Orange County Jail Deputies Cleared In Inmate Abuse Lawsuit

Categories: Court, Crime-iny
Lawtis Donald Rhoden rapist.jpg
Rhoden 
Four years ago, an inmate in the Orange County Jail filed a lawsuit alleging that from 2004 to 2006 a group of deputies denied him clean clothes, clean bedding, rooftop exercise, mail, messages, toilets, water, medical attention and access to a complaint system absent retaliation.

But this month a federal jury unanimously sided with the Orange County Sheriff's Department, its jail deputies and managers that Lawtis Donald Rhoden's constitutional rights had not been repeatedly violated by their conduct.


Rhoden isn't the type of plaintiff that sparks sympathy.

He's a convicted serial rapist.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald accepted the jury's findings and closed the case.

According to the California Attorney General's Office, Rhoden--a registered sex offender who was born in 1949--is presently incarcerated, but state prison records contradict that status. 

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