Rape victim suing county after being jailed following courtroom collapse

A mentally ill rape victim is suing Harris County and the county's law enforcement agencies for jailing her over the Christmas holidays after she had a psychological breakdown on the witness stand while testifying against her attacker. The victim's face has been blurred in this photo to protect her identity. less A mentally ill rape victim is suing Harris County and the county's law enforcement agencies for jailing her over the Christmas holidays after she had a psychological breakdown on the witness stand while ... more Photo: Sean Buckley & Assoc. PLLC Photo: Sean Buckley & Assoc. PLLC Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Rape victim suing county after being jailed following courtroom collapse 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

A mentally ill rape victim is suing Harris County and the county's law enforcement agencies for jailing her over the Christmas holidays after she had a psychological breakdown on the witness stand while testifying against her attacker.

The woman, who is not identified by name in the lawsuit filed in a Houston federal court on Monday, is seeking unspecified damages.

"The prosecutors, for their own convenience, just wanted to dominate and control my client," said Sean Buckley, the attorney representing the woman. "And the best way for them to do that was to put her in the Harris County jail as a material witness."

Buckley noted that the district attorney's office, the largest in Texas, has an entire division dedicated to helping victims, including shepherding victim families to court and making sure they understand the process.

"It goes beyond just negligence," Buckley said. "The DA's office could have resolved this by just giving her victims' services and helping her instead of trying to control her out of laziness."

Buckley said the 25-year-old woman with a history of bipolar disorder had a psychological breakdown while testifying against her attacker in December. She ended up walking into traffic in front of the Harris County Criminal Courthouse before she was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward of St. Joseph's Hospital.

After she was released from the psychiatric ward, Buckley said, prosecutors used a state law designed to corral uncooperative witnesses to have her detained by the sheriff's office. She was arrested and put in general population in the Harris County jail.

While she was there, according to the lawsuit, another inmate attacked her and smashed her head into the concrete.

Before she was able to testify, Buckley said, she did not receive her medication and had another psychiatric break. During a confrontation with a jailer, the woman apparently took a swing and was punched in the face by the jailer.

The woman was then charged with assaulting a jailer, a criminal case that was pending until after she testified.

She was able to later testify against her attacker, a serial rapist named Keith Hendricks who was sentenced to two life sentences.

Officials with the Harris County Sheriff's Office said they are looking into the allegations and noted initially, that the jail is the custodial agency and were required to follow the court orders filed by the prosecutors in the case.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office did not comment immediately on the lawsuit.

"The only response from anyone should be, 'I am so sorry. This is something that we need to look at very closely, we are investigating it and this is just tragic,'" Buckley said. "Any other kind of wiggling out of it is just another version of victim blaming."