Woman’s $20 million suit alleges sexual abuse by corrections officer while in Wayne County Jail

WAYNE COUNTY, N.Y. — A woman is suing Wayne County and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office for $20 million, alleging she was sexually abused and assaulted by a Wayne County corrections officer while she was an inmate.

The woman, identified only as K.G., says the abuse occurred over a three-week period in the spring of 2018 while she was incarcerated at the Wayne County Jail. According to her attorney, Konstantin Yelisavetskiy, the county and sheriff’s office failed to protect her.

“People like our client are incarcerated and the very people that are supposed to be protecting her and the very people that are supposed to be overseeing her are the ones that are committing the atrocious crimes against her,” Yelisavetskiy, managing attorney at Slater Slater Schulman LLP, said.

The lawsuit alleges that on two separate occasions, an officer known as “Officer Black” entered K.G.’s cell while she was sleeping and sexually abused her. The suit claims sexual misconduct, rape, and forcible touching.

“Unfortunately like so many of our clients — and we do represent nearly 1,800 women across the state of New York in sexual abuse lawsuits against various correction facilities, like many of our clients she didn’t have any power. She didn’t feel like she could tell anybody. She was afraid that telling somebody would result in punishment and retaliation,” Yelisavetskiy said.

K.G. didn’t come forward until the Adult Survivors Act was passed, which gives victims of sexual abuse whose statute of limitations had passed a one-year window to file suit. Yelisavetskiy’s firm is handling about 1,800 sexual abuse cases filed under the act, involving women inmates in New York state prisons and jails.

“We were flabbergasted by the amount of women during that time to tell their story,” he said. “It’s not so much what the powerless people who are incarcerated are supposed to do. The question is what are the institutions that are supposed to protect them and prevent this from happening what did they fail to do.”

News10NBC spoke with Wayne County Sheriff Robert Milby, who wasn’t the sheriff in 2018 during the time of the alleged sexual abuse. He said, “We are vehemently denying the accusations, and this is not affecting anyone’s work status at this time.”

The corrections officer accused of the sexual abuse is still employed and on the job at the Wayne County Jail.

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