James Westbrook, suspect in jail sex assault.
Posted on 07/24/2002 11:24:52 AM PDT by Drew68
Man, 19, says sex offender repeatedly assaulted him
James Westbrook, suspect in jail sex assault.
By Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News July 24, 2002
A 19-year-old man was repeatedly raped at the Jefferson County Jail after deputies placed him in a cell with a sex offender who had attacked another inmate hours earlier.
The Littleton man was sexually assaulted on Jan. 3 and 4 after he was placed in a cell with James Cornelius Westbrook, 20, who had just been convicted that day of aggravated robbery.
The man was placed in the cell about six hours after Westbrook attempted to sexually assault another inmate. That inmate screamed for help and was removed from the cell at 2:45 p.m. Jan. 3.
The man was placed in the cell at 9:19 p.m. Westbrook forced him to perform various oral and anal sexual acts, threatening to kill him if he didn't comply and keep quiet, according to court records.
The victim had been arrested for failing to attend classes required as a condition of his plea to drunken-driving offense.
It was his first time in jail.
"It's horrific," said his mother.
"He was incarcerated for noncompliance with an alcohol program. He should never have been in jail and to have this happen because of a mistake only magnifies the situation."
She said the family plans to file a civil lawsuit.
The victim and his family declined further comment until Westbrook's criminal trial is over.
The victim told deputies that Westbrook threatened "to snap my neck in half" if he didn't keep quiet, according to court records. When he moaned in pain during the assaults, Westbrook told him not to cry or he would kill him.
The victim cried when he reported the assaults to deputies, saying that "he didn't want to die and was scared he would die in that cell," according to court records.
Westbrook claimed the victim approached him.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Tallman said the Littleton man was placed in the cell because the allegations from the incident involving the first inmate were not documented. New deputies came on duty in a shift change and were unaware of the problem with Westbrook earlier that day.
The sheriff's department conducted an internal investigation after the second inmate reported that he had been raped, Tallman said.
She said two deputies were disciplined as a result and documentation procedures put in place to prevent similar problems in the future.
Tallman said deputies separated Westbrook and the first inmate without determining what happened.
"There was a verbal altercation between two inmates," she said. "No one sees what occurred. The deputies received completely different accounts from the two inmates."
Westbrook, who is black, said it was a racial incident. The other inmate said Westbrook tried to force him to perform oral sex.
"There are personality conflicts in our facility all the time," Tallman said. "They were separated with the deputies not knowing who was being truthful."
Westbrook was convicted of sexually assaulting another inmate at Mount View Detention Center when he was 13.
Westbrook has a long record of arrests for theft, robbery, fraud and drug charges, and was sentenced to five years in prison for attempted aggravated robbery in a 2000 Denver case.
He goes to trial Monday in Jefferson County District Court on 14 sexual assault charges.
The January Jefferson County incident was not his last.
He is accused of sexually assaulting another inmate April 3 at the Denver Regional Diagnostic Center where he was held awaiting placement in a state prison.
Investigators said that inmate was "highly upset and crying, throwing up in a wastebasket" as he described the attack.
The inmate said he didn't resist because he didn't want to be written up for fighting, according to court records.
Westbrook claimed the sex was consensual and produced a handwritten note he claimed was signed by the inmate, stating that they had agreed to have sex.
The inmate later said he didn't want to press charges against Westbrook because he was scared of him and feared retaliation from other inmates if he had a "snitch jacket."
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Heidi Hayes said she could not discuss why Westbrook was housed with another inmate at the diagnostic center with his history of attacking cellmates. The case is under investigation, she said, and expected to be turned over to the Denver district attorney.
Diagnostic center procedures require that inmates known to be a threat to other inmates be housed separately, she said.
But Hayes said inmates "come in with minimal information. We don't always get documentation when we get the inmate."
She said the center's staff depends on the police agency bringing in a prisoner to tell them any problems that merit separate housing for an inmate.
"If we get that kind of information, we start a file, flag it and separate them," she said.
She said she couldn't say what information DRDC received about Westbrook because of the pending investigation.
Westbrook arrived at DRDC March 13. He was charged with sexual assault against the two Jefferson County inmates in January.
Denver defense attorney David Lane said sexual assaults by inmates are a pervasive problem and jailers have a duty not to "throw inmates into the shark tank" if they have reason to believe another inmate poses a danger.
Corrections staff need to be aware of the danger and in these cases they should have been, Lane said.
