Jury finds state not liable for alleged women’s prison sex assaults

A federal jury on Wednesday returned a verdict finding that the state and a former warden of the women’s prison in Kailua are not liable for alleged sexual assaults committed by guards against six inmates between 2013 and 2016.

The verdict, delivered by a jury made up of five women and four men, came more than five years after five women and the family of a sixth, who died in 2018 of an apparent suicide, sued the state and Eric G. Tanaka, former Women’s Community Correctional Center warden, for not protecting them from former adult corrections officers Brent Baumann, Chavon Freitas, Taofi Magalei Jr. and Gauta Vaa.

The women were seeking more than $7 million in damages for sexual assaults that occurred while they were inmates.

All four guards were fired and Baumann and Vaa were prosecuted for sexual assault in the second degree, a Class B felony. Both were found guilty, with Baumann receiving probation and Vaa sentenced to five years in prison in December 2020. Tanaka retired in late January after serving seven years as WCCC warden and 36 years of state employment.

“The Department of Public Safety respectfully acknowledges the verdict and wants to thank the jury for their time and diligence in this matter,” Public Safety Director Max N. Otani said in a statement issued to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “The staff involved in these incidents were investigated and terminated. PSD is committed to making sure staff who break the law are held accountable for their actions.”

The civil lawsuit alleges that the guards sexually assaulted the women at least 53 times, from 2013 to 2016, and that the guards gave them reward items such as candy, cigarettes, makeup and hair care products as well as access to mobile phones and social media, special privileges and even drugs, including methamphetamine.

The women feared retaliation from the guards if they refused their advances. In one case, a guard professed love for one of the victims and proposed marriage to the incarcerated woman, according to the complaint. The assaults took place in control rooms, staff bathrooms, a room off the kitchen, the gate house and other locations. Some of the interactions were filmed by the guards, according to the complaint.

“There were 53-plus rapes, six women and one took her life because of it — and the state doesn’t take it seriously,” said attorney Richard E. Wilson, who represented some of the women. Speaking outside of the federal courthouse, he added, “This is going to encourage guards. You have a green light, nothing is going to happen to you. … The warden doesn’t care, the state doesn’t care. These women were raped and it just seems like, ‘Well that was then, what’s now.’ It’s disgusting.”

The jurors were asked to answer three questions related to each victim and guard.

First, whether the plaintiffs had established by a “preponderance of the evidence” that the warden deprived them of their right to be “free from cruel and unusual punishment due to sexual assault committed by a guard.” The second and third questions asked whether Tanaka failed to protect the inmates from the assaults, and whether Tanaka “deprived them of their right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment because the guard failed to protect the victims.” The jury’s answer to each question: No.

When the verdict was read, one of the victims, who represented herself in the case and witnessed the hearing remotely, wiped away tears, clasped her hands together and bowed her head. She asked U.S. District Court Judge Jill A. Otake to poll the jurors.

“This was not an easy case,” said Otake, while she thanked the jury for their service Wednesday.

Family members of the women, many in tears, quietly hugged one another in the courtroom following the verdict.

The suit alleged the state has disregarded “an obvious and ongoing pattern and practice of sexual abuse of inmates by both male and female guards and employees at WCCC that goes back at least 25 years.”

The plaintiffs maintained that the state disregarded the safety of the victims and other WCCC inmates and failed to properly hire, train or supervise staff and the adult corrections officers. Further, the policies and procedures in place at WCCC allegedly created an unsafe and threatening environment for the women, the suit alleged.

Speaking outside of the courthouse after the verdict was handed down, Terrance M. Revere, an attorney representing some of the women, said 40% of the cameras monitoring activity at WCCC do not work. Attorneys for the plaintiffs will continue to seek a federal court order mandating the creation of safe conditions at the WCCC “rape factory,” Revere said.

“Obviously, we’re very disappointed on behalf of our clients. We’re going to look at all of our appellate options,” said Revere. “It’s an embarrassment, it’s a stain on the state of Hawaii. They could have prevented this. We’re going to seek a federal court order to force them to do the most obvious thing, which is install cameras in places where the administration knows women are being raped.”

Due to operational security concerns, the Department of Public Safety cannot be specific to the number of cameras at WCCC. The number that are offline and the length of time that they are down varies, according to a Public Safety spokesperson.

From January through Wednesday there has been no allegation of inmate-­on-inmate sexual violence and four allegations of staff-on-inmate sexual assault. One set of allegations was substantiated under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, one was unsubstantiated and two were deemed unfounded.

The Department of Public Safety has a zero-tolerance policy against any form of sexual abuse and sexual harassment toward an offender by another offender or by a staff member, volunteer or contractor, said Toni Schwartz, the department’s public information officer. Inmates are educated on PREA reporting and expect and encouraged to speak up if they feel they might be a victim of sexual assault. Staff are required to go through extensive PREA training.

In a statement, Schwartz said the department “trains staff to assure their understanding that there is no form of sexual contact with inmates under their supervision that is not considered illegal. Still, there have been incidents where poor judgement has led to inappropriate sexual contact between staff and inmates.” She added that Public Safety “practices full transparency on the practices, training, enforcement and data collection related to PREA and pursues every complaint received to its investigative, administrative and prosecutorial conclusion.”