Inmate says she was tied naked to chair in Union City jail

<p>A former inmate is suing the city for $10 million because, she says, jailers stripped her naked, strapped her to a chair and left her to be ogled for hours by male prisoners and guards.</p><p>Shakita Perdue, 28, filed a lawsuit this week in federal court against the city and the firm that formerly handled inmates' medical needs at the Union City-owned jail.</p><p>"I had never been treated like that before in my life," said Perdue, who was booked into the jail last summer on a drug charge. "It was a traumatic experience. It has messed up my nerves."</p><p>An internal report of the July 31 incident states jailer Tremata Anthony admitted strapping Perdue to the chair, but only after she became drunk and abusive, and threatened to kill herself.</p><p>Anthony wrote in the report that she took Perdue's paper gown, cut the inmate's hair and left her naked in a restraint chair because Perdue tried to strangle herself with the gown and with her braids. Anthony also wrote that she put pepper spray on the chair straps because Perdue tried to chew through them.</p><p>The South Fulton County Municipal Regional Jail is owned by Union City, but used by several nearby cities and governed by a five-member authority created by the Legislature. Palmetto Mayor J. Clark Boddie, a member of the jail authority, said he was familiar with incident but could not comment because the jail is named in the lawsuit.</p><p>Anthony was fired 17 days after the alleged incident for unprofessional conduct, according to the internal report, which was provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Perdue's lawyer. The report lists nine violations of jail policy that occurred during the incident.</p><p>The same report includes a statement from nurse Cathy Adams who wrote that Perdue was "held in the cage in the booking area until she was calm enough to be moved to the medical area."</p><p>A male officer offered to cover Perdue, but Anthony wouldn't allow it, another officer wrote in the report. An officer later hung a blanket over the side of the cage "so that other inmates could not look at her nude body," the report states.</p><p>Another nurse, Arlene Campbell, wrote in the report that when she arrived at work five hours after Perdue's arrest, the inmate was still naked and strapped in the chair, her genitalia exposed. Men throughout the booking center "were laughing and making remarks under their breath," Campbell wrote.</p>

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