Posted at 12:15 p.m., Thursday, March 10, 2005
Ex-warden, prison officer face charges in sex investigation
Associated Press
BRUSH, Colo. — A former officer at a privately run women's prison where nearly half the inmates are from Hawai'i faces a charge of having sex with an inmate and the former warden faces a charge of being an accessory.Two other officers and seven inmates at the Brush Correctional Facility are accused of smuggling tobacco into the prison, according to court files released yesterday.
District Attorney Robert Watson filed a charge of unlawful sexual conduct against one former guard, Frederick Henry Woller, 32. Former warden Rick Soares, 57, faces a charge of being an accessory for allegedly hindering "discovery, detection, apprehension, prosecution, conviction, or punishment," the documents said.
Soares resigned from Tennessee-based GRW, which owns the 250-bed prison in Morgan County, on Feb. 18.
Alison Morgan, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said another officer was charged earlier with sexual misconduct. She said more charges could be filed.
The charges were filed after a monthlong investigation. Some of the inmates said they were raped, but investigators concluded the sex was consensual and sometimes was initiated by inmates, Morgan said.
Having sex with inmates is a felony for correctional officers.
The prison holds 80 inmates from Hawai'i, 73 from Colorado and 45 from Wyoming. Morgan said some Hawai'i and Wyoming inmates acknowledged they had sex with the guards because they believed they would be returned home, where they would be closer to relatives.
