HOUSTON – An alleged assault on a female inmate at the Harris County Jail nearly two years ago has resulted in legal action.
Katy resident Rachel Hatton filed a lawsuit against Harris County, the Harris County Sheriff’s Department, and the Harris County Jail on May 3 in the Harris County 234th District Court.
Hatton says she was in the defendants’ custody on May 7, 2016 when a jailer attacked her for not moving fast enough toward her cell.
Court papers further explain that the plaintiff then found herself in the clinic though she does not remember how or why she was there.
Hatton reportedly stayed in the clinic for more than three hours without any employees telling her the exact cause of her visit to the facility.
The plaintiff soon bailed out. Prior to leaving the jail, she retrieved her clothes and discovered the ones she wore at the time of her arrest and subsequent assault were not in her bag and were soaking wet, the suit says.
Hatton went to her mother’s house where it was discovered that the complainant had stitches in her head. It was during an immediate trip to the hospital Hatton learned she had suffered a concussion.
The defendants are faulted for the application of excessive force on the plaintiff in addition to the violation of her constitutional rights.
Consequently, she seeks unspecified monetary damages.
Joseph Ward and Ahmad G. Azam of the law firm Azam, Ward & Sullivan, PLLC in Houston are representing Hatton.
Harris County 234th District Court Case No. 2018-30004