Accused of rape, he found prison job

August 27, 2007

Adapted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The man had built a new career as a correctional officer at the Federal Detention Center when police knocked on his door in 2003.

Police questioned the married Air Force reservist about two boys' accusations that he had sexually assaulted them while working as a counselor at Children's Home Society in the mid-1990s.

The agency had fired the man after state Child Protective Services investigations in 1997 and 1998 found that he had sexually abused a boy and a girl, according to court records. Soon after that, he began work at the prison.

County prosecutors charged him in 2004 with one count of second-degree child rape and two counts of second-degree child molestation.

Prison officials moved him from his cook-supervisor job to the business office, where he wouldn't have contact with inmates. But in 2005, before the charges were resolved, he was returned to his kitchen duties at the facility, other guards said.

That's where a 27-year-old inmate named Jessica met him when she arrived to serve a four-month sentence for probation violations. She had pleaded guilty to destroying mail and stealing $300 for drugs while working in a U.S. post office in rural county.

Short and jovial, he began escorting Jessica alone to and from her job as a butcher in the basement-level kitchen.

"He got pretty grabby, pretty quick," said Jessica, who didn't want her last name used. "In the elevator, he'd be grabbing you and touching you."

Being cornered by the man triggered memories of a childhood rape. "I tried to tell him to stop, but it didn't work," said the mother of two boys. "He knew he had the power."

So she said nothing. In some part of herself, she believed she deserved it.

Then one day another inmate, who also worked as a butcher, asked Jessica about the man. The pair put two and two together.

The man had talked religion to get close to the second woman, who was baptized after arriving at the prison. Then came sexual innuendoes and elevator rides. He vowed to take care of her. "He'd put his hands on me, offer me candy," said the 27-year-old, now the mother of two children. "I was very scared to tell."

The two women confronted him. He said he would put $100 in each of their accounts if they "kept quiet," they said. Money was wired anonymously.
A correctional officer, who ran the food service warehouse, heard that the man had paid off inmates and reported it. Other guards also were asking questions. A prison investigator interviewed the women.

"How did the warden justify putting (him) down there after he was charged with child rape?" asked the correctional officer in a recent interview. "It was wrong."

The correctional officer, who had trained to be a cook-supervisor, believes she was passed over at the time because she was filing a sexual harassment complaint against her boss.

The two women aren't the only former inmates with complaints about the man.

A 34-year-old woman, who served a five-month sentence in 2005 for a probation violation, said in an interview that to avoid trouble she didn't report that he had "rubbed" her bottom by the kitchen's walk-in freezer.

Another inmate, who served a year on a drug conviction, said she told a lieutenant that the man sauntered behind as she scrubbed pots and whispered in her ear. "He told me I had a nice butt," the 27-year-old mother of three children said in an interview. "I was just really uncomfortable. I froze."

The lieutenant advised her to report "if it happened again," she said.

A fifth former inmate refused to discuss the man, saying she was "filing a lawsuit."

The man quit in 2005 and pleaded guilty a few days later to one count of second-degree child rape and one count of first-degree child rape. He was sentenced to six months in the county jail.

A registered sex offender, the 41-year-old man did not want to discuss the matter when contacted two months ago at his pizza delivery job. Last month, he was jailed on a probation violation.

His attorney said the man denies the former inmates' allegations.

During the time the man is alleged to have been abusing inmates, he was in sex offender treatment and passed regular polygraph tests. "That he would offend during that period of time, I'm more than incredulous," the attorney said.

After the man resigned, Jessica's attorney complained to prison officials. She was released almost three weeks early -- something Jessica believes was no coincidence. "I'd have liked to see him go to jail," Jessica said. "We're all in there doing time for our mistakes, but he gets to walk away."

The prison's report to the Office of the Inspector General, which investigates staff misconduct, said the man was accused of trying "to touch and kiss" inmates and pay them off. Justice officials didn't investigate, because the complaints were considered minor and the man had quit.

But former inmates want to know why prison officials failed to protect them.

As one victim said, "He was a predator, and they put him with all the women in the kitchen. It was ridiculous."