Williams Cedar Teams with Co-Counsel in Class Action Civil Rights Case

Prison Sexual Abuse Edna Mahan, Civil Rights

On December 11, 2017 , attorneys from Williams Cedar and Mark B. Frost & Associates filed a class action asserting claims on behalf of women incarcerated at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, a state prison in Clinton, New Jersey. The complaint describes a years-long pattern of sexual harassment and abuse perpetrated by corrections officers at the facility. The plaintiffs assert that supervisory personnel at the facility and the New Jersey Department of Corrections tolerated a “persistent culture of abuse” and retaliation against women who complained about it. The conditions at EMCF have been the topic of recent news stories. The class action, Nobles, et al v. State of New Jersey Department of Corrections, et al, is filed in Mercer County, and includes actions under New Jersey’s Civil Rights Act and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. It seeks monetary damages and a court order requiring the Department to “implement policies and procedures sufficient to protect the rights of persons incarcerated at EMCF to be free of sexual abuse and harassment.”

As current events have borne witness, sexual harassment of women remains a serious problem in society at large. In jails and prisons, where women live under the power of frequently poorly supervised and seldom disciplined correction officers, harassment is common. The Nobles case, like other civil rights litigation, represents an attempt to provide some measure of justice to a population whose needs—and rights—are often ignored or treated with contempt.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys are Gerald J. Williams and Shauna Friedman of Williams Cedar, LLC and Mark B. Frost and Ryan Lockman of Frost & Associates. For more information, call a member of our civil rights legal team at 215-557-0099 or 856-470-9777 or contact us online.

Two Attorneys Join Williams Cedar Legal Team

The legal team at Williams Cedar is pleased to announce the addition of two new attorneys to their staff. The firm began earlier this year, as a merger of long-time colleagues from the Cedar Law Firm and Williams Cuker Berezofsky. A new partner and a new associate will join the firm’s eight existing attorneys and other staff members.

Diane Fenner, the firm’s new partner, comes with a vast range of experience in mass torte, and pharmaceutical and medical device litigation. She will, along with Kevin Haverty, bolster the firm’s involvement in these areas. Part of that support will involve representation of diabetics injured through the use of Medtronic’s recently recalled insulin delivery system.

Shauna Friedman, who worked her way through law school as a paralegal at Cedar Law, will now serve Williams Cedar as its newest associate attorney. Her extensive experience with personal injury and environmental litigation will serve her well in her new role. She is already hard at work as an integral part of several of the firm’s trial teams.

Williams Cedar currently represents victims of groundwater contamination and toxic chemical releases; injured railroad workers; military veterans in their claim for benefits; employees deprived of overtime compensation; victims of police abuse, malicious prosecution, and wrongful convictions; victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, schools, and other institutions; consumers in class actions; victims of civil rights violations; and a wide range of personal injury litigation, including victims hurt by defective machines, in truck and car crashes, or on negligently constructed or maintained premises.

If you are in need of advocacy in any of our practice areas, call the legal team at Williams Cedar at 215-557-0099. You can also contact us online for a free consultation. Williams Cedar represents clients throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and nationwide, with offices that are centrally located in Philadelphia and Cherry Hill, New Jersey.