PORTLAND, Ore. - A former prison nurse has been indicted for sexually assaulting a dozen female inmates at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, Oregon’s only women’s prison.The U.S.
Department of Justice unsealed a federal indictment Monday charging 37-year-old Tony Daniel Klein with the crimes. He’s officially charged with 21 counts of depriving the victims of their constitutional right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment by sexually assaulting them.Court documents allege that between 2016 and 2017, Klein committed various forms of sexual assault, including aggravated sexual abuse and some resulting in bodily injury. RELATED: Virginia man, who raped a teenager and a young mother in 1991, sentenced to life in prisonHe’s also charged with four counts of perjury for giving false testimony during a 2019 deposition related to a federal lawsuit alleging he committed sexual misconduct while serving as a corrections nurse.Klein faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if found guilty.
Sexual abuse inside women’s prisons is not unheard of. Inmates at FCI Dublin in California said they have been subjected to rampant sexual abuse by correctional officers and even the warden, and were often threatened or punished when they tried to speak up.
An Associated Press investigation has found a permissive and toxic culture at the Bay Area lockup, enabling years of sexual misconduct by predatory employees and cover-ups that have largely kept the abuse out of the public eye.