Former SC police officer, city sued after arrestees were allegedly assaulted
Two women are suing the city of Columbia, the Columbia Police Department and a former police officer alleging they were sexually assaulted while being transported to jail.
In two separate suits filed Monday, Jane Doe 2 and Brittany Brown allege the city, police department and former officer Caleb Hickmon-Payne are responsible for gross negligence and recklessness, Constitutional violations under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery after they were sexually assaulted by Hickmon-Payne during arrests on Sept. 6, 2024 and Oct. 27, 2024, respectively.
The filings mark the third lawsuit with similar allegations against the city, police department and Hickmon-Payne.
The city referred questions to the police department, which did not respond to requests for comment.
However, following Hickmon-Payne’s initial arrest in March — where he was charged with second-degree assault and battery and misconduct in office in connection with the assault of Taylor Ishmal, another detainee — Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook apologized for the former officer’s conduct.
“I apologize to the citizens of Columbia and everyone who wears this badge,” Holbrook said during a news conference on March 12. “I can assure you that this does not represent the men and women who make up the rank and file of this department. We are a department that demonstrates professionalism, accountability, fairness, impartiality and constitutional policing every single day.”
In the suit involving Jane Doe 2, attorneys from The Shealey Law Firm say that Hickmon-Payne took the plaintiff into custody on Sept. 6, 2024 after the woman was involved in a car accident and charged with driving under the influence.
Instead of transporting her to jail, Hickmon-Payne allegedly drove to a dark area behind a building at 2711 Colonial Drive. According to the lawsuit, he turned off his GPS unit — in violation of department policy — removed the woman from the back of his patrol car, uncuffed her and then forcibly raped her, the lawsuit claims.
Hickmon-Payne told the arrestee that he could “make (her) charges go away” if she had sex with him, according to the complaint. Jane Doe #2 claims she feared for her safety and life due to Hickmon-Payne’s size and because of the dark secluded area he had driven her to, the suit said.
In a separate suit, Brown alleges Hickmon-Payne sexually assaulted her in the back of his patrol car while she was intoxicated, following an arrest for DUI on Oct. 27, 2024.
Video footage from inside Hickmon-Payne’s patrol cruiser shows Brown sitting intoxicated in the back of the patrol car with her bodysuit unsnapped and outside her jeans, although a dash cam at the scene of her arrest shows the bodysuit fastened and tucked in, according to the suit.
Once at jail, Brown claims her underwear was missing, according to the lawsuit.
Hickmon-Payne was arrested a second time in October and charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct and misconduct in office.
Attorneys from the Shealey Law Firm argue that the police department was “deliberately indifferent” to Hickmon-Payne’s alleged pattern of sexual misconduct against women in his custody.
On March 13, Ishmal, represented by the Shealeys, filed suit against the city, police department Hickmon-Payne, alleging he sexually assaulted her during an arrest on Jan. 31.
Brown, Ishmal and Jane Doe 2 are seeking damages, punitive damages and attorneyss fees and costs, according to their lawsuits.
