July 26, 2019 | The Morning Call | Peter Hall
Faced with a federal lawsuit over a guard’s repeated sexual assaults of a Honduran refugee, employees of a Berks County detention center where immigrants are held, have asked a court to throw out the woman’s claims that her constitutional rights had been violated.
Lawyers for the director and employees of the Berks Family Residential Center argued they can’t be held liable for failing to stop what they characterized as a consensual sexual relationship between a guard and an immigration detainee.
In a decision earlier this month that bolsters the right of immigrants being held while their cases are processed, a federal appeals court rejected the county workers’ claims and cleared the way for a trial that could expose the inner workings of the controversial Berks center.