Jury rejects convict's prison rape lawsuit

Jurors today rejected a gay burglary convict's federal lawsuit claiming that six prison officials violated his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment by ignoring his pleas for protection from inmate rapes. Johnson had testified that prison gangs forced him to be their sex slave while officials never investigated his reports of abuse or kept him in a safer area for vulnerable inmates.

Johnson testified about nine hours over three days, saying some employees made fun of him during committee hearings and told him to fight the other inmates or get a boyfriend for protection. Five current prisoners testified, including one who said inmates had sex with Johnson and paid the prison gang that owned him with commissary items worth $3 to $7. After Johnson was moved to another prison in 2002, he didn't report any sexual assaults during his 20 months there. Last year a Wichita Falls grand jury did not indict 49 prisoners Johnson had accused of rape.

Oct. 18, 2005, 4:52PM
Jury rejects convict's prison rape lawsuit
Associated Press

WICHITA FALLS — Jurors today rejected a gay burglary convict's federal lawsuit claiming that six prison officials violated his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment by ignoring his pleas for protection from inmate rapes.

Roderick Keith Johnson's lawsuit had sought unspecified damages against six Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials at the Allred Unit near Wichita Falls, where he was housed for 18 months.

The jury of six men and six women deliberated nearly eight hours over two days. They could have found that some, all or none of the defendants were liable. The decisions did not have to be unanimous; 10 of the 12 jurors had to agree.

Johnson, 37, whose nearly four-year prison term ended in 2003, sought unspecified damages against assistant warden Richard Wathen; corrections officers Jimmy Bowman, Tommy Norwood, David Taylor and Onessimo Ranjel; and administrative technician Tracy Kuyava.

Administrative technician Tina Vitolo was dropped from the suit earlier in the trial. All still work at Allred except Ranjel, who is a state trooper. Each of them occasionally sat on a three-member committee that decides whether to move inmates to safer areas, based on prisoners' "life endangerment claims."

The defendants and other prison employees testified that they could not substantiate Johnson's half a dozen or so rape claims because he changed his stories or there was no medical evidence. They said Johnson usually seemed upbeat in prison, wearing tight pants and flirting with a corrections officer.

Johnson had testified that prison gangs forced him to be their sex slave while officials never investigated his reports of abuse or kept him in a safer area for vulnerable inmates.

Johnson testified about nine hours over three days, saying some employees made fun of him during committee hearings and told him to fight the other inmates or get a boyfriend for protection. Five current prisoners testified, including one who said inmates had sex with Johnson and paid the prison gang that owned him with commissary items worth $3 to $7.

After Johnson was moved to another prison in 2002, he didn't report any sexual assaults during his 20 months there. Johnson said he now takes medication for anxiety, depression and nightmares and still struggles with drug abuse.

Johnson also told jurors that he had not used cocaine in several months, but his parole officer testified that after failing a drug test Johnson admitted to taking drugs in recent weeks.

Johnson's 2002 lawsuit named 15 prison officials. But last year the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans dropped eight of the original defendants, including the department's executive director and the prison unit's senior warden.

Last year a Wichita Falls grand jury did not indict 49 prisoners Johnson had accused of rape.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3402351