CHARLESTON – A Monongalia County woman accuses employees of the North Central Regional Jail of violating her constitutional rights by forcing her to have sex with another inmate.
Darlene Riggleman filed her complaint in Kanawha Circuit Court against Administrator Joseph Wood, Captain James Leary, C.O. Daniels, the West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority and unnamed defendants.
According to her complaint, Riggleman was incarcerated at NCRJ in Doddridge County in November 2019 when she was subjected to abuse at the hands of Daniels and the unnamed defendants when Daniels forced her to engage in sexual conduct with another female inmate.
In addition to this incident, Riggleman’s complaint says there have been other issues at NCRJ since it opened. Those include officers speaking in a threatening manner to inmates, ordering inmates to physically assault other inmates, administering excessive physical punishment, severely beating inmates to cause permanent physical damage and other incidents of forcing female inmates to engage in sexual acts.
She also accuses the defendants and other jail authority agents of a conspiracy to conceal the misconduct by either ignoring or covering up such abuses as well as of negligent hiring, retention, supervision and training.
Riggleman says the defendants jointly and severally deprived her of her federal and state constitutional rights, specifically the Fourth, Eighth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
She accuses the defendants of harassment, unwelcome touching of her person, civil battery, civil assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, outrageous and atrocious conduct, invasion of her right to privacy, civil conspiracy and common law negligence.
Riggleman says she has suffered anxiety, humiliation, annoyance, inconvenience, pain, suffering, mental anguish, loss of ability to enjoy life, physical injury, medical and pharmaceutical expenses and other damages.
She seeks joint and several compensatory damages, punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
Riggleman is being represented by Kerry Nessel of The Nessel Law Firm in Huntington. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Tera Salango.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 21-C-979
