ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Two women are suing Albany County, the Albany County Sheriff’s Office and the Albany County Correctional Facility, alleging they were raped and sexually abused while incarcerated.
One lawsuit alleges a woman was raped multiple times, which resulted in a pregnancy, while she was incarcerated between July 2014 and March 2015. Anna Kull, the woman’s attorney, said the pregnancy was confirmed by the jail, the woman then requested and received an abortion and no investigation was conducted.
In another lawsuit, a woman was allegedly raped by a corrections officer in February 2018. The complaint points to a lack of action following the woman reporting the assault.
“They were incarcerated, they were raped, no one believed them and no one has come to listen to their stories until now,” Kull said. “Hearing what these women have to say, at this point in time, only sheds light on the high rates of sexual victimization that has been perpetrated, has been prevalent and has been tolerated within the State of New York prison system for decades.”
The lawsuits come as the Adult Survivors Act is set to expire by the end of the month. The law, passed last year, provided a one-year window for victims of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits, regardless of when the abuse occurred. Derrick Hogan, an attorney for Tully Rinckey PLLC, said that window allows for increased scrutiny on systems where the abuse happened.
“This is obviously giving people who might not have filed a lawsuit before the opportunity to do so now but in a sense, it’s increased scrutiny,” Hogan said. “Whether it’s a facility like a jail, or a hospital, or even a school, anywhere in the workplace there’s a heightened sense of scrutiny on those places, on those facilities.”
Kull, who focuses on sexual abuse lawsuits, said increased scrutiny is key for these cases.
“What was being done to monitor and supervise to make sure these sex crimes don’t take place,” Kull said. “How are people being vetted, how are people being supervised and trained, what reporting policies and practices were in place.”
