CLARK COUNTY, IN – So far, 28 women prisoners have joined together to file civil rights lawsuits after they were allegedly raped in the Clark County Jail.
The women claim that the suspects in the case, male inmates, had the ability to rape them after buying a jailer key from a corrections guard.
David Lowe, 29, a corrections officer at the Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville, KY arrested Sunday and fired Monday for allowing inmates access to secure areas of the jail in exchange for $1,000.
".. two inmates began searching for and removing items from the pod office .." pic.twitter.com/pCEKg5lIKu— Graphenes (@Graphenes1) October 26, 2021
The lawsuits allege that on the night of October 23rd or the 24th, male inmates were able to purchase a master key from Clark County Correctional Guard David Lowe. Those men then allegedly used that key to gain entry into the women’s wing of the jail.
Once inside the women’s wing of the jail, the male inmates began terrorizing the women who were seemingly helpless to defend themselves. According to the first lawsuit that was filed:
“The males threatened, assaulted, and raped the females over the course of multiple hours. The male inmates gained access to the females pods through the use of a key provided by corrections officer David Lowe.
As a direct and proximate cause of the actions of the Defendants, [the female inmates] suffered horrific physical and psychological injuries.”
The lawsuits allege that the male inmates were able to purchase the master key from Lowe for $1,000. In addition to Lowe being named in the lawsuit, Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel and several other members of the correctional staff are said to also be named or will be at some point.
In the newest lawsuit that was filed on behalf of the women inmates, claims are made that the women who were allegedly victimized suffered significant emotional and physical injuries. Alleged in the newest lawsuit:
“Amazingly, even though there were surveillance cameras positioned in a location that showed the male detainees accessing the women’s Pods, and even though the incident involved multiple male detainees and dozens of victims over an extended period of time, not a single jail officer on duty that night came to the aid of the Plaintiffs and the other victims.”
Prison guard accepted bribes from male inmates to prey on female inmates at an Indiana jail.
“These women were raped in mass in this jail. Just because they are temporarily incarcerated doesn’t mean they traded their humanity in order to be in that facility.” Dr. @Rashad_Richey pic.twitter.com/qjqa0isgNy— Indisputable TYT (@IndisputableTYT) July 27, 2022
The lawsuit also alleges that one of the women inmates who was raped became pregnant from the attack.
The attorney for that woman, William McCall, said that the proof that his client was impregnated during the attack is because she had been in jail for multiple months before the incident. He said:
“Since she had been in custody for numerous months, there is no chance she was pregnant before she entered the Clark County Jail.” My client had a miscarriage in December of 2021.”
McCall added that several of his clients now suffer from PTSD as a result of that traumatic night. McCall told Fox News Digital:
“The women that were subjected to the extended period that these male inmates were running rampant in the women’s pod still are suffering great emotional issues. What is disheartening is the inability of these women to afford therapy and counseling.”
28 women held at an Indiana jail are suing after guards gave the keys to their cells to incarcerated men in exchange for a $1000 bribe, allowing the men to rape and assault the women. https://t.co/jw6rQIN4Uy
— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) July 26, 2022
An attorney for eight of the women, Stephen Wagner, noted that the Clark County Sheriff’s Office terminated Lowe after the incident. Wagner said:
“The [Clark County Sheriff’s Office] fired one of its officers, David Lowe, after video surveillance showed him allowing male inmates access to security keys, and after he reportedly admitted [he] ‘intentionally placed himself deep into the pod with his back to the door to allow inmates access to the open pod doors.”
Lowe was arrested and charged with trafficking with an inmate, aiding escape, and official misconduct. He is scheduled to appear in court on November 1st to answer the criminal charges.
99 Problems: Embattled Florida sheriff now being investigated by the FBI over fraud, kickbacks, bid-rigging
BROWARD COUNTY, FL – Law Enforcement Today recently brought you the story of the alleged ethical violations of Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony, who is looking at the possibility of having his law enforcement certification revoked by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Now, he is the subject of an FBI probe into his alleged involvement in fraud, kickbacks and bid-rigging.
