Ferguson, Missouri: A black correctional officer has been accused of serious misconduct

Jaris Hayden, 29, raped a pregnant inmate in his custody before allowing her to escape from the city jail. He has been charged with public servant acceding to corruption, two counts of sexual contact with an inmate, and permitting escape over the incident, which took place in October 2013. The woman, a nurse who was several months pregnant at the time, has filed a lawsuit against Hayden. According to the federal lawsuit, the woman was taken to Ferguson's jail after she was arrested for giving a fake name after being caught driving with expired plates. Hayden told her, "You smell good" before putting her in a cell. After she complained of pains, she was examined by paramedics, who told Hayden that it was his decision whether to release her into their custody. Instead, he raped her in a boiler room, according to the lawsuit, and then let her out of jail through a side door, telling her to run away and tell anybody who asked that police in an adjacent city had picked her up. The lawsuit says that before going to an emergency room, she ran to a restaurant across the street to get a plastic bag for pubic hairs she saved during the encounter, and DNA tests confirmed that they were Hayden's.