
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.
[Back to News Headlines]
|