Ramsey County has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a woman’s lawsuit after she was raped by the driver of an Arkansas-based prison transport company contracted by the county.
Jennifer Seelig sued Ramsey County last year in U.S. District Court in Minnesota. She alleged the county and Inmate Services Corporation knew or should have known ISC’s transport officers had sexually assaulted female detainees before and during the county’s contract period with ISC as they had resulted in numerous lawsuits and were heavily publicized.
The settlement came after U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan denied the county’s motion to dismiss the case.
Ramsey County contracted with ISC to transport individuals to the county to appear on arrest warrants.
Employee Rogeric Hankins sexually assaulted Seelig in April 2020 in a Missouri rest stop bathroom while transporting her to St. Paul from Washington state, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Hankins pleaded guilty in federal court in Missouri in 2023 and was sentenced to nine years in prison for violating Seelig’s civil rights.
“Despite an ISC employee raping a Ramsey County detainee in 2019, just one year before Hankins raped Seelig, Ramsey County did nothing to prevent future rapes or sexual assaults. It maintained its contract with ISC and, in doing so, maintained a policy of deliberate indifference to the constitutional violations happening under its nose,” Seelig’s complaint stated.
2nd case still active
Another former Ramsey County inmate, Danielle Sivels, said she was raped by another employee of the same transportation company in 2019.
In a 2023 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, Sivels said she is one of at least 15 women Marquet Johnson sexually assaulted during inmate transports. She too faults Ramsey County officials for hiring ISC despite prominent media coverage about the company’s misconduct and despite knowing about the 2016 sexual assault of a Ramsey County inmate by a different transportation contractor.
In denying the county’s motion to dismiss Sivels’ lawsuit last year, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank wrote last year that it was a “close call at best” but “the totality of the allegations plausibly show that Ramsey County had notice of issues of sexual abuse by their transport contractors.”
That case still is pending.
Johnson was sentenced last year in U.S. District Court in New Mexico to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of willful deprivation of civil rights.
According to Seelig’s complaint, Ramsey County failed to perform its duties by contracting with ISC when it wasn’t licensed as a protective agent, which is required by state law. The county also was obligated to ensure that ISC always had “a custodial escort of the same sex” or maintained operational video and audio recording equipment for the entire transfer. When ISC transported Seelig, it did not have “a custodial escort of the same sex” or maintain operational video and audio recording equipment, according to the complaint.
Ramsey County commissioners unanimously approved the settlement Tuesday.
“Jennifer is a brave and strong woman who went through a terrible ordeal and has come through still fighting,” said J. Ashwin Madia, Seelig’s attorney, on Tuesday. “This settlement can’t undo what happened, but it at least allows for some closure so she can move forward with the next chapter of her life.”
Ramsey County officials declined to comment on the settlement Tuesday. A phone number connected to ISD appeared to no longer be in use.
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