Scammer
Banned
Two women were alone in this cell at the Kamloops jail when the Aug. 18 incident occurred.
A woman involved in a widely reported incident in a Kamloops, B.C., jail cell witnessed by several Mounties and jail employees says she never consented to having sex with another woman.
The plaintiff, who cannot be identified because she may be a victim of sexual assault, has filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court against her alleged female attacker, the City of Kamloops, the RCMP and the federal and provincial governments, as well as the seven men who allegedly watched the encounter on surveillance video.
The two women had been arrested separately for public intoxication and were in a cell commonly referred to as the drunk tank. Since the alleged Aug. 18 sexual assault, the plaintiff said in her statement of claim, she has suffered from nervous shock, anxiety and emotional trauma.
She said the four RCMP members and three city workers who allegedly watched for several minutes before intervening failed to protect her while she was in the cell.
She was too intoxicated to consent and was never told the other woman might be HIV-positive, she said.
Such incidents obviously open the door to lawsuits, said Victoria lawyer Erik Magraken, who is representing the woman. "What you're left with is a sexual assault or an aggravated assault, exposing the person with HIV to criminal consequences, but also civil consequences," Magraken said.
He said he was reluctant to go into detail about his client's action, but said that in principle the RCMP owe a duty to protect people in their custody. "If they fail to discharge that duty, if they ignore their duty and harm arises, the RCMP could be liable in these circumstances," he said.
The four police officers remain suspended from duty, while the city has cleared its three employees of wrongdoing and allowed them to return to work.
