Santa Barbara County agrees to settlement in lawsuit alleging sexual harassment of prison staff – edhat

Santa Barbara County has reached a settlement in a case involving a former inmate and a county jail employee. The lawsuit, brought by a woman who remains anonymous under the pseudonym Jane Doe, was scheduled to go to trial before a jury on Sept. 17, but the county decided to settle the case on Sept. 4.

The lawsuit stems from events in 2018, when Doe was sexually abused during his transfer from the main prison to a residential treatment facility called Bethel House by Salvador Vargas, a prison employee who was working as a release planner at the time.

According to court documents, Vargas coerced Doe into believing that she owed him her release, culminating in an attack in which Doe was groped and forced to perform acts without her consent.

The lawsuit revealed a pattern, pointing out that in the years before the attack on Doe, three separate sexual assault complaints had been filed against Vargas by other inmates. Those earlier complaints, the lawsuit said, were met with a degree of indifference from the appropriate authorities and a lack of thorough investigation of the complaints.

The lawsuit accused the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Office of a “policy of inaction” and “deliberate indifference” that facilitated the conditions for Doe's attack. Vargas eventually had to face the legal consequences of his actions, pleading guilty to two counts shortly before his trial scheduled for 2022. He is currently serving a three-year prison sentence.

The terms of the agreement have not yet been finalized, but details are expected to be made public in the coming weeks.

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