Woman says she was raped by corrections officer while she was in custody at Ga. prison, lawsuit says

ATLANTA — A former female prisoner of the Georgia Department of Corrections filed a lawsuit against a former corrections officer alleging he raped her while she was in custody at Lee Arrendale State Prison.

According to the filing, submitted by attorneys for a woman identified only as Jane Doe, former officer Cameron Cheeks, who now lives in Habersham County, allegedly raped her while employed by GDOC.

The court record filed against Cheeks states he was employed in the summer and fall of 2022, including on Dec. 5, 2022. The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Georgia judicial circuit, located in Gainesville.

“At all times pertinent to the claims presented by this lawsuit, Mr. Cheeks used the authority vested in him by virtue of his official status to commit the actions” alleged in the lawsuit, the legal filing says.

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As described in the court record, the plaintiff was a GDOC prisoner on Dec. 5, 2022, serving a sentence at the state prison in Alto, Ga.

While Doe was housed in the A unit of the A building for the prison’s housing units, Cheeks was assigned to that section of the prison.

The plaintiff did not have a cellmate, according to the court filing.

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The complaint says that Cheeks approached Doe’s cell and told her it was time for her shower, and that he was not the only correctional officer on duty in the building at the time.

The lawsuit accuses Cheeks of moving the plaintiff to another area of the prison and “violently and forcibly rap[ing] her.” It goes on to say that “the violence inflicted upon Ms. Doe served no legitimate penological purpose.”

The court record further alleges that the sexual assault by Cheeks was “so brutal that Doe needed to have and did receive surgery for partial uterus removal.”

Doe’s court filing alleges she suffered an internal bodily injury that required medical services in addition to surgery and she has been greatly injured physically and mentally and will “continue to suffer from the natural consequences of such violent misconduct.”

“Further investigation and discovery will likely reflect that the other Correctional Officers frequently accompanied Cheeks as he performed his responsibilities and were on notice of the fact that, prior to Dec. 5, 2022, Cheeks had engaged in one or more of the following actions,” according to the court record:

• Cheeks allegedly verbally flirted with female prisoners
• Cheeks allegedly passed notes to female prisoners expressing his sexual interest in the women
• Cheeks allegedly raped another female prisoner in October 2022
• Cheeks allegedly sexually assaulted another female prisoner in November 2022

Under those conditions, Doe accuses Cheeks of violating her Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment and is seeking a jury trial for compensatory, special and punitive damages against Cheeks, in addition to attorney’s fees and litigation costs.

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