"Here (Jefferson County) was on notice because he has assaulted another inmate, yet they double-celled him with another inmate on the same day," Lane said.
Lane said DRDC certainly should have been aware of Westbrook's problems at Jefferson County and the resulting criminal charges when he arrived there.
lindsays@RockyMountainNews.com or (303) 892-5181
by Robert Teesdale, May 17, 2001 (posted)
http:
//www.teesdale.com
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3afbfe4a6fa0.htm
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On Wednesday, May 9th, Colorado Project Exile held a private press conference at the Colorado Trust, a grantmaking foundation that is providing the funds for Colorado Project Exile commercials, etc.
Bob Glass and I were both there as press representatives - and to inject a little Tyranny Response Team (http://www.trt-co.org/) sentiments into the day's events. It was a combination of both sickening and productive happenings.
First, let me describe the commercials that we saw. They played all of them, and in these commercials they make a deliberate point of suggesting that if you are sent to Federal prison under Project Exile, prison rape will be an expected part of your future.
Both Bob and I were sickened by this approach.
Here's an example. One commercial shows an enormous Federal prison in South Dakota, with the roughest-looking prisoners doing exercises in their cells. Tattoos, cruel looks, and aggressive bar-slamming by the inmates. And the captions read, "Think carrying a 9mm makes you a man?"
"Lots of people in Federal prison find that attractive."
That insinuation was repeated again and again throughout the Colorado Project Exile commercials.
When these statists took questions from the attendees (which included officials in the ATF, DEA, State Police, various district and U.S. attorneys) - it was obvious they weren't prepared for us. Case in point... I asked them the following question:
"The commercials strongly and clearly suggest that prison rape is an expected part of Federal corrections. Does the Colorado Trust support the use of prison rape as an extrajudicial punishment for firearms violation? If not, then why is the Colorado Trust providing nearly a million dollars in funds to produce and show commercials advocating exactly that?"
No, they did not like it one bit.
Bob and I then cornered Rich Marianos, the ATF Agent in Charge for Colorado Springs. When questioned on how Project Exile may violate the Sixth Amendment (right to compel witnesses to appear, and to confront them) - he got red in the face, angry, and blustered around the issue without answering it. My next question - asked in front of all of these back-patting fascists - was the capper:
"Nearly 100 men, women and children were shot, gassed, burned, and crushed to death at Waco by your agency. Not one ATF agent has paid one dollar in fines or spent one day in jail. Will the ATF bring the same culture of brutality and unaccountability to their involvement with Project Exile?"
The answer?
Rich Marianos, a man whom the public trusts to maintain professional competence and respect for the law while wearing a mask, body armor, and leading men with machine guns against the public - turned purple, shouted at us, and stormed out of the building.
Right in front of his boss.
TRT 1 - ATF 0
Several fascinating things came to light as the result of our questions, and our demand for direct answers about Colorado Project Exile:
First, while the Colorado Trust (www.coloradotrust.org) is pouring over $900,000 into the advertising and billboard campaign - there is no infrastructure for handling the phone calls to the 800 number advertised. You know what happens when someone calls that number to "report an illegal gun"?
It rings at the ATF... and gets treated like any other anonymous call from the public. According to Rich Marianos, "we require corroboration" before they can do anything. So in other words, Project Exile is nothing more than a way for people to narc out their neighbors to the ATF.
Then Bob mentioned this:
"Project Exile makes no statutory distinction between a crack dealer with a murder record who lounges on the street corner looking for a robbery victim, and a single mother who carries an unregistered .38 in her purse without a CCW permit."
Rich Marianos, Agent-in-Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, replied that he makes the decision whether someone "is a criminal or not".
Now that's reassuring, is it not? I think we've all seen how the ATF treats citizens that they've determined ahead of time to be criminals....
It is unacceptable for the ATF to exploit citizen fears of crime, to pursue and promote prison rape as a punishment for the exercise of Second Amendment rights.
This story is going to hit big, folks. Bob Glass has already been contacted by Melissa Macdonald, the Executive Director of Colorado Project Exile, for help in "reworking the commercials" because she's "not happy with them."
Yeah, right. As if the Tyranny Response Team is going to help promote the use of criminal sexual assault as an extrajudicial punishment for tax law violations.
Tax law violations?
That's right.
According in the Project Exile materials I have in front of me, "illegal guns" include "machine guns, silencers" and several other forms of Class III NFA firearms.
Which, as we all know, are perfectly legal to own so long as you pay the $200 tax to the ATF.
