When asked by the Washington Blade on Monday for her reaction to a lawsuit filed last week by a gay employee of more than 20 years at the D.C. Jail that accuses his supervisors and fellow employees of subjecting him to anti-gay slurs, discrimination, and threats, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she could not comment on the specifics of a pending lawsuit.

“Certainly,” the mayor said when asked if her office was looking into the issues raised by the lawsuit. “And especially when there is a lawsuit, you know there is not a lot I can say about it,” she said. “But we look at all allegations to make sure that we’re addressing anything acutely but also dealing with the lawsuit itself,” the mayor said.

The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of D.C. on behalf of Sgt. Deon Jones, a Department of Corrections employee who has worked for many years as a medical liaison at the D.C. Jail, alleges that Jones has endured years of verbal harassment, demeaning anti-gay slurs, and intimidation and threats by fellow officers and supervisors for being an out gay man.

The lawsuit also charges that Jones’ fellow employees failed to come to his assistance during at least one incident in which an inmate threatened to sexually assault Jones and “cut his throat.”

Filed in D.C. Superior Court on Nov. 17, the lawsuit names four of Jones’s supervisors and one co-worker along with the D.C. government as defendants in the case.

The Blade asked the mayor about the lawsuit at a Nov. 22 press conference on holiday safety tips for D.C. residents and stepped-up efforts by D.C. police to confiscate illegal firearms.

“But let me just say this,” Bowser said in response to the Blade’s question about Jones’s lawsuit. “Let me kind of take a step back about the jail and our approach to making sure that the jail is working for our residents who have to be there,” she said. “COVID, as I have said, has upended a lot, and the operation of the jail is no different. Our focus has been on the safety of our residents, and we have been able to keep outbreaks of COVID to a minimum at the D.C. Jail,” she said.

“But it’s also created a lot of strain,” the mayor continued. “And strain being in a locked facility restricted in a lot of ways from activity that had been normal in the jail,” she said. “Being able to have their lawyer visit, lawyers coming in and out or being able to walk around, go outside, take advantage of all the programs that we offer,” Bowser said. “That is significantly restricted to keep down incidents of COVID. So that presents a lot of strain.”

The mayor did not say whether she was suggesting that some of the concerns raised by Jones in his lawsuit may be related to stress and strain brought about by COVID-related restrictions placed on the jail.

“It’s also a lot of strain on our guards, who’ve also been impacted by COVID,” Bowser said. “And how we are able to make sure we have enough people on duty, that they have enough rest, they’re not working too many hours,” she said. “So, we’re looking forward to a time when we can roll back some of those COVID protocols in the jail and to keep the incidents of COVID down. And I know that will improve the operations.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, which oversees the operation of the jail, did not respond to a request from the Blade for comment on the lawsuit.

Under court rules, the city has 21 days to file court papers responding to the allegations made in the lawsuit, including the charge that the Department of Corrections employees and supervisors named in the lawsuit violated the D.C. Human Rights Act in their alleged discriminatory behavior toward Jones.

“I have been tormented and abused so badly, my life has changed,” Jones said in a statement released by the ACLU. “The discrimination and hostile work environment I faced has been devastating. I have suffered depression, PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] and anxiety attacks,” he said. “In spite of it all, I continue to do my job and lift my head up.”