by Patrick H. Moore
On June 17, 2013, Cameron Langford of AlterNet reported that Texas jailers at the Live Oak County Jail were sued by two former female inmates because they ran a “rape camp” where they “repeatedly raped and humiliated female inmates,” and forced them to masturbate and sodomize male guards, and one another.
The former inmates J.A.S. and J.M.N. brought a civil action in Federal court against Live Oak County and its former jailers Vincent Aguilar, Israel Charles Jr. and Jaime E. Smith.
The three guards were arrested in August 2010 and charged with sexual assault. Two of the guards, Smith and Aguilar are now incarcerated in Texas state prisons. The third jailer Charles is not currently in custody. It is unknown whether he has charges pending.
Live Oak is a sparsely settled county in south central Texas.
The complaint reads like every woman’s worst nightmare:
“In addition to the repeated sexual assaults, numerous female inmates were sexually harassed. Certain male guards would strip the female inmates of their clothing and provide only shaving cream to conceal their genitalia. Certain male guards would sometimes force the female inmates to shower in front of them while instructing them to shave their vaginas. In other instances, while detailing their degenerate sexual fantasies, the jailers would pin the girls against a wall, grope their persons, verbally berate them, digitally rape their vagina and/or anus, then force them to perform oral sex.
“In order to facilitate their carnal impulses, these guards would withhold food and water, engage in physical abuse, restrict privileges and verbally and emotionally abuse the women – even threaten to kill them in order to compel their compliance.”
Plaintiff J.A.S. was arrested on a simple marijuana possession charge in July of 2010. Ironically, the charges were later dismissed, but not before her disastrous designation to the Live Oak County Jail.
Not every jailer at Live Oak was purely evil. In fact, shortly after J.A.S. arrived, she was taken aside by a guard she knew only as Jesse and warned to stay away from Aguilar and Smith. When she asked Jesse why he simply told her to trust him and refused to say more.
The criminally cunning guards knew where to take inmates to avoid having their sexual assaults recorded by the jail’s surveillance system.
The complaint states that J.A.S.’s assailants told her that she “belonged to them” and that she was their “sex slave.”
J.M.N. and J.A.S, who are represented by Ronald W. Armstrong II of San Antonio, seek punitive damages for civil rights violations, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Based on the alleged facts of the case as set forth in the complaint, which are supported by the fact that Smith and Aguilar are already serving prison sentences, it seems likely that the two female victims have a very good chance of winning at trial. Although Smith and Aguilar could well be financially insolvent, J.M.N. and J.A.S. would appear to have a very good chance of collecting any damages they are awarded because under the theory of vicarious liability, Live Oak County is presumably responsible for Smith and Aguilar’s egregious conduct, which, in my opinion, is as it should be.