Court deals setback to jail rape claim

PORTLAND – For a second time, a federal magistrate has recommended dismissal of a lawsuit by a woman who claimed that she was gang-raped 30 years ago at the York County Jail.

Magistrate David Cohen reaffirmed the recommendation he made last year in the $20 million civil suit filed in 2002 by Kristin Douglas against York County and the York County Sheriff’s Department.

U.S. District Judge George Singal will consider any objections to Cohen’s recommendation before deciding whether to go along with it.

In March, the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals revived Douglas’ suit. The court concluded that U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby, who had accepted Cohen’s earlier recommendation for dismissal, erred in changing the focus of the inquiry to whether Douglas’ mental illness was of such severity as to lead the court to ignore the six-year statute of limitations.

Douglas was jailed for two weeks in 1971 on a misdemeanor charge when she was 21 and living in Biddeford. Her suit alleges that another prisoner, a trusty who had keys to her cell, let himself and other inmates into her cell and that they gang-raped her repeatedly over several days while jail officials failed to intervene.

The lawsuit seeks $20 million for physical and emotional illness and distress, lost earning capacity, medical bills, loss of enjoyment of life and other damages.