N.C. County Accused of Corruption & Abuse

WILMINGTON, N.C. (CN) - Four Robeson County officers raped and sodomized a 21-year-old woman while allegedly "investigating" her in a criminal case, the woman says in a 153-page federal complaint that accuses Robeson County officials of widespread corruption.

The complaint claims that defendants "Hollis Britt, (Marty) Hunt, (Eugene) Seals and (Ed 'Boots') Jacobs all engaged in cunnilingus, fellatio, analingus and anal intercourse with Plaintiff, through the use or threatened use of force that was 'sufficient to overcome any resistance the victim might make,' and their actions were against Plaintiff's will and consent, and while each of these defendants was 'aided and abetted by one or more persons,' i.e. each other. This conduct constitutes the crime of first degree sexual offense."

She claims that members of the Robeson County Sheriff's Department repeatedly sexually assaulted her while she was in custody, and that Britt sexually assaulted her "while he was her pretrial release officer, and while she was in his custody as a criminal defendant on pretrial release."

The complaint states: "Defendants Hollis Britt, Marty Hunt, Ed 'Boots' Jacobs and Eugene Seals, individually and in concert with one another, acted unlawfully and maliciously, and used and exploited the color of law and their positions as law enforcement officers, when they came into Plaintiff s home, detaining and confining Plaintiff, and having sex with Plaintiff, including crimes against nature. Further, while committing the aforementioned illicit, illegal sex acts they deprived on Plaintiff, the defendants, i.e. Hollis Britt, Marty Hunt, Ed 'Boots' Jacobs and Eugene Seals, deprived Plaintiff of her right to liberty, and they did so without due process of law. Through these unlawful acts, these defendants impinged on Plaintiffs right to effective assistance of counsel in the criminal cases that were pending against her, thereby impeding the due course of justice, in violation of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution."

The complaint adds that the county never should have hired Hollis Britt as pretrial release officer at the Robeson County Offender Resource Center, because "It would have been plainly obvious to any reasonable official final policy maker that a person such as Hollis Britt, who had shot his wife to death during an argument, who had been allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter, and then, miraculously, escaped serving even his manslaughter sentence due to some alleged paperwork error, would have no regard for upholding the law."

The plaintiff is represented by William Dowdy of Lumberton, N.C.

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