TUSCALOOSA, Alabama – Another federal prison inmate has filed a lawsuit claiming she repeatedly was sexually assaulted by a convicted and imprisoned former correctional officer.
Laura Mellor filed her complaint December 9 in the Northern District of Alabama’s Western Division against the federal government. She says correctional officer Adrian Stargell raped and sexually abused her for nearly two years while she was an inmate at an Alabama facility.
“Prison employees raping female inmates is a pervasive problem across the country,” said Charleston attorney L. Dante diTrapano, one of the lawyers representing Mellor. “The Federal Bureau of Prisons knew Stargell abused his power and control by sexually preying on the very people he is paid to protect and keep safe.
diTrapano
DiTrapano and a team of attorneys have filed a handful of other similar complaints in recent months.
“The egregious and demented conduct visited upon vulnerable female victims in our prison system must stop,” diTrapano told The West Virginia Record.
According to her complaint, Mellor entered the federal prison system in January 2013 to serve a 144-month sentence for drug crimes. She first served at Federal Correctional Institution Hazelton in West Virginia, but was granted a good conduct transfer in November 2014 to FCI Aliceville to be closer to her parents and son in Tennessee. Aliceville is a medium-security facility in rural Pickens County, Alabama.
Mellor was a college senior when she entered prison and planned to complete her college degree during her sentence through distance education courses. Stargell worked in the Education Building there as an Education Specialist, but Mellor had no contact with him during her first two years at Aliceville.
Within months of beginning to work with Mellor in April 2016, Stargell began what she calls “boundary violations” that soon escalated to “grooming” her for sexual abuse.
She says Stargell observed her with her son during family visits, asked her personal questions about her family and paid more attention to her. Soon, Mellor says Stargell was making lewd comments about her body and saying he was attracted to her.
Three weeks later, she says Stargell fondled her over her clothing when she went to his office to hand in coursework. She says she then tried to avoid Stargell and sat alone when in the Education Department, but she couldn’t do so completely.
“Stargell’s pattern of sexual harassment quickly escalated to sexual abuse,” the complaint states. “Stargell began ordering plaintiff to come to his office by calling her over the intercom.”
Mellor says a female correctional officer named Edwards stood at the window in her office watching Stargell’s door. Mellor believed Edwards would take action to intervene or report Stargell, but she didn’t.
In May 2016, Mellor says Stargell told her he had started visiting an adult swinging club in Atlanta and asked her to write detailed descriptions of her sexual encounters with other women before her incarceration. In exchange, Stargell provided Mellor with stationary items such as pens as well as food items such as strawberries and pizza.
Mellor says she feared reporting Stargell because she believed she would be denied access to the Education Department, and she worried Stargell would report her for possession of the contraband items he had given her.
Stargell continued to request written answers and stories about Mellor’s sexual history. He also ordered her to come to his office and read these accounts to him while he forced her to watch him masturbate. He threatened to stop submitting her college assignments if she didn’t meet his demands, and he also threatened to report her for “compromising an officer” and for possession of contraband.
In early June 2016, Mellor says Stargell called the control room of her housing unit and told the officer Mellor wouldn’t be returning until later so she could “fax coursework to her college.” That is when Mellor says Stargell first raped her.
Mellor says this type of sexual abuse continued for nearly two years. She says Stargell even harassed inmates he viewed as competition for her affection and attention to maintain “his hegemonic control over her.”
In April 2018, Mellor says Stargell ordered her into a back room and forced her to perform oral sex on him. Afterward, Mellor says she swabbed the interior of her cheeks to collect DNA evidence against Stargell. She also forced herself to vomit, and she preserved the contents of her stomach in an empty pill bottle. She asked fellow inmates to keep the evidence for her.
In June 2018, Mellor and two other inmates reported her abuse. Days after that, Mellor says she was interrogated and reminded that it’s a federal crime to lie about an officer. She said she wasn’t lying, and she was examined for sexually transmitted diseases. The next day, she says she again was pressured to admit she was lying.
Soon, officials began an investigation into Mellor’s claims against Stargell. Mellor was placed in solitary confinement for months “pending an investigation” where she couldn’t communicate with relatives, had no phone privileges and couldn’t continue her education.
On October 18, 2018, Mellor was transferred to FCI Tallahassee. The following year, she learned Stargell was facing criminal charges for her rape and for the rape of another Aliceville inmate.
On April 30, 2020, Stargell pleaded guilty to a three-count information. Two of the counts were for violating the rights of the two inmates, and the other was for making false statements to federal agents. In August, the 39-year-old was sentenced to 42 months in prison and three years supervised release.
Mellor accuses the defendant of assault, battery, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She seeks compensatory damages, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
She is being represented by diTrapano, Benjamin Adams, Alex McLaughlin and Sean Shriver of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston, Jay McCamic of McCamic Law Firm in Wheeling, Anthony Werner of John & Werner Law Offices in Wheeling and attorney Kathy Luker in Birmingham, Alabama. The case has been assigned to Chief Judge L. Scott Coogler.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Western Division case number 7:20-cv-1970