LEXINGTON, Kentucky – A group of West Virginia attorneys have filed a third lawsuit claiming another female federal inmate was raped, sexually assaulted and battered while incarcerated at a Kentucky prison.
The plaintiff, identified only as W.T., filed the complaint May 25 in federal court against the federal government and Residential Drug Abuse Program Instructor Hosea Lee at the Federal Medical Center Lexington.
The core group of her attorneys, including L. Dante diTrapano, are from West Virginia and have filed several similar lawsuits in recent years, including one earlier in May against Lee.
diTrapano
“Correctional officers using their authority, control and power to rape female inmates is an epidemic in our prison system,” diTrapano told The West Virginia Record. “These women were not sentenced to sexual abuse.”
According to the complaint, W.T. was serving time at Federal Medical Center Lexington. When she started her recovery class, W.T. says Lee immediately breached the appropriate boundary between staff and inmates.
“Soon after W.T. began the course, defendant Lee began overtly leering at her and began sexualizing the questions out of the class textbook,” the complaint states. “W.T. was concerned that defendant Lee knew of the extreme sexual abuse in her past and that he would consider her particularly vulnerable to sexual assault, and this concern came to fruition.”
One day as class ended, she says Lee told her in Spanish that he liked her eyes and told her she was pretty. Then, he told her to come to his office. She says she did so out of fear of punishment if she didn’t comply.
Lee told W.T. to get in a large closet before he ordered her to perform oral sex on him. Again, she says she did so out of fear of retribution. She says Lee made threats of that as well.
She says he ordered her to come back every two weeks to perform oral sex on him, and she did so out of fear. She says she also learned of at least two other inmates who were being assaulted by Lee, and both of them apparently had herpes outbreaks. She also learned the FBI had investigated sexual assault claims against Lee.
The incidents between W.T. and Lee lasted from August 2019 to October 2019.
When W.T. was interviewed as part of the investigation into Lee’s sexual misconduct, she says she first denied her involvement. But she eventually decided to admit Lee had sexually assaulted her. Then, she also tested positive for Herpes 1 and II.
W.T. also says at least two counselors at the facility indicated they knew of Lee’s frequent sexual assault of inmates. She says a physician’s assistant there also revealed he knew Lee was having sexual relations with W.T. and that “he was jealous” of him for it.
Lee was transferred to work at the men’s section of the prison, but he still could monitor phone calls and emails of the female inmates. In early 2020, W.T. was transferred to Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, W.Va., which was further away from her family.
She also says she was punished at Alderson because she had reported Lee’s actions. She says she was isolated from the general population and housed in the Admissions and Orientation building with two other inmates transferred from Lexington.
She says she was refused medical care at Alderson following a herpes outbreak and was denied psychological care by not being allowed to talk confidentially with a rape counselor.
W.T. and her attorneys also say they were denied confidential legal calls with her.
She says Lee violated her Eighth Amendment right to not being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. She also accuses the federal government of assault and battery and negligence under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
W.T. seeks compensatory damages as well as punitive damages from Lee. She also seeks attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
She is being represented by diTrapano, Benjamin Adams and Alex McLaughlin of Calwell Luce diTrapano in Charleston; Jay T. McCamic of McCamic Law Firm in Wheeling, Anthony I. Werner of John & Werner Law Offices in Wheeling as well as by David G. Bryant of David Bryant Law in Louisville, Kentucky.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky case number 5:21-cv-00178
