Federal Prisoner files lawsuit against GEO Group, Inc. for sexual assaults at Maverick County Detention Center

By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.

A former female federal detainee, Lisa Velasquez Olivarez, at the Maverick County Detention Center in Eagle Pass, Texas, filed a civil lawsuit against Defendants GEO Group, Inc., Warden Raul Trevino, Warden Brent Bement, Officer Luis Valladarez, and Officer FNU Carrizales, in their official and individual capacities, before the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, in El Paso, Texas, on November 26, 2014, alleging that she was sexually assaulted on several occasions by Officer Luis Valladarez while detained at the Maverick County Detention Center during 2012 through 2013, violating her constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, committing negligence, negligence per se, negligent hiring, training, supervision and retention, false imprisonment, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, and premises liability while sustaining damages.

Plaintiff, Lisa Velasquez Olivarez, alleges that GEO Group, Inc. Officer or employee Luis Valladarez on or about December 2012 while she was incarcerated awaiting trial on federal charges for the exportation of assault rifles and gun magazines into Mexico raped her inside a walk-in refrigerator freezer in the kitchen of the prison. Defendant Valladarez wielded tremendous power over Plaintiff Olivarez as a guard over a ward of the prison. Defendant Valladarez used coercion, threats, and physical force to dominate Plaintiff Olivarez.

The lawsuit alleges that Defendant Valladarez on multiple occasions threatened Paintiff Olivarez that if she reported the rape and resisted his attempts to rape her, Valladarez would take away her visitation privileges of seeing her family and children, place her in the “hole” or special housing unit, suspend her commissary accounts, revoke her telephone privileges, and take away all of her rights, benefits, and privileges while in GEO’s custody and control at the Maverick County Detention Center.

The lawsuit alleges that during the next two months after December 2012, Defendant Valladarez raped Plaintiff Olivarez three more times in a storage room of the kitchen. Plaintiff Olivarez complained and objected to Defendant Valladarez touching her, but Valladarez dominated her and raped her.

The lawsuit alleges that Plaintiff Olivarez reported these rapes to GEO Group, Inc. Officer or employee FNU Carrizales in January 2013, but Defendant Carrizales failed to immediately report the rapes to GEO administration. However, word got out among the inmates of what was occurring and the GEO administration investigated the rape allegations resulting in the arrest and indictment of Defendant Valladarez for sexual abuse of a ward, a federal crime, in May 2013. On October 30, 2013, Defendant Valladarez pled guilty to Assault with Intent to Commit a Felony for the rape of Plainitiff Olivarez and sentenced to 33 months in federal prison.

Plaintiff Olivarez alleges that GEO Group, Inc. allowed the serial rapes of her by Defendant Valladarez until it was ultimately reported to the police. Defendants Trevino and Bement were wardens of the GEO Group, Inc. at Maverick Detention Center during the period that the rapes occurred.

Plaintiff Olivarez alleges the GEO Group, Inc. explicitly has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual assaults, but her pleas for help weren’t taken seriously until other inmates reported the rapes.

Plaintiff Olivarez pled guilty to her charges for exporting firearms and was sentenced to a federal medical center in Fort Worth, Texas to complete her sentence.

Plaintiff Olivarez alleges that as a direct and proximate result of the intentional, willful, reckless or negligent acts or omissions of Defendants, she suffered physical and emotional damages including physical injury, pain and suffering, invasion of bodily integrity, denial of basic human needs, and exposure to severe psychological and emotional distress.

Plaintiff Olivarez seeks compensatory and punitive damages against Defendants, reasonable attorneys fees, costs, prejudgment and postjudgment interest, and such other relief which she may be entitled to at law or equity.

The GEO Group, Inc. withdrew from its contract with Maverick County and the U.S. Marshal’s Service from operating the Maverick County Detention Center on October 31, 2013, at which time the Maverick County Sheriff’s Department took over the administration of the detention center on November 1, 2013.

Generally, Defendants file an answer denying the allegations in Plaintiff’s original complaint.

Plaintiff Olivarez’s civil lawsuit has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo for the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, in El Paso, Texas.