Supreme Court Allows S.D. Jail Rape Case Go to Trial

The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for a trial over a lawsuit filed by an 18-year-old San Diego County jail inmate who was raped repeatedly by a homosexual cellmate.

The justices let stand without comment Monday a ruling that revived a lawsuit against San Diego County by Clifton Redman, who was assaulted in 1983 while in the County Jail in Chula Vista on burglary and theft charges.

“People who are in jail don’t have many rights, and the right to be free from multiple sexual assaults is a reasonable right,” said Betty Wheeler, legal director for the San Diego chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which participated in the federal appeal.

The ACLU has linked violations of constitutional rights to the chronic overcrowding in the county’s seven jails. The county is under court orders to ease cramped conditions in its jails because of numerous lawsuits, but a budget crunch has prevented new facilities from being opened.

The Chula Vista jail is under a court-ordered limit of 373 inmates, but often, it is over the limit.

The Supreme Court’s action upheld an 8-3 decision last August by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which concluded in a wide-ranging review that “a reasonable jury could find the county liable” for harm to Redman.

The 9th Circuit reversed a 1987 ruling by U.S. District Judge Leland C. Nielsen, who had dismissed Redman’s lawsuit before it was submitted to the jury on grounds that county liability had not been proven.

Redman, who had no prior convictions, initially was housed with youthful inmates but later was transferred to a two-man cell in the general jail population.

His cellmate, Kevin Clark, was a known aggressive homosexual who raped Redman over the next several days. Two other inmates later participated. All later pleaded guilty to sodomy charges.

Redman, now 27, no longer lives in the San Diego area. He was described in court papers as 5-foot-6 and 130 pounds when the assaults occurred.

Despite reported threats from Clark not to report the assaults, Redman told his girlfriend. When her mother complained, however, jail officials told her they weren’t operating a “baby-sitting service.”

Attorney William Daley, who is handling Redman’s case, said it now will return to U.S. District Court in San Diego for trial.

County spokesman Bob Lerner called the Supreme Court’s action disappointing and said it would be up to the Board of Supervisors to decide on a course of action. Those options are to proceed to trial or try to negotiate a settlement with Redman, Lerner said.