MILWAUKEE, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A former inmate at a Wisconsin jail says a guard assigned to escort her to medical appointments raped her while she was pregnant and soon after she gave birth.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Milwaukee, the woman, identified only as "Jane Doe," says at least one of Xavier Thicklen's assaults was filmed by a security camera in the Milwaukee County Jail, Courthouse News Service reported Tuesday. She says Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, named as a defendant in the lawsuit, allowed Thicklen's "abuse of his authority to go wholly unchecked."
Thicklen has been charged with five counts of sexual assault. He pleaded not guilty at a hearing Feb. 13, WITI-TV, Racine, reported.
In her complaint, "Doe" says Thicklen after his first assaults told her he would have her transferred to maximum security if she reported the rapes. She said she feared that would harm her unborn child because of the limited opportunity for exercise and because inmates in maximum security get only "nutriloaf," a mixture designed to be unpalatable.
Three of the assaults occurred early in her pregnancy, the woman said. Four days after she gave birth, she charged, Thicklen forced her to perform oral sex while she was still in the infirmary, and the fifth time he allegedly raped her after removing her from her pod on the pretext of taking her for a medical visit.
