Lawyer: Harris County jailer raped Katy woman after pot arrest

A staff member walks down a hallway in the Harris County jail, Thursday, March 29, 2018, in Houston. ( Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle ) A staff member walks down a hallway in the Harris County jail, Thursday, March 29, 2018, in Houston. ( Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle ) Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle Photo: Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Lawyer: Harris County jailer raped Katy woman after pot arrest 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

Emma Lopez-Pound assumed that when a Katy ISD police officer pulled her over in early March, she’d get a traffic ticket. Instead, she ended up in the Harris County jail on misdemeanor marijuana charges.

Hours later, she alleged, a jail guard raped her.

In the days since, the wife and 26-year-old mother of two young children has lost her job at the gym where she worked as a fitness instructor. She had to begin a regimen of harsh preventative medication to address potential HIV exposure, and start seeing a psychiatrist. She didn’t want to go outside for a long time, and still won’t do so without someone accompanying her. And when she looks in the mirror now, she feels anger — and revulsion.

“I feel like when I look at my body, it’s not mine,” Lopez-Pound said in an interview Friday afternoon, tears trickling down her face as she sat with her husband, Jordan Pound, in their northwest Harris County home. “I don’t even like looking at me. … I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

On Friday, the day after Lopez-Pound’s attorney filed a six-count civil rights lawsuit in federal court in Houston, many questions remain unanswered about the arrest and the alleged assault, which the sheriff’s office is investigating. The lawsuit, which does not identify the alleged attacker, was filed against Katy ISD Police Officer Daniel Sanchez and the city of Katy, the Harris County Sheriff’s office, unnamed sheriff’s deputies and Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and alleges that Lopez-Pound was the victim of false arrest, excessive force, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

“We need him to investigate this as thoroughly as if this were his mother or daughter, and we need full discovery in how to implement policy changes that those who are sworn to protect and serve are doing just that, and not harming those they have charge over,” said Mike Edwards, Lopez-Pound’s attorney.

Edwards said he was particularly concerned because his client said she reported the assault to jail staff shortly after the incident happened.

“The fact she reported this in the jail, and no procedures were followed to confirm or refute (what happened) — that’s egregious in itself,” the attorney said.

Jason Spencer of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said the agency is investigating the alleged assault.

“Investigators have interviewed the victim, reviewed video recordings from inside the jail, and are taking all other necessary steps to ensure a thorough investigation is conducted,” he wrote in an email. “No charges have been filed at this time. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office takes these allegations seriously, and we are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all inmates entrusted to our care.”

A spokeswoman for the Katy Independent School District was unavailable for comment Friday evening. The district previously told another news outlet that the fact Lopez-Pound was initially stopped in a school zone made the possession of any amount of marijuana an arrestable offense.

The sheriff’s office first learned of the alleged assault on March 2, after Lopez-Pound went to a nearby hospital and reported the incident.

The assault allegedly took place on March 1 in the jail’s inmate processing center, he said, a very busy area where persons arrested by various agencies are brought to be processed into jail.

“We have not received adequate information to identify any potential suspect at this point,” Spencer said.

The sheriff’s office has previously come under criticism over inmate safety. In 2014, then-Sheriff Adrian Garcia testified before a U.S. Department of Justice review panel on prison rape after a DOJ study found one of the four buildings of the Harris County Jail had one of the worst rates of sexual assault in the nation.

The study found the rate of sexual assault in the lockup at 1200 Baker St. was 7.6 percent, more than twice the national average, and the third-worst of 373 jails studied. In 2011, an internal investigation found “numerous” female inmates had sexual relations with jailers in the laundry rooms of two downtown jails, apparently in exchange for favors. Garcia fired six employees for misconduct, while two other jailers resigned or retired. After the Harris County District Attorney's Office investigated, one jailer was charged with improper sexual activity with a person in custody.

In their most recent audit under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, auditors in November found the sheriff’s office was “exceeding in its compliance with all investigative requirements” at the 1200 Baker St., facility, and noted that the department passed or exceeded all but one of the act’s requirements. So far this year, the department has recorded one other alleged sexual assault on an inmate by a staff member at the inmate processing center on 1201 Commerce Street, according to sheriff’s department records. That investigation is still open. Monthly PREA reports show six other allegations of assaults by staff on inmates at the department’s 1200 Baker St., jail, and four at the department’s facility at 701 N. San Jacinto. Of those 10 alleged assaults, one was listed as “unfounded” while the other nine remain open.

Whether or not the sheriff’s office has improved its standing in recent years, Lopez-Pound’s attorney said officials have a duty to thoroughly investigate this case.

“If it wasn’t a guard,” Lopez-Pound said, “they’d already have made an arrest.”

st.john.smith@chron.com

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