By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

AUBURN – A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by a jail guard two years ago has sued the jailer, along with Androscoggin County and its sheriff.

The civil action seeks compensation for general damages as well as for violating her constitutional rights, for assault, pain and suffering and emotional distress. It also seeks punitive damages from Richard Adams of Auburn, the jailer.

Filed on behalf of a woman who now lives in New York state but who lived in Auburn at the time, the lawsuit contends that the county demonstrated deliberate indifference and is guilty of cruel and unusual punishment.

The suit claims Sheriff Ronald Gagnon also is guilty of cruel and unusual punishment and that he maintained a policy of deliberate indifference toward sexual assaults against inmates.

Adams’ conduct, says the suit, “was intentional and malicious” as well as “deliberate and outrageous, as to be beyond all bounds of decency.”

Adams was charged with gross sexual assault – Maine’s equivalent to rape – by sheriff’s deputies shortly after the woman, then 25 and a jail inmate, complained of the assault.

According to the lawsuit, the woman had to call a rape counselor to report that Adams had forced her to undress for him in a cell block and then made her perform oral sex on him after other jailers ignored her attempt to tell them of the assault.

Adams, who was suspended after his arrest, admitted to a plea-bargained Class D assault charge before the case came to trial in June 2004. He paid a $1,000 fine.

At the time of the incident in the jail, the woman was serving time for assaulting another woman in Lewiston.

At Adams’ sentencing, the woman read aloud a letter to him.

“I’ve known you for five years,” she said then. “I’ve known you to be a trustworthy officer. But, on that Thursday night, you must have forgotten who you were.

“I will never be able to trust another law officer again,” she added.

Adams, who no longer works at the jail, doesn’t have a phone listed under his name in Auburn and couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

Chief Deputy Guy Desjardins said his boss, Sheriff Gagnon, wouldn’t comment on the lawsuit, but noted that he had been served with it.

County Clerk Patricia Fournier said the suit had been forwarded to the county’s insurance adjuster with the Maine County Commissioners Risk Pool. A spokesman for the pool didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

Kenneth J. Albert III, the woman’s lawyer, said the county, Gagnon and Adams have 21 days to file their response to the suit.

He said he has had preliminary talks with the county’s insurance adjuster about a settlement, but hadn’t yet spoken with any lawyers representing any of the defendants.

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