Victim of convicted rapist files federal lawsuit

In addition to Sharpe, the lawsuit filed Feb. 14 in the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio, Eastern Division, lists Hocking County, the City of Logan, a county children services caseworker named Katie Hannah, and a former LPD police officer named Josh Mowery as defendants, for their alleged “active involvement in, and/or deliberate indifference towards the sexual and physical abuse the plaintiff as suffered.”

The plaintiff, who is an adult now and listed in the case filing, was a minor at the time of the abuse and will thus not be named.

Among the 25 separate claims listed in the suit, 17 are lodged against Sharpe, three of which connect to crimes he was criminally convicted of: rape, sexual battery, and gross sexual imposition. Other claims refer to stalking, threats of physical harm, physical abuse, and sexual acts while the plaintiff was incapacitated.

The suit alleges that Sharpe acted “in loco parentis” (in place of a parent) while the plaintiff was a minor. Her mother, the suit alleges, sent her to stay with the defendant “for weeks at a time,” and Hocking County Children Services “vetted Defendant Sharpe and found he was a safe individual to caretake Plaintiff, despite his tier one sex offender status.”

From his position, Sharpe allegedly had control of the plaintiff’s medications prescribed to maintain her mental health, which he knew induced sleep or physical incapacity. On at least one occasion, he is alleged to have “administered these drugs to Plaintiff under force or threat of force for the purpose of preventing her resistance” to sexual acts.

The plaintiff also alleges that Sharpe threatened the life of both her and her sister “when he perceived the plaintiff to be working against him.” She claims he also acted upon this perception by striking her at least once, both causing and intending to cause physical injury. Upon her moving out, Sharpe also allegedly stalked her in numerous ways, including parking in front of her new residence.

The other defendants listed in the suit are being sued for their alleged knowledge of and indifference toward the abuse of two individuals, while acting in an official capacity as government employees and mandatory reporters. Their inaction, the suit claims, constitutes gross negligence, a violation of civil rights, and a violation of equal protection under the law, laid out in the Fourteenth Amendment.

Josh Mowery, who resigned from LPD in May 2020 as part of a plea agreement regarding an unrelated criminal investigation, was a police officer when Sharpe’s abuse was ongoing.

During this time, the plaintiff frequently ran away from home to evade the abuse she was suffering and was stopped by LPD. Often, according to the lawsuit, the officer who returned her home was Mowery, a friend of the plaintiff’s mother, to whom the plaintiff allegedly confided her abuse.

In response to her disclosure, the lawsuit alleges, Mowery “disbelieved her claims of abuse without due diligence, called Plaintiff, and told her that he enjoyed arresting her.”

The claims against the City of Logan characterize the issue as institutional, alleging that LPD maintained both “a policy and practice” permitting its employees to discriminate allegations based on gender and to negligently or deliberately allow known sexual abuse.

Katie Hannah, employed by Hocking County Children’s Services and a former caseworker for the plaintiff, was also allegedly notified of the abuse, to which she is alleged to have responded by calling the plaintiff a “liar” and not reporting what she was told, as she is required by law.

Further, the suit claims, Hannah and HCCS generally were aware that Sharpe acted as “caretaker for the Plaintiff, willfully permitting him to have access to Plaintiff.” This despite their knowledge of Sharpe’s sex offender registration, and the plaintiff’s fathers protests that she “not be left alone with (Sharpe), because (he) was a registered sex offender.”

His publicly available status should have immediately triggered an investigation into the allegations, the suit claims; Hannah and HCCS’s failure to act upon “numerous opportunities” allegedly allowed his abuse to continue, not only against the plaintiff but also other victims of Sharpe.

As part of the damages in the suit, the plaintiff alleges that the various defendants listed caused her distress and dysfunction socially, emotionally, and professionally. As result of her abuse and the failure of multiple parties to stop it, she claims she “had and continues to have difficulty reasonably or meaningfully interacting with others,” has suffered “substantial emotional distress, anxiety, nervousness, and fear,” and due to the trauma and its myriad effects “has lost and/or will lose wages as a result of the wrongful acts alleged herein.”

The plaintiff is seeking relief through compensatory, economic, non-economic, punitive, and statutory damages, as well as legal costs incurred. A specific monetary amount was not listed in the initial court filing.

Email at rmorris@logandaily.com