By Scott Sandlin
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Onetime prison guard Anthony Townes is now about two years into an 18-year state prison sentence after he admitted raping four women at Camino Nuevo Women’s Correctional Facility in 2007.
The civil lawsuit filed by some of the women, however, still is months away from being resolved.
Trial in the 2009 case filed by Heather Spurlock and two other former inmates at the detention facility was to have begun this month. Several postponements were requested by the defendants including Townes, former warden Barbara Wagner and the Corrections Corporation of America, the private contractor that operated the prison at the time.
Camino Nuevo in 2007 was run as an adult prison and was taking overflow from the women’s prison in Grants. It is now a juvenile detention center operated by the state Children, Youth and Families Department.
A primary reason for the latest trial delay was the late disclosure of two additional women who claimed sexual abuse by Townes but who are not involved in the civil lawsuit. The defense said it needed more time to interview those witnesses before trial.
Attorneys for the victims said their anticipated testimony about “the traumatic, invasive and highly personal experience of sexual assault” is only made worse by having to repeatedly prepare for trial. CCA was well aware of the additional sexual assault victims, anyway, they said.
U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson, who has now set a firm trial date of Feb. 6, previously ruled Townes civilly liable for the rapes. He has dismissed some claims against CCA.
Among questions for the jury will be whether Townes’ assaults can be legally charged to CCA negligence or deliberate indifference in operating the facility, principally over what the victims contend was a custom of discouraging inmate complaints against staff. The women’s lawyers will try to give the jury a picture of what happened during the incidents, as well as the context in which each assault took place and how CCA responded.
Plaintiffs’ expert Manuel D. Romero said in a report he believes CCA “did not provide a safe and secure living environment for (women) in the Camino Nuevo facility.”
He said the fact that “such horrific crimes” could be undetected for several months shows there are “systemic failures within the facility.” He said in a report there was a “clear lack of accountability over Mr. Townes and his movement within the prison.”
Plaintiffs’ attorneys may also seek to place Townes’ assaults in the broader context of underreporting of prison problems. Documents in the court file include excerpts from testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in 2008 about a former CCA managerturned-whistleblower who said the company maintained dual sets of quality assurance reports. The versions sent to government contracting agencies reportedly failed to include “zero tolerance” events including riots, escapes, unnatural deaths and sexual assaults at company-run facilities.
CCA has said in court documents that it put Townes on leave and required him to surrender his badge.
Copyright 2011 Albuquerque Journal