A former employee of the Jackson County Detention Center filed a lawsuit against the facility and her former supervisor after she said she was sexually harassed and discriminated against.
Shanquilla Wiggins was a corrections officer for three years.
She felt sexually harassed and verbally abused by her supervisor, Anthony Brown, on a daily basis.
"You're just stupid. You don't know how to do nothing right. You act so dumb,” she said, recalling the comments she said Brown made to her. “You don't know what I would do to you. You so pretty. Can I just grab it?"
Wiggins is the sole provider for her family. She worked at the detention center until October 2015, when she said she could take no more.
She remembers that moment.
“When I was smacked and grabbed on my behind, and when he told me to shut up that I know I like it,” Wiggins said, tearfully.
41 Action News uncovered a similar lawsuit Brown faced in 2011.
Another female jail employee accused him of the same behavior. The case was settled and dismissed.
Wiggins said working there still takes an emotional toll.
"I would literally sit up and cry myself to sleep at night because I felt trapped. Because I felt like if I just got up and quit that my babies would lose out on stuff,” she said.
Wiggins believes other female employees feel the same as her, but many don’t want to report to leaders because they fear retaliation.
"I just want justice. Justice for women,” she said. “I want them to feel comfortable by going inside the building every day and not feeling like, ‘Is today going to be the day I get fired?’ ‘Is today going to be the day I get sexually harassed?’"
A spokeswoman for the jail could not comment on the lawsuit, due pending litigation.
She did confirm that Anthony Brown is no longer an employee.
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Lexi Sutter can be reached at lexi.sutter@kshb.com.
