CHARLESTON – Another lawsuit has been filed related misconduct and sexual assault by state parole officers working in the Parkersburg office.
The plaintiff, identified only as C.J., filed her complaint January 26 in federal court against David Jones, Matthew Currence and Robert Arnold. All three of the defendants worked as parole officers for the West Virginia Division of Corrections & Rehabilitation. Jones was regional director of parole, Currence was a senior supervisor for parole officers, and Arnold was Director of Parole Services and the most senior in the chain of command for supervisors for Jones and Currence.
According to the complaint, C.J. was a parolee under the supervision of the Parkersburg office of the WVDOCR. She was placed under the direct supervision of Jones.
Bryan
The plaintiff says Jones engaged in an ongoing practice of sexual assault, sexual abuse and exploitation while she was under his supervision.
“He subjected plaintiff to constant and numerous instances of unwanted and illegal sexual advances, exploitation, harassment and coercion,” the complaint states. “This included … unwanted touching, unwanted sexual conversation, unsolicited photos of a sexual nature as well as coercing plaintiff into engaging in actual physical intercourse on at least two occasions.”
She says Jones also conducted her court-ordered drug screens himself at her apartment instead of the parole office. If she tested positive, she says Jones wouldn’t report it and would reschedule the screening. He later discontinued the screens completely, she says.
That, she claims, allowed her to continue taking drugs and, because of that, she nearly died on May 18, 2021, of a drug overdose.
The plaintiff says Currence and Arnold failed to properly supervise Jones when he was targeting her and either were aware or should have been aware of his conduct.
She also says Jones was the supervisor of a parole officer named Anthony DeMetro, who was under investigation by the FBI for the same conduct toward other female parolees and was named last year in at least five other federal lawsuits, including another filed by her attorney John H. Bryan.
In the other complaint filed by Bryan, the plaintiff identified only as A.D. makes similar claims against Jones, Currence and Arnold. She also names DeMetro in her complaint, saying he sexually assaulted, sexually abused and exploited her. She says DeMetro touched her and forced her to watch him perform sexual acts on himself. She had six audio recordings of DeMetro that she took to Jones. But, she says Jones ordered her to delete the recorded evidence, which she says she did out of fear of threatened retaliation.
In her complaint, C.J. says Jones intimidated and coerced her and others after the FBI investigation of DeMetro began. She says Jones told her and the others to conceal the misconduct of DeMetro and himself.
Jones was charged in a federal information on September 20 for using intimidation and threats to engage in misleading conduct with the intent to hinder the FBI investigation of DeMetro and the Parkersburg WVDOCR office.
C.J. accuses Jones of sexual abuse and exploitation by a state official. She says Jones violated her rights through the constant and numerous instances of unwanted and illegal sexual advances, abuse, intimidation, exploitation, harassment and coercion. She accues Currence and Arnold of supervisory liability. And she also accuses the defendants of conspiring to deprive her of her civil right and of violating the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution regarding cruel and unusual punishment.
She says she has suffered physical and emotional injury, emotional pain, anguish, humiliation, insult, indignity, loss of self-esteem, inconvenience, hurt, depression, post-traumatic stress and embarrassment.
She seeks compensatory damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life as well as psychological and emotional distress. She also seeks punitive damages, attorney fees, court costs and other relief in addition to injunctive relief requiring appropriate training, supervision and discipline.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 2:23-cv-00063