By Garrett Cabeza
The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
SPOKANE, Wash. — At least 15 children incarcerated at the Spokane County Juvenile Detention Center were groomed and sexually abused by guards at the facility over the span of three decades, according to a complaint filed Friday in Spokane County Superior Court.
The lawsuit names the 15 plaintiffs by initials and seeks damages from Spokane County.
“For three decades, Defendant Spokane County employed multiple serial sex predators and granted them nearly unfettered power over children and adolescents helplessly locked in cells at the Juvenile Detention Center,” the complaint alleges. “Two guards in particular, William Lamb and Rafael Gray, exploited the power granted to them by Defendant Spokane County to groom and sexually abuse generations of kids — crimes ranging from the 1980s to at least 2010.”
Both Lamb and Gray have since died.
The guards openly flirted with the child inmates and provided candy, cards and extra time out of their cells, according to the lawsuit. The sexual abuse allegedly occurred throughout the detention center, including in cells, closets and a guard booth.
The complaint called the abuse the product of “extraordinary negligence” and a “continuing failure” by the county to protect vulnerable boys and girls who were 12 to 17 when they were raped by the guards.
Colin Prince, an attorney with Connelly Law Offices, which filed the lawsuit, called the years of abuse “the worst thing I’ve seen” in his legal career handling these types of cases. He alleged “total absence of oversight or supervision” from the county.
“For this to go on this long and this consistently is like — this is some of the most egregious sexual abuse,” Prince said.
Prince said he believes there are even more victims and guards, not named in the lawsuit, who perpetrated sexual abuse at the detention center.
County spokesman Pat Bell said county officials were aware of the lawsuit, but do not comment on “pending or potential litigation.”
Lamb worked as a guard and supervisor at the detention center from 1999 to 2016, and his alleged abuse started nearly as soon as he was hired, the lawsuit says.
” William Lamb appears to be, based on the allegations, one of the most prolific sex predators in Washington history,” Prince said.
The complaint says Lamb groomed children under his care by promising extra time out of their cells, snacks and other perks. After gaining the children’s trust, he escalated from touching to coercion and then forced sexual acts on the boys and girls, the suit alleges.
The plaintiffs said Lamb forced them to perform oral sex and masturbation and were digitally penetrated and raped. Many were abused repeatedly and some over years as they cycled in and out of the facility. Some plaintiffs said they were sexually abused by multiple employees at the center.
Lamb then sought to silence his victims through retaliation and intimidation by threatening to make their jail time harsher, saying no one would believe their stories and threatening to add time to their sentences if they reported the crimes, the suit alleges.
One girl who Lamb abused at the detention center was released from the facility and then raped by Lamb at his home, according to the lawsuit. The complaint says he tried to coerce her with alcohol, and when that failed, he raped her. Lamb later “introduced” the girl to sex trafficking and sent her on a “decades-long spiral of addiction and anguish.” Now, the woman works as an addiction recovery coach.
Lamb groomed and then lured a boy, who was homeless before he arrived at the detention center, to his home, gave him drugs and raped him on several occasions. When the boy returned to the detention center, Lamb sexually abused the teen in his cell after lockdown, the complaint alleges.
Two other boys alleged Lamb raped them, separately, in a closet at the facility and then threatened them with additional jail time and isolation if they reported the rapes.
A roughly 16-year-old girl also said Lamb groomed her by luring her to an employee booth with Subway and Starbucks, as well as playing cards.
After establishing a relationship, Lamb exposed himself to her and instructed her to touch his privates. When she refused and protested that people were around, Lamb allegedly said, “It doesn’t matter, I run this place.”
He then threatened to keep her in her cell all day if she refused. He later came to the girl’s cell, forced her against a wall and raped her, the lawsuit alleges. The sexual abuse continued throughout her incarceration at the center.
Lamb was promoted to supervisor and, in 2015, was found with a methamphetamine pipe and hospitalized at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center after he was suicidal, the complaint says. He died by suicide in 2022.
Another guard, Gray, was hired at the detention center in 1983.
Gray cornered one boy in his cell on multiple occasions and sexually abused him, according to the complaint. Gray used promises of extra time out of her cell and snacks to groom a girl, eventually luring her into a closet where he allegedly raped her on at least 10 occasions.
In the late ‘90s, Gray forced a child to perform oral sex and to engage in unwanted sexual acts with two other minors while Gray watched, the complaint also alleges.
Another girl recalled Gray’s conduct as “flamboyant,” as he flirted with teen girls and engaged in “brazen misconduct,” the complaint says.
Multiple plaintiffs in the lawsuit also named a third guard who sexually abused children at the detention facility.
Another guard opened a closet door one day at the facility and saw Gray sexually abusing a child. That guard closed the door. The next day, the guard allegedly joined Gray in sexually abusing the child.
The complaint also alleges the county failed to take “even minimal precautions” in supervising its guards and protecting youth in custody. For example, the county installed surveillance cameras starting in 2020, allowing guards to sexually abuse children without video evidence until then.
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