Female inmate housed with violent male convinces jury to punish deep-blue state prison system

Deep-blue jurisdictions that elevate gender identity over sex found themselves out of alignment with their constituents in midterm elections, with Colorado and Washington state voters joining those in Arizona and Nebraska in approving bans on males in girls' sports.

Democratic strongholds are now finding themselves at odds with juries when it comes to harms attributed to gender identity.

Nine months after a suburban New York City jury awarded $2 million in damages to a detransitioner against her medical providers for malpractice, setting off alarm bells in the so-called gender-affirming care industry, a Tacoma, Washington, jury awarded $150,000 in damages to a former prisoner for constitutional violations related to coed placement.

Mozzy Clark sued the Washington State Department of Corrections and Washington Corrections Center for Women staff nearly two years ago for violations of the First, Eighth and 14th amendments, forcing her to "share a cell with a 6 foot, 4 inch biological male who was known to be a violent, convicted sexual predator."

She'll get a chance to extract more in damages from DOC in February, when another jury trial starts for alleged negligence in WCCW, her lawyer David Pivtorak said Monday shortly after the verdict was announced. 

"I am so sorry that this is what it takes for the system to acknowledge that it is a female human rights violation to house predatory, opportunistic men in women’s prisons – but I’ll take it," said Amie Ichikawa, whose ex-offender nonprofit Woman II Woman represents female inmates against male placement in their prisons, especially in California.

The damages award is a "modest sum," said the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, another plaintiff in litigation against DOC on behalf of its members in WCCW. The state moved to dismiss FAIR's suit last month, before Clark's victory and FAIR's Nov. 12 response.

It's represented by America First Policy Institute, which threatened to sue Washington last summer unless it rescinded the self-identification policy and "immediately" removed all males from WCCW. AFPI publicly shared a recording of a female inmate – now identified as co-plaintiff Faith Booher-Smith – describing her then-recent alleged assault by Williams.

DOC and Secretary Tim Lang make the farfetched argument that "a woman who was beaten by a male inmate [...] who must still eat, walk, and use the bathroom alongside other male inmates housed there because of Defendants’ reckless and unlawful policy permitting males to house with female inmates, has suffered no injury traceable to that policy," the response says.

The defendants acknowledge Deputy Secretary Scott Russell is "the final decisionmaker on every inmate-transfer request" and that Lang can "rescind the policy at will and [he] decides appeals under it," yet claim they have "no connection to its enforcement," the response says.

The transgender transfer policy "exclusively benefits males and burdens females" because the former get to enjoy a women's prison designed for the latter, the response says. 

"Defendants have been repeatedly put on notice through litigation, a senior official’s own acknowledgment, FAIR’s written notice to the Secretary, dozens of Resolution Requests, and Booher-Smith’s assault, of the specific harms the Policy imposes on women," and yet they made a "deliberate choice to shift risk and institutional burdens onto females," it says.

"We have written multiple letters to the WA DOC and the DOJ on behalf of these women neglected and harmed as a result of identity politics and ideology," yet Washington's self-ID policy remains, FAIR said. (The Justice Department launched a civil rights probe of WCCW shortly after FAIR sued.)

"The elections last week means [sic] we must remain vigilant in our efforts," FAIR said, referring to lawsuits and elected officials who are "racing to undo" successful voter initiatives against gender ideology like those for girls' sports. It asked supporters Friday to resume financial backing that had waned in the past two years under a unified GOP federal government.

Staff told her 'if she complained it would be considered a hate crime'

Under DOC policy, officials review inmates' requests for "gender-affirming housing" – largely male inmates requesting women's prison transfers – "on a case-by-case basis," and are supposed to consider "history of violent infractions, substantiated sexual abuse or sexual harassment investigations, predatory behavior" and other security-related information.

"Roughly 2 percent" of WCCW's inmate population is transgender, a spokesperson told The News Tribune when Clark first sued. That would be about 15 inmates, using its average daily population in 2025, as stated in DOC's most recent Prison Rape Elimination Act report.

Christopher Scott Williams, reportedly denied transfer to WCCW in 2019 for his history of violence against women but approved in 2021 after assaulting a men's prison corrections officer, was already known among WCCW staff for "previous incidents of a sexual nature with his prior female cellmate" when they moved him to Clark's cell in 2022, Clark alleged.

He "continually talked to her in a sexually explicit manner, touched his genitals luridly in front of her, threatened [Clark] with sexual violence" and then, when prison officials "did nothing" about it, sexually assaulted her "multiple times," she alleged. (DOC's inmate lookup indicates Williams is currently in single-occupancy "restrictive housing" in a men's prison.)

"The only advice she received from prison officials to separate herself from Mr. Williams was that she could go on suicide watch," the suit says. Weeks after Clark filed a Prison Rape Elimination Act complaint, against the "active discouragement" of prison employees, Williams was removed from her cell but kept harassing and intimidating her.

The Tacoma jury found that corrections officer Gregory Brooks made "an intentional decision" to put inmate Mozzy Clark "at substantial risk of suffering the serious harm of sexual assault," the verdict form says.

He "fail[ed] to take reasonable available measures to abate that risk, in a way that was both objectively unreasonable and done with a subjective awareness of the risk of harm," and his "action or inaction cause[d] Mozzy Clark’s injuries," though Brooks' conduct was not "malicious, oppressive, or in reckless disregard" of Clark's rights, it said.

The jury absolved Sgt. Carrie Ann Williams of the "intentional decision" allegation by Clark. Sgt. Williams' first name is variously spelled throughout the litigation, including the verdict form, and was entirely different in the original complaint, then fixed in an amended complaint.

"Defendants told Ms. Clark that if she complained it would be considered a hate crime and actively discouraged her from filing any complaints," the suit says.

When Clark reported her cellmate's sexually threatening behavior, before the alleged sexual assaults, Brooks "laughed it off" and said inmate Williams traded sex with female inmates for, quote, a "bag of chips," the suit claims. 

The officer told Clark that Williams "was known to violently retaliate against women who complained" and went into detail about the male inmate's past behavior, including incarceration for sex crimes and masturbation in front of female guards at the men's prison, the suit says.

When Brooks finally shared Clark's complaints with Sgt. Williams, the latter "said she could not do anything for fear of retaliation from inmate Williams," Clark alleged.

All this shows "prison officials specifically knew about [inmate Williams] conduct and the dangers he posed, and not only failed to protect Ms. Clark, but actively ignored her pleas for help pursuant to official prison policy," the suit says.