Plumas County has been named as a defendant in a federal civil lawsuit that alleges sexual assault, sexual harassment, gender violence and violation of civil rights. Filed by N.P. Doe, a resident of Santa Clara County, the alleged violations took place while she was an inmate in the county jail from 2015 through December 2017, according to the lawsuit filed in the eastern district of the U.S. District Court.
The county’s codefendant in the lawsuit is Brandon Compton, a correctional officer or correctional sergeant at the jail during the period of N.P. Doe’s detention. Compton is named in both his individual and official capacities.
The litigation, filed by Sacramento attorney Calvin Chang, is the third legal action against Plumas County and Compton alleging sexual assaults at the county jail. In January 2024, the U.S. Eastern District Court of California awarded $1.6 million in attorney’s fees and costs against the county in a sexual harassment case filed in 2018 by Tiffany Goodson, a former correctional officer. The Plumas County Board of Supervisors scheduled a March 4 closed-session discussion of this case. No action has ben reported.
In September 2024, M.S. Doe, a Reno, Nevada resident, filed a second case against the county and Compton. It is also a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging sexual assault, sexual battery and sexual harassment. M.S. Doe also claimed retaliation by the county when she was an extra-help worker at the county’s animal shelter in 2013.
The new lawsuit
N.P. Doe, the most recent plaintiff, is requesting a jury trial in her federal lawsuit filed Jan. 20. She alleges numerous acts of sexual assault by Compton while she was incarcerated at the Plumas County jail between 2015 and 2017. Compton, then a correctional officer with the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office, repeatedly raped her and forced her to perform oral copulation, the lawsuit claims.
Compton threatened N.P. Doe to remain silent about his alleged assaults, the plaintiff claims. After she was released she attempted to report them. The case accuses Plumas County of failing to investigate or prevent misconduct despite prior reports, citing the two previous lawsuits as evidence of systemic issues of abuse and retaliation. N.P. Doe was never interviewed by the Plumas sheriff’s office, she states in her lawsuit.
Systemic failures?
The lawsuit raises questions about long-standing systemic failures within the county, suggesting an alleged pattern of protecting staff accused of misconduct. Although county officials were aware of Compton’s behavior on previous occasions, they have been “indifferent” to the complaints of women alleging sexual assaults, N.P. Doe’s lawsuit states.
She is seeking an injunction to prevent the county and sheriff’s office from continuing “the unlawful acts, conditions, and practices” that brought about a third lawsuit involving sexual harassment at the county jail.
“The county has deliberately failed to actually or genuinely investigate complaints <that> Compton was sexually assaulting inmates,” N.P. Doe states in her lawsuit.
She also claims that officials actively retaliated against victims who attempted to come forward. These allegations mirror those raised in two recent lawsuits involving the same correctional officer: Compton.
Interim County Counsel Josh Brechtel declined to comment on the lawsuit. Compton was not available for comment.
N.P. Doe is seeking compensatory, general, and special damages against the county and Compton, as well as punitive damages against Compton. A trial date has not been set and likely will not be set for a year or more, her attorney said in an email.