January 23, 2020 | Reading Eagle | David Mekeel
A woman who was sexually abused while being held at the Berks County Residential Center has reached a $75,000 settlement with Berks County.
The woman, identified in court documents only as E.D., had fled violence and sexual assaults in Honduras with her 3-year-old son and was seeking asylum in the U.S. She was 19 when she entered the country in 2014.
E.D. was sent by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to the Berks County Residential Center, which holds families while their asylum cases are decided. The facility is run by Berks County under a contract with ICE.
While at the facility, E.D. was sexually abused by Daniel Sharkey, a staff member at the facility. Sharkey, who was 40 at the time of the abuse, has been convicted of and imprisoned for institutional sexual assault.
E.D. had filed suit against Sharkey, Berks County and others involved with running the center, claiming a violation of her constitutional rights. The suit claimed that staff at the residential center failed to intervene and stop Sharkey's abuse of E.D., and retaliated against her when she reported him. Jury selection for a trial in that case was scheduled to begin Friday.
The settlement, which E.D.'s attorney's announced Thursday, means that the trial will not take place.
Su Ming Yeh, interim executive director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project and lead attorney for E.D., said she was pleased with the settlement and with saving her client from having to go through the challenges and trauma of a trial. She also said she sees the case as an affirmation for fair treatment of asylum seekers.