A veteran corrections officer in DC said coworkers repeatedly used gay slurs and accused him of having sex with inmates, ACLU lawsuit says
Provided by ACLU
- A two-decade veteran of the Washington, DC, Department of Corrections said he experienced homophobia at the agency.
- Sgt. Deon Jones, who is gay, faced "demeaning slurs" and "threats of violence," according to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU.
- As a result, Jones was diagnosed with PTSD and Major Depressive Disorder, the lawsuit said.
A longtime corrections officer in Washington, DC, sued the city and officials in the Department of Corrections, alleging supervisors improperly responded to his complaints of homophobic behavior from inmates and colleagues, the American Civil Liberties Union of DC announced Wednesday.
According to the lawsuit, also filed Wednesday by the ACLU-DC and the legal firm WilmerHale, Sgt. Deon Jones, who is gay, rose through the ranks at the agency and currently works as the medical liaison at the Department of Corrections, overseeing inmates who require hospitalization. He worked at the agency between 1992 and 2001 and again from 2006 to the present, according to the lawsuit.
Jones was subjected to homophobic slurs and language, sometimes in front of senior DOC officials, according to the suit. These slurs included "f----t, "old f----t," "f----t mess," and "dick eater," the lawsuit said.
Representatives for the DC Department of Corrections, Mayor Muriel Bowser, and the city of DC did not return Insider's request for comment.
Jones was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Major Depressive Disorder as a result of his conditions at work, the suit said, adding he had 15 panic attacks due to the incidents involving inmates or other corrections officers.
Slurs came from inmates and from his DOC colleagues, according to the lawsuit. Fellow officers at the DOC told Jones they "don't like f----t or sissies" and "hate working with f----ts," the lawsuit said. While the lawsuit focuses on recent incidents but it claims the treatment began "long before that."
The lawsuit alleges harassment from a senior corporal in 2006 and continued for years. In March 2006, the corporal assaulted Jones after he had complained to DOC supervisors about his behavior, according to the lawsuit.
More recently, in the fall of 2019, one DOC colleague frequently targeted Jones, including by asking him to "meow f----t" when she passed him, according to the lawsuit.
In one instance, Jones was accused of having sexual intercourse with inmates, which was false, according to the lawsuit.
On multiple occasions, his fellow officers refused his calls for help over the internal radio system when he was interacting with inmates, putting his safety at risk, it said.
"DOC has failed to adequately address this egregious behavior, and DOC supervisors have in some cases condoned it," the lawsuit said. "Rather than take appropriate measures to correct this behavior, DOC has instead continued to permit their employees and supervisors to subject Sgt. Jones to harassment and abuse because of his sexual orientation."
According to the lawsuit, supervisors also failed to assist Jones when inmates showed him their genitals, masturbated in his direction, and hurled gay slurs toward him, including "fuck you, f----t" and "eat my f----t ass out."
The lawsuit claims that Jones brought issues to his supervisors, who ignored them. It also alleged Jones brought complaints to the highest levels of the DC government, including to the office of Mayor Muriel Bowser. It also said Jones "suffered retaliation" from supervisors who refused to help him with "hostile inmates" and "continued hostile work environment resulting from his many complaints and reports of abuse."
Jones was also denied promotions due to his sexual orientation, the lawsuit alleged, as recently as August 2021.
In addition to his mental health disorders, the lawsuit said Jones lives with "uncontrolled diabetes" and has asked for accommodations to avoid the risks associated with contracting COVID-19. Jones was denied accommodations even though other employees received similar ones, the lawsuit said. He was required to work alongside inmates known to have tested positive for the disease, according to the lawsuit.
Jones is seeking compensatory, punitive, and consequential damages for a "loss of wages, loss of benefits, mental anguish, emotional distress, personal humiliation, indignity, embarrassment, inconvenience, stigma, pain and suffering, and damages to his personal and professional reputations," according to the lawsuit.
Jones has been involved in several legal claims against the city of DC.
The lawsuit references a settlement reached on July 19, 2019, describing it as "the most recent settlement," claiming the incidents and treatment based on his sexual orientation continued after the settlement.
Details of that settlement were not stated in the lawsuit, and the ACLU said it could not comment on the details because it did not represent Jones in previous cases.
The complaints date back to the 1990s when he said he had faced retaliation for exposing sexual harassment in the agency and was the victim of sexual preference discrimination. Jones also sued in 2000, the ACLU told Insider but said it did not have details of how that lawsuit was resolved.
He and another corrections officer also sued the city of DC in 2006 for sexual orientation discrimination and harassment, reaching a settlement with the agency in 2011, according to a 2020 brief filed in a DC appellate court. He was also involved in another case against the city in 2014, which similarly ended in a settlement in 2019, according to the same filing.
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