And the FBI Special Agent in Charge is no longer in charge. He is also no longer an agent.
George Piro retired on June 17th after 23 years with the Bureau. He was in his second stint running the Miami office.
According to sources not identified by the website Florida Bulldog, Piro retired because he was being “shown the door” over his handling of the Tony probe.
The source said that a subordinate filed a complaint after Piro moved the bid-rigging investigation from the Miami office to South Carolina, where it was stalled and going nowhere.
While neither Piro nor the FBI responded to phone calls or emails seeking comments, a source discussed a meeting from last year where Piro allegedly told agents that he moved the investigation for two reasons.
“…he was not going to be responsible for the arrest of Broward’s first black sheriff, and that such an arrest would ruin the FBI’s relationship with the sheriff’s office, with which it frequently works,” the website wrote.
Piro, who is the FBI agent that interrogated Saddam Hussein, also is reported to have said in that meeting that Tony was “responsible for sending $50,000 each to the families of two FBI agents who were killed while serving a search warrant at a Sunrise apartment on Feb. 2, 2021.”
With Piro’s retirement, control of the probe has shifted back to Miami.
That probe into Tony stem from the following “multi-faceted” activities.
In 2019, Broward County Sheriff’s Office (BSO) purchased a large quantity of bleeding control stations from North American Rescue. They are a Greer, South Carolina-based company where Tony worked prior to becoming Sheriff, according to the Florida Bulldog.
He held the position of Director of Community Development.
Ironically, there is no mention of that employment on his LinkedIn profile.
What does show is the time between October 2015 and December 2018, when he and his wife, Holly, started a company called Blue Spear Solutions, which partners with and sells North American Rescue gear, to include the bleeding control stations that are at the heart of the FBI investigation.
The BSO purchased more that 850 of the stations for an approximate total of $512,000.
He also announced plans to distribute roughly 12,000 of the kits to all public and charter schools in the county.
In September of that year, Tony held a press conference to announce the purchase of the control stations, displaying the purchased bags with his name and the BSO logo on them.
He took the time to mention that Blue Spear Solutions was not involved in the bidding process and that he had no ties to his wife’s company. To confirm that, we reached out to the email address provided for Tony at Blue Spear. It came back as undeliverable.
Tony said he distanced himself and the BSO by putting the contract out for public bid. He claimed that North American Rescue just happened to be the better priced solution out of the 10 groups that bid on the opportunity.
However, there were problems with the process Tony alluded to that contradicted what he was claiming.
Per the Bulldog:
“BSO bid records, however, show there were nine bidders, but some of North American’s eight competitors were not actual competitors.
For example, Henry Schein Inc. is a Fortune 500 distributor of healthcare products. Its per unit bid was about $100 more than North American’s. But Henry Schein acquired North American Rescue for an undisclosed price in March 2019 – four months before BSO’s bid went out.
Both North American and Henry Schein may have violated the terms of a non-collusion certificate required to be dated and signed by bidders. The certificates include language in which bidders aver that they ‘are not related to any of the other parties in the competitive solicitation.’”
Law Enforcement Today has obtained an April 2018 email from Gregory Tony sent from his Blue Spear Solutions account.
In it, he discussed how valuable a tool the bleed control kits were, allowing Coral Springs PD to save 14 lives of the 20 victims that they treated with the devices, which included tourniquets, combat gauze, chest seals, and trauma dressings.
The source who provided the email also disclosed conversations they had with Tony before he became the sheriff of Broward County.
In one of those conversations, Tony stated that he offered to give a large quantity of the bleed-control kits to the Broward Public School system, but that offer was turned down by Superintendent Robert Runcie.
As sheriff, Tony appears steadfast in his determination to ensure that the schools in Broward County are equipped.
What isn’t apparent is how he was ready to provide them for free but now he wants to buy them on the taxpayer’s dime and then give them away. And why did he delete his time with the manufacturer from LinkedIn? And why does he have a pattern of hiding/not disclosing vital details from his past?
Law Enforcement Today is continuing to vet out information we receive regarding the potential missteps by Tony in the events that have led to the FBI probe and will provide updates as we have those to share.
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