Silverdale Detention CenterA 53-year-old local woman has sued the private corporation that runs the Silverdale Detention Center, along with a Texas sheriff, after what she alleges was an illegal arrest followed by beatings at the center.
Attorneys for Donna L. Johnson filed the $500,000 lawsuit on Nov. 29 in federal and state courts. Corrections Corporation of America and Sheriff David Duke of Wichita County, Texas, have been served with notice of the lawsuit, court records show.
Duke said in a phone interview Friday that Johnson took money from officers in his department and others for photography work. She promised to return the finished photos in six weeks, and six months later wasn’t responding to phone calls, he said.
Johnson’s lawsuit claims she met Duke at a Houston law enforcement convention in early 2011. She was offering to photograph sheriffs’ staff through her company, Cherokee Studios.
Later, Duke contacted her and asked her to photograph his staff. She arrived at the Wichita County Sheriff’s Office on July 23, 2011, and photographed the staff from July 25-28. Then she returned to Hamilton County to process orders, the lawsuit states.