Former inmate files lawsuit claiming she was raped by guard at Houston detention center

HOUSTON – A civil lawsuit filed in Federal Court, alleges a male prison guard at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Houston raped a female inmate in November 2015.

The former guard, Samuel Hawkins, 51, of Houston, was already criminally prosecuted and convicted for the federal crime of sexual abuse of a ward.

Hawkins was sentenced to five months in prison and was released earlier this year.

The woman he abused, 29, was wrapping up a five-year sentence for forgery related charges when she alleges in her lawsuit that she was raped in her cell.

DNA evidence confirmed the encounter, according to the lawsuit.

Channel 2 is not identifying the woman, because she was a victim of a sexual crime.

"He threw me down and forced me," the woman, who is mother to a young child, said during an interview with Channel 2 Investigates on Friday.

The lawsuit alleges that Hawkins had various forms of sex with the woman seven times.

"Now he's not even in prison anymore and I'm sitting here dealing with the pain and the hurt and the dysfunction from what he did to me," the former inmate said.

Both Hawkins and The United States of America are named as defendants. The former inmate is seeking $10 million in punitive damages.

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