LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A group of attorneys from West Virginia and Kentucky has filed a lawsuit claiming a woman was raped and sexually assaulted by an officer while she was incarcerated at Federal Medical Center Lexington.
The plaintiff, who was not identified by name, filed the complaint on April 28 in federal court against the federal government and Officer Christopher Brian Goodwin.
According to the complaint, the woman was assigned in August 2019 to work duty refinishing and filling floors at several buildings at FMC Lexington, including offices and administrative buildings. The work was supervised by Goodwin.
The woman said Goodwin began making sexual comments to her soon after the work began. Those comments escalated to physical sexual assault such as Goodwin grabbing her breast and buttocks, the complaint states.
The woman said Goodwin raped her on Sept. 13, 2019.
The complaint states that the woman reported the rape to FMC Lexington staff in January 2020. She was transferred to Fayette County Detention Center "for her safety" during the investigation.
The woman was transferred back to FMC Lexington a month later to find that Goodwin still worked there, but had been reassigned to "computer services," according to the complaint.
As a part of that assignment, the complaint states that Goodwin had the ability to read all of the woman's emails or listen to her phone calls.
The woman said Goodwin violated her Eighth Amendment right to not being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, and accused the federal government of assault and battery and negligence under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
She is being represented by L. Dante diTrapano, Benjamin Adams and Alex McLaughlin, of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston, W.V.; Jay T. McCamic, of McCamic Law Firm in Wheeling, W.V., Anthony I. Werner, of John & Werner Law Offices in Wheeling, W.V.; and by David G. Bryant, of David Bryant Law in Louisville.
