SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a civil rights lawsuit filed by a fraud convict who claimed she was kept naked and humiliated while withdrawing from narcotics in the Weber and Davis county jails.

Portia Louder, 45, is serving a 7-year sentence in a Minnesota federal prison after pleading guilty in August 2014 to two felonies in an $11.6 million Utah real estate fraud scheme.

In December 2015, she filed a U.S. District Court suit against the Weber and Davis county sheriff’s offices. Louder spent time in those county jails on and off in April through August 2014 while awaiting sentencing. 

RELATED: Utah woman loses bid to withdraw guilty plea to $11M real estate scam

Louder’s attorneys withdrew from the civil case in December 2016 and Frank Mylar, a private attorney representing the counties, filed a motion for summary judgment before Judge Dale Kimball in May. Kimball signed a dismissal order Tuesday after Louder failed to hire a new attorney or continue the case by representing herself.

Louder was arrested April 22, 2014, for violating terms of her pretrial release by not submitting to an observed drug test. She said in court papers she had “a very substantial OxyContin habit” but was weaning from the addiction by taking Suboxone, a withdrawal medication.

In her suit, she alleged Davis guards and nurses did not give her needed medications for high blood pressure and drug withdrawal. She claimed she was handled with excessive force and her sanitation and personal safety were neglected.

A court affidavit submitted by Davis County Sheriff Todd Richardson included nursing staff logs showing Louder receiving expected nursing care during her five-day stay and beginning on the second day was given blood pressure medicine and a non-narcotic pain reliever to help with withdrawal symptoms.

Louder lodged more extensive allegations against the Weber jail, where she was sent May 2-14 to receive a mental health evaluation.

The suit said Weber jailers stripped Louder and put her into a holding cell without explanation, and during her stay she was “violently restrained while naked, and transported by several male officers.” 

The suit also said Louder “was made a display of humiliation as her holding cell … had a glass window front where other inmates and prison staff could easily see plaintiff without any clothing.”

Weber also deprived her of needed medications, Louder’s suit alleged.

In his dismissal motion, Mylar said Louder apparently “was a victim of her own actions, which created a threat to the safety of herself and others, and a threat to order in the facility.”

She refused to take anti-psychotic medications, Mylar’s document said. 

“When her behavior made it necessary to use force of any kind, the force used was solely for the purpose of maintaining order, or safely moving Ms. Louder to a different cell,” he said. “Force was only used when Ms. Louder refused to comply with the reasonable commands of deputies.”

Weber and Davis jail officials declined to discuss specifics of Louder’s claims, but in a December 2016 email, a Davis sheriff’s spokeswoman, Sgt. DeeAnn Servey, said, “It is not our policy to ever leave an inmate naked in a cell for extended periods of time. If an inmate is naked it is usually to shower alone or if they were being strip searched, which takes about 5 minutes when done properly. If you were alone in your cell I imagine you could take your clothes off, but they would be available to you at all times.”

Louder appealed unsuccessfully to have her criminal sentence vacated. She told Judge Robert Shelby she pleaded guilty in the fraud scheme only because she was afraid to go back to the Weber or Davis jails. But Shelby on Dec. 22, 2016, rejected her appeal, saying she “has not raised any doubt that her plea was made competently and without coercion.”

Louder, who is held in a low-security federal prison at Waseca, Minnesota, is still trying to get the sentence overturned. Her case is under consideration by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, according to court records.

You can reach reporter Mark Shenefelt at mshenefelt@standard.net. Follow on Twitter at @mshenefelt and Facebook at www.facebook.com/SEmarkshenefelt.