Ex-Inmate Sue Over Prison Rape

WITCHITA FALLS, TX -- A former Texas prison inmate claims to have been raped repeatedly by a gang while he was in prison and has now filed a civil law suit against seven Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials seeking unspecified damages.

Roderick Johnson, a black gay burglary convict, says he was raped almost daily over an 18-month period by members of the gangster disciples, a prison gang, and sold for sex to other prisoners. Mr. Johnson sued for violation of his Eighth Amendment right, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

Mr. Johnson, a Navy veteran, said that he repeatedly pleaded to prison officials to be moved to a unit safer for gays. "I ask you to please intervene and save my life from this abuse," Johnson wrote. "I don't want to be a sex toy to these inmates any longer. Please help me now!"

But prison officials refused to move him, telling him to fight off the other inmates instead.

Lawyers for the prison don't deny that prison rape is a problem, but say Mr. Johnson wasn't a victim. They claim that the sex was consensual and that he even wrote affectionate letters to some of the men he accuses of having raped him.