Southern State Correctional Facility. Photo by Phoebe Sheehan/VTDigger
A federal magistrate judge is recommending a lawsuit brought by a transgender former prisoner be allowed to move forward on a claim that the state Department of Corrections failed to protect her while she was in custody.
The magistrate judge dismissed a separate claim by the inmate that DOC staff failed to properly train and supervise staff.
Magistrate Judge John Conroy on Tuesday issued a 37-page “Report and Recommendation” in the federal lawsuit brought by Cammie Cameron who alleges she was assaulted by a male while incarcerated at the all-male Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield.
The lawsuit names several Department of Corrections officials as defendants, including Lisa Menard, the former Vermont corrections commissioner who was in the post at the time of Cameron’s incarceration on a burglary conviction.
Attorneys for the defendants had sought to dismiss all the claims in the lawsuit.
The parties in the lawsuit have 14 days to file objections to Conroy’s report, which will then be forwarded to a federal judge to consider whether to formally adopt the findings in the ruling.
“With respect to the merits of Cameron’s claims, because Cameron has plausibly alleged that Defendant failed to protect her in violation of the Eighth Amendment, Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss that claim should be DENIED,” Conroy wrote in his report.
The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
“With respect to Cameron’s remaining claims — that Defendants failed to adequately train and supervise the SSCF correctional officers and that Defendants are liable for negligence and false imprisonment — I recommend that the Court GRANT Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss,” Conroy wrote.
Cameron filed the lawsuit late last year seeking more than $350,000 in damages stemming from her incarceration at the 370-bed, all male Springfield prison.
According to the lawsuit, Cameron was identified by state Department of Corrections officials during the intake process as a transgender female. Cameron requested to be lodged with female inmates, however, the lawsuit stated, that request was denied.
While at the Springfield prison, according to the lawsuit, Cameron was “ridiculed, threatened and harassed by male inmates and correctional officers,” and was subjected to “constant sexual harassment, comments, demands, and threats by male inmates.
Lisa Menard, then commissioner of the Department of Corrections, is a defendant in the suit. File photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDigger
“Despite being aware of the threat inmate Francis Lajoice presented to the Plaintiff,” the filing added, Cameron was placed in a cell adjacent to Lajoice.
The lawsuit stated that around 10 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2015, Lajoice attacked Cameron.
“Cameron was found lying on the ground with ‘blood pouring from her nose and mouth,’ her ‘right eye was swollen shut and purple,’ and she ‘had several bumps and bruises on her forehead and temple areas,” the lawsuit stated.
Lajoice, according to the lawsuit, was later convicted of simple assault in connection with the attack.
A hearing on the motion to dismiss the case took place in June.
At that hearing, Assistant Attorney General Steve Collier argued that the case should be thrown out because, he alleged, Cameron was the one who started the fight.
Theodore Kramer, a Brattleboro attorney representing Cameron, disputed that contention, stating that DOC officials were aware of Cameron’s request to be housed in a women’s facility and the risk that would arise if not placed there.
Joshua Diamond, the deputy Vermont attorney general, said Tuesday afternoon that his office had just received the magistrate’s report and that it was “under review.” He declined further comment until he had time to read the 37-page document.
Kramer, Cameron’s attorney, could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
According to a DOC directive that went into effect in February 2015, “DOC can house transgender or intersex inmates according to their gender identity rather than their birth sex.”
The directive states that in determining whether to assign a transgender inmate to a male or female facility, the DOC “will consider on a case-by-case basis whether a placement would ensure the inmate’s health and safety, and whether the placement would present management or security problems.”
The decision regarding transgender inmates, according to the directive, will be made by a management team made up by the department’s director of correctional facilities, health services director, case work director, and “a DOC employee with the ability and knowledge needed to represent LGBTQI interests.”
Cameron, after serving time in Springfield, later was housed from May 18, 2016, to Jan. 14, 2017, at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, an all-women’s facility in South Burlington.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Transgender ex-inmate’s lawsuit against DOC officials clears hurdle.