos from Aug. 5, 2009). However, a group of inmates from the housing unit, dressed only in their undergarments, approached Ms. Konah in the sally port, making especially lewd and sexually threatening comments. She went to the bubble and asked Sgt. Jefferson to open the front gate to the corridor outside the unit so she could get away from the inmates, but he refused to respond or to open the gate, leaving her trapped in the sally port. As Ms. Konah returned to the front gate, the semi-clothed inmates surrounded her, calling her names and using sexually explicit language; one inmate grabbed her on the buttocks. Ms. Konah asked him something to the effect of “why did you touch me?” and screamed for help from Sgt. Jefferson. See Unity MSJ, Ex. 24 [Dkt. 67-6], DCDC-1 Report Completed by Lena Konah (Konah DCDC-1 Report); id., Ex. 25 [Dkt. 67-6], DCDC-1 Report Completed by Dr. Benedict Kargbo (Kargbo DCDC-1 Report). Dr. Benedict Kargbo, a treatment specialist at the Jail, entered the sally port from the housing unit, saw what was happening, and told the inmate to back away from Ms. Konah, which he did immediately. Unity SUF ¶ 52. Dr. Kargbo joined Ms. Konah’s demands that the front gate be opened. Kargbo DCDC-1 Report at 1-2. Sgt. Jefferson eventually opened the front gate. With a corrections officer at the entrance, Ms. Konah and Dr. Kargbo left the sally port at the front gate and entered the main hallway of the Jail. 4 Ms. Konah was immediately taken to the infirmary. Unity SUF ¶ 56. She also met with Unity and CDF management, including the Warden. Id. ¶ 57. She declined to press criminal charges against the inmate, who had been placed on lockdown and charged with several Class II Serious Offenses. Id. ¶¶ 55, 57. Ms. Konah completed incident reports. At an unspecified date after August 5, 2009, she complained about sexual harassment to the Human Resources Office at Unity. She later told her supervisor she could not,return to work at CDF, where there is a “plethora of sexual violence incidents towards females.” Compl. ¶ 38.