A man was nearly beaten to death by a fellow inmate in Pierce County Jail and then sexually assaulted by a Washington state corrections officer after he was taken to a hospital with a catastrophic brain injury, two recently filed lawsuits contend.
In a federal complaint filed July 26, Pierce County is accused of failing to protect Nathaniel Woods, a 37-year-old sex offender, despite knowing that his status put him at risk for victimization in jail. A lawsuit brought July 25 in Pierce County Superior Court alleged that a Department of Corrections officer sexually assaulted Woods following the jail attack as Woods lay unconscious in a Tacoma General Hospital bed.
Attorney Nate Bingham, who's representing Woods in both lawsuits, said in an interview that the system failed his client.
"It doesn't matter if Nathaniel had a criminal conviction or not, he needed to be treated humanely and he needed to be protected from harm," Bingham said.
Spokespersons for the state Department of Corrections and Pierce County declined to comment on the allegations, citing ongoing legal proceedings.
"DOC does not comment on pending litigation, but the agency takes all allegations of misconduct by its employees seriously and investigates each thoroughly," DOC spokesperson Chris Wright said in a statement.
Woods was sentenced to nearly two years in prison after pleading guilty in July 2022 to failing to register as a sex offender for a third time. His status stemmed from a 2002 conviction as a juvenile for first-degree rape of a child, court records show. The federal lawsuit said that Woods was 12 or 13 years old when he "had a relationship with another minor."
Woods also pleaded guilty in July 2022 to taking a motor vehicle without permission, for which he was sentenced to four months in prison to run concurrently to his failure-to-register conviction, according to court records.
He was taken to the county jail on July 28, 2022, awaiting transfer to state custody. The federal suit claimed that the jail's corrections officers knew that "tank bosses" — a description for inmates unofficially in charge in jail housing units — were checking other inmates' court papers to determine who was a sex offender and should be attacked.
Woods was assaulted unprovoked by an inmate who slammed him on a concrete floor, knocked him unconscious and continued to punch and stomp on his head, the complaint said. The inmate was later convicted by a jury of first-degree assault for the attack and sentenced to 26 years in prison, court records show.
After the assault, Woods was taken to Tacoma General Hospital, where he was handcuffed to a bed and guarded at all times by a state corrections officer, according to the lawsuit filed in Pierce County. On the night of Sept. 4 and the morning of Sept. 5, 2022, a nurse discovered an officer lying in bed with Woods. The officer had an erection and told police that he didn't know where else to lay down, the suit said.
"Nathaniel was not competent to consent to sexual contact with (the corrections officer) due to his status as an inmate and his incapacity," the suit said. "Based on the circumstances, it is alleged that (the officer) made non-consensual and sexually motivated contact with Nathaniel."
The complaint, which also names the officer as a defendant, alleged that police and the state botched a rape investigation by not acting promptly.
Both lawsuits, brought on behalf of Woods by a court-appointed guardian and conservator, seek unspecified damages, legal fees and other relief deemed appropriate by the court.
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