Woman in crisis was stripped, strapped to chair at Florida ICE center, suit says
A woman’s mental health deteriorated in solitary confinement at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Florida, where guards responded to her distress by stripping her naked and strapping her to a restraint chair, according to a new federal lawsuit.
Officers at the Baker County Detention Center in Macclenny first forced the woman into an anti-suicide smock after removing her clothes, the lawsuit says, but the smock “was damaged and left one of (her) breasts exposed.”
After the woman was restrained to the chair, she tried to cover herself by adjusting the ripped smock, but her other breast became exposed in the process, according to a complaint filed July 16 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on her behalf.
“Instead of covering her up, the officers then stared and laughed at her while her breasts were exposed,” the complaint says.
For the next several hours, “officers continued to walk by and ogle her through the window of her cell,” the filing continues.
The experience was extremely traumatic for the 33-year-old woman, who is a human trafficking survivor, the complaint says.
She was detained at the ICE facility, which is operated by the Baker County Sheriff’s Office, from May 2023 through July 2023, according to the ACLU of Florida, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Gibson Dunn law firm, the organizations representing her.
The groups are calling for the center to be closed, the ACLU of Florida said in a July 17 news release.
The woman is suing Baker County Sheriff Scotty Rhoden and other employees at the center, including a few officers, during her detention on four causes of action, accusing them of constitutional violations.
“Faced with a woman in crisis, Baker officers chose to demean and degrade (her) at every turn,” Sarah Gillman, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights’ director of strategic litigation, said in a statement.
Rhoden and ICE did not immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment on July 18.
In November, a civil rights complaint over the woman’s treatment was sent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, McClatchy News previously reported. A whistleblower disclosure was also filed on behalf of a former nurse at the facility.
According to the ACLU of Florida, DHS responded to that complaint and “confirmed several egregious conditions issues at Baker, including abuse by facility staff.”
When the woman was at the center, according to the November complaint, she was denied clean clothes, feminine products, showers and medical care.
“They treated us like animals,” the woman, who is Colombian, said in a translated video testimonial published by the ACLU of Florida on Nov. 20.
“They threw food at me, they insulted me. … They didn’t let me take a bath,” she said.
Nearly a month in solitary confinement
The lawsuit says the woman was wrongly put in solitary confinement after she asked for feminine hygiene products and couldn’t understand officers’ English commands.
When she was first detained at the detention center in May 2023, officers wrongly identified her first language as English and failed to communicate with her in Spanish, according to the complaint sent to DHS.
Despite the woman having a medical history of hypothyroidism, PTSD, depression and anxiety, the officers considered her as having no “immediate health needs or problems” because they failed to properly assess her, according to the complaint.
On May 25, 2023, she asked an officer for a “bathroom in English, then tried to explain she needed feminine hygiene products in Spanish, the lawsuit says.
The officer responded in English, but the woman did not understand, according to the filing.
That is when the officer became “irate and began to speak faster,” then started yelling at her in English, the July 16 complaint says.
Three other officers got involved as the woman continued to explain that she needed menstrual products to no avail, according to the complaint.
Afterward, she was put in solitary confinement, where her mental health deteriorated, the lawsuit says.
“When Baker personnel’s mistreatment caused Ms. Doe’s mental health to deteriorate to the point where she began to harm herself,” the lawsuit says she was then stripped and restrained to the chair.
The woman was released from the center on bond in July 2023, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages for her pain, suffering and emotional distress. She also demands a jury trial.
“Unfortunately, the abuse that (she) endured at Baker reflects a broader and deeply troubling pattern of inhumane conditions in ICE detention centers across Florida,” Amy Godshall, an ACLU of Florida legal fellow and immigrants’ rights attorney, said in a statement.
“Too many people are suffering in silence, facing horrific conditions, and unable to speak out about the dehumanization they face in ICE detention.”
Macclenny is about a 30-mile drive west from Jacksonville.
This story was originally published July 18, 2025 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Woman in crisis was stripped, strapped to chair at Florida ICE center, suit says."
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