Lawsuit claims Michigan corrections officers filmed inmate giving birth in custody
When Natalie Forrest gave birth last spring, she was in the Michigan Department of Corrections' custody at Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital.
A federal lawsuit filed by Flood Law, PLLC, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan alleges two corrections officers, including a man, stayed in the room through labor and delivery with body cameras operating when Forrest gave birth on March 6, 2025.
Forrest alleges in the lawsuit that her mother asked officers whether the cameras were recording, and an officer confirmed they were.
During the two days, the lawsuit claims additional officers, including a male officer, stood guard in the room while Forrest recovered and breastfed her child.
The lawsuit alleges that following the birth, Forrest's mother was invited by a nurse to photograph the baby in a separate room, when an officer walked in and warned her that a photo would add two years to Forrest's sentence.
"You still have constitutional rights, right? You still have the ability to invoke the Constitution. You can't abuse people, right? You can't assault people, right? You can't invade their privacy," said Forrest's attorney, Todd Flood.
The lawsuit claims that MDOC policy required cameras to be put in sleep mode in areas where there was a reasonable expectation of privacy.
The lawsuit also claims the American Friends Service Committee warned MDOC Deputy Director Jeremy Bush and Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility Warden Jeremy Howard on Feb. 17, 2025, in writing that recording women during strip searches is a felony under Michigan's voyeurism statute.
The lawsuit claims Howard told incarcerated women that cameras are not recording and that Washington received a warning on Feb. 18.
The MDOC revised its camera policy on March 24, 2025, according to Flood.
"Not only do we have the individuals, if the person in charge is the one that's supposed to have the buck stop with them, and it doesn't, and they turn the blind eye, that's why they're in the lawsuit as well," said Flood.
According to Flood, Forrest was a minimum-security prisoner serving a sentence for a nonviolent drug possession offense and was paroled in December 2025.
The lawsuit names three senior officials and five officers and asks whether video or audio from the birth was ever saved or viewed.
CBS News Detroit reached out to the MDOC to ask whether any employees were investigated or disciplined and what safeguards are now in place, but has not heard back.
"Overall, there needs to be a better mentality, a better team approach, and make improvements systemically, all the way from A to Z," said Flood.
Flood expects discovery to begin in the coming months, as the lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, attorneys' fees and a jury trial.
