Woman sues Washington DOC for putting her in a cell with a transgender inmate who allegedly assaulted her
A female prisoner at the Washington Corrections Center for Women, Mozzy Clark-Sanchez, was forced to share a cell with a “fully intact biological male” and is now suing the Washington State Department of Corrections over multiple sexual assaults, per the federal lawsuit.
Her biologically male cellmate, Christopher Williams, is a 34-year-old convicted sex offender, who was previously incarcerated in the men’s prison. According to the suit, Williams assaulted a corrections officer to the point of being “rendered unconscious” in the men’s prison, “claimed to identify as a woman, and was transferred to WCCW as a result.”
Williams was initially sentenced for 342 months for assaulting his girlfriend in 2012, after “hitting her on the head with a pipe,” according to The National Review.
Clark-Sanchez claims Williams threatened her, stalked her, and sexually assaulted her multiple times, beginning immediately after being moved into her cell.
Other women in the prison were sexually harassed by Williams as well, to the extent that “he was openly referred to as the ‘shower shark,’” per the suit.
The Daily Wire reported Williams has no female name, has not undergone a reassignment surgery, and has not gone on a hormone regimen.
When Clark-Sanchez reached out to prison officers for help, they told her “if she complained it would be considered a hate crime.” The suit adds, the officers “actively discouraged her from filing any complaints,” telling her that “Williams had in the past violently retaliated against individuals who complained about him.”
Clark-Sanchez claims “the only advice she received from prison officials to separate herself from Mr. Williams was that she could go on suicide watch,” per the suit. Further, during regular meetings with the prison therapist, Clark-Sanchez was stopped from speaking about being “forced to share a cell with a man.”
Several weeks after filing a Prison Rape Elimination Act complaint against Williams, Clark-Sanchez was finally moved to a private cell. However, since Williams was not removed from the prison, “he continued to harass and intimidate Ms. Clark by following her around in the yard and staring at her in a menacing manner.”
The suit claims that “allowing biological males into a female prison violates the basic human rights of women, including the right to be safe from the risk of increased harm, and the right to privacy and dignity (by not being compelled to sleep, shower, or otherwise be naked in the presence of incarcerated men, or exposed to the naked bodies of incarcerated men), and the right to not be compelled, coerced, or pressured into using speech that reflects a belief that conflicts with biological reality.”
Currently, there are at least 11 biological men in the Washington Corrections Center for Women, according to The Daily Wire.