TACOMA — A federal jury unanimously awarded $150,000 to a former inmate who sued the Washington Department of Corrections, alleging prison officials violated her constitutional rights by housing her with a biologically male transgender inmate who sexually assaulted her.
Attorney David Pivtorak announced the verdict Monday on X, stating that the jury in Tacoma found in favor of his client, Mozzy Clark, on claims of constitutional violations. Clark’s related negligence claims against the department are scheduled for trial in state court in February.
“Prison officials knowingly placed my client in harm’s way, disregarding her safety and basic human rights,” said Pivtorak, who represents Clark. “This lawsuit seeks to hold the Department of Corrections accountable for policies that enabled the victimization of women in their custody.”
Clark, a former inmate at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) in Gig Harbor, filed the federal lawsuit in December 2024 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. According to the complaint, she was housed in 2022 with Christopher Williams, who had been transferred from a men’s facility the previous year after identifying as a woman.
“My experience at WCCW was a nightmare,” Clark said. “I lived in constant fear, knowing that those who were supposed to protect me not only ignored my pleas for help but enabled my abuser. This cannot continue to happen to others.”
The lawsuit describes Williams as a convicted sex offender with a history of sexual predation, including prior incidents involving another female cellmate at the women’s prison and an alleged assault on a corrections officer while still housed in a men’s facility.
Clark alleged that Williams subjected her to ongoing sexual harassment and assault, including graphic sexual comments and threats, displaying sex toys, hovering over her bunk while touching himself, fondling her legs, breasts, and genitals, lifting her clothing without consent while she slept, and following her into bathrooms and showers.
Clark and her attorney claimed that corrections staff knew of Williams’ background but failed to protect her. Complaints were allegedly dismissed or laughed off by WCCW staff, and she was warned that raising concerns could be viewed as a “hate crime.”
A Prison Rape Elimination Act complaint eventually led to Williams’ removal from the cell, but only after weeks of alleged continued abuse, according to the filing.
The lawsuit asserted violations of Clark’s rights under the First, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments, including claims of cruel and unusual punishment and deliberate indifference to her safety. It also challenged broader housing practices at the facility that place biologically male transgender inmates with women.
Pivtorak alleges that prison officials “knowingly placed my client in harm’s way, disregarding her safety and basic human rights.”
Washington’s Department of Corrections maintains a policy that allows transgender, intersex, and nonbinary inmates to request housing and other accommodations consistent with their gender identity, evaluated on a case-by-case basis involving mental health, medical, and multidisciplinary reviews. The department has stated it takes all assault allegations seriously, follows protocols to separate alleged perpetrators and victims, and provides support services.
The case is one of several challenging the Department of Corrections’ housing practices. Separate litigation filed on behalf of the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism and another female inmate has alleged physical assaults by transgender inmates, including a convicted child sex offender, and sought to block certain transfers.
In May 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act into whether the women’s prison has failed to protect female prisoners from sexual and physical violence, harassment, and intimidation by male prisoners who identify as female.
Roughly 2% of the population at the Washington Corrections Center for Women has been described as transgender in earlier reporting, part of a statewide total of 347 transgender or non-binary people in Department of Corrections custody — 20 transgender individuals are at WCCW.
Clark is currently out of prison.
Author: Mario Lotmore
