NC prison officer says she was groped by supervisor — then fired after reporting it
A former North Carolina prison officer has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that her supervisor repeatedly groped her — and that prison leaders fired her after she filed a formal complaint about the sergeant’s actions.
The wide-ranging complaint by former officer Amber McNeill alleges that other misconduct was rampant at Morrison Correctional Institution, an 800-bed men’s prison near Rockingham. The lawsuit claims that a high-ranking official at the prison went so far as to order staff members to harass and physically abuse inmates.
In an answer to the complaint, the state Department of Public Safety denied most of the suit’s allegations. Department officials generally don’t comment on pending lawsuits and declined to do so in this case, a DPS spokesman said.
Christopher Sessoms, the former prison sergeant accused of sexual harassment, said the lawsuit’s claims are “not true” when reached by telephone. He declined to talk further with a Charlotte Observer reporter.
In early 2018, Sessoms was transferred to the prison’s medium custody unit, while officials there investigated claims that he had sexually harassed and assaulted another female officer, the lawsuit states. Sessoms also began making inappropriate sexual comments and advances toward McNeill, repeatedly asking her on dates, the suit says.
McNeill, who worked inside state prisons from 2016 to 2020, said she made it clear to both Sessoms and her superiors that she wasn’t interested in his advances.
But Sessoms’ inappropriate conduct “escalated,” the lawsuit asserts. He allegedly began making comments about McNeill’s breasts and buttocks. When she was working at the prison’s entrance, where she was required to pat down those who entered, Sessoms would deviate from his usual path so that McNeill would have to pat him down too, the suit says.
Sessoms several times demanded McNeill’s phone number, the suit maintains, and when she refused to share it, he improperly accessed an emergency contact form to find it himself.
Sessoms became McNeill’s direct supervisor, but despite her protests, his inappropriate behavior did not stop, the suit alleges. Instead, the suit says, he began groping her, the lawsuit says.
“Sergeant Sessoms would corner McNeill and make inappropriate sexual advances and remind McNeill that he was in a superior position to McNeill, implicitly threatening that she had no choice but to tolerate his assaults,” the lawsuit states.
Sessoms also threatened to write up any other officers who he felt were involved in a relationship with her, the suit states.
McNeill contends her supervisors were aware of her accusations but took no action to prevent Sessoms’ harassment or to move him to a different facility.
Sessoms, who resigned from the prison system in 2019, has faced several criminal charges since the 1990s, records show.
He was convicted of reckless driving to endanger in 1991 and writing a worthless check in 2016. He was also charged with assault on a female and assault by pointing a gun in 2016, but those charges were dismissed after a prosecuting witness failed to appear.
‘I knocked his teeth out’
McNeill contended the misconduct inside the prison wasn’t confined to a single officer.
A unit manager named Coritza Bennett would order officers to harass and physically abuse inmates, the suit contends.
“This abuse included bringing inmates into… Bennett’s office, covering the windows, playing music at a loud volume, and then physically abusing the inmates,” the complaint states.
One officer told McNeill that Bennett had ordered him to bring an inmate into her office and “rough him up.” The officer stated he had “smacked that m*********** so hard I knocked his teeth out,” the suit says.
The lawsuit also alleges that Bennett failed to provide one inmate protection from other prisoners who repeatedly beat him. In one case, microwaved water was poured down the inmate’s back, causing permanent scarring, the suit maintains.
Bennett could not be reached for comment.
In a 2017 investigation into corruption and abuse in the North Carolina prisons, the Observer heard from dozens of inmates and some prison staff who said officers beat and pepper sprayed prisoners who posed no threat.
Ten current and former inmates, along with two former staff members, described a pattern of unjustified assaults in 2016 at Lumberton Correctional Institution, located south of Fayetteville. Officers routinely beat handcuffed inmates in the “boom boom room,” a spot inside the prison that is not monitored by surveillance cameras, the inmates and staff members said.
McNeill stated that prison officials retaliated against her in multiple ways after she reported her complaints. After four years with the prison system, she was fired in April 2020, her lawsuit states.
In its answer to the lawsuit, DPS said the conduct of its officials “was at all times in accordance with the applicable standards of care.” The department also contended that it and its employees are protected from the claims by various immunity doctrines, which can shield public agencies and their employees from lawsuits.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sexual harassment and makes it illegal for employers to allow anyone to be sexually harassed at work.
News & Observer reporter Virginia Bridges contributed to this story.
This story was originally published October 5, 2021 at 11:47 AM.
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