Texas Sexual Assault Detention Officer Sentencing

In a press release at http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/April/10-crt-380.html , lawyers for the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a federal district judge in Texas has sentenced a Rio Honda, Texas man to three years in prison and five years of supervised release for violating the civil rights and the sexual abuse of females in his custody at a Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas.  According to the April 7, 2010 press release, the former detention center guard pleaded guilty in September 2009 to a six-count criminal information charging him with three counts of abusive sexual contact and three counts deprivation of rights under color of law.  As stated in the DOJ press release, the former guard admitted that on several occasions in March and April of 2008, he snuck into medical isolation rooms at the detention center infirmary to grope female patients and that his actions caused the female victims psychological pain and embarrassment.

The man reportedly worked at the detention center for six-and-a-half years as a guard and was employed by a private company that contracted with the United States government.  In this regard, the DOJ said that when confronted by agents from the U. S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement’s Office of Professional Responsibility, the man admitted to sexually touching five different women.

Trial attorneys with the DOJ Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the civil rights case in the U. S. Southern District of Texas.  For more information about the U. S. Department of Justice and its Civil Rights Division, see www.justice.gov .