So prison rape is now what they intend to enforce upon the People of the United States, in response to a failure to pay a $200 tax.
I guess that shooting your pregnant wife in the head, your son in the back, your dog for good measure... and machine-gunning, gassing, burning, and crushing your friends and family to death isn't enough for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Now they want to see you the victim of repeated brutal sexual assaults, by prisoners possibly infected with a fatal STD, for a period of ten years.
My question about prison rape was not answered at the podium by Ms. Macdonald. No, no. They weren't taking questions directly from the press. Can't risk a difficult question. They required us to write our questions on a card, and the card would be brought over to her and she'd read the question and answer it.
When the lady took my card with the rape question, and read it - her face lost it's pablum-spewing look of happy statism. Instead of bringing it to the podium, she brought it to John Moran, the President of the Colorado Trust. He got up and moved Ms. Macdonald out of the way, and read it. Then he said, "The Colorado Trust does not support prison rape."
"Answer the second question! Why is the Colorado Trust spending nearly a million dollars, then to promote exactly that appearance in the media?"
His response, which didn't change even after the press conference was hurriedly shut down?
"I have nothing to say to that."
Yeah, I'll bet.
Folks, this is has the potential to be a major embarrassment to a $450 million foundation which is spending millions on gun control. There will be more coming on this. Bob and I are working on a joint article about the event, and what we uncovered there.
And yes, they tried to throw us out. Didn't happen. We were there as press, and furthermore - when you turn to their private security who's trying to stop you from asking difficult questions - turning to the security and saying "I'm not talking to you - and you're interrupting!" can work wonders... :)
Stay tuned!
Note from poster The people who funded Bob Glass's radio show recently received a midnight visit from the BATF. His show and shop for that matter are no more.
That was very informative. Thanks for posting.
Heh. So they guy pays some unintended consequences for his crime (and make no mistake about it, is a crime to disobey a court order), and that makes me a bootlicker?
Some expert advice about not going to jail, from Jim Carrey, "Don't break the law, a**hole!"
And your story? It's the military equivalent of an urban legend. It's been told, re-told, and has mutated over time to fit whatever circumstances. I've heard dozens of variations of it. It probably has a kernel of truth, somewhere way back in the mists of time. But still, allow me to trample on it--
#2: If you're dumb enough to fall asleep in a strange place, you may have to deal with some unintended consequences when you wake up. Gasp! Gee, it's not a good idea to fall asleep in the street (or any other strange place)? Whouda thunk it?
I've lived in Japan off and on for a number of years, and been to many other places besides. The rules are: walk the straight and narrow, obey the laws, be nice, spend your money like a good tourist, and nobody will get hurt. Cover your own ass, and no one else will get a shot at it.
#3: Never rely on the JAG for help about anything. Anyone who's ever needed legal help while in the military could have told 'Mr. X' that. JAG and A Few Good Men may have been a couple of good yarns, but that's all they were--fiction. A real JAG couldn't get you off on a parking ticket.
Lessons learned? A little common sense goes a long way. Go to your court-appointed classes. And don't fall asleep on the street in 'Guam.'
MANDATORY PHYSICAL CASTRATION for every single rapist.
It is quite possible that the mother made this statement to a reporter under at least a little bit of duress. After all, her son had just been cornholed by a big black thug. She probably didn't really think about her comments.
It was a man I worked with on the USS Proteus in 1990, R-5 division. I saw the aftermath.
So someone falling asleep waiting for a ride deserves to be brutalized by government officials? Great attitude. Maybe you can join the BATF when you get out.
Of the highest order. Enjoy the taste.
So someone falling asleep waiting for a ride deserves to be brutalized by government officials?
Did I say that? No, I said that if you screw up, don't be suprised when the bill comes due.
No, I said that if you screw up, don't be suprised when the bill comes due.
The bill for missing court-mandated class should consist of simple incarceration, not state-sanctioned rape.
Have fun licking Janet Reno's jackboots, tough guy.
One of our guys went to prison for awhile, he came back to the PD after he got a pardon from the Governor but he spent about a year and some change in prison. Anyway, he told some horror stories about being in prison, and the inmates knew he was a cop. He said he got in a few fights early on but when everybody saw he was busting heads they left him alone. He said the CO's didn't do much to keep him out of harms way, they figured he was a dirty cop and got what he deserved.
He said he didn't have to worry about this particular problem because there were plenty of, how shall we say, nice fella's who liked to wear kool-Aid rouge.
I haven't read many of the comments from other posters but I'll throw this one out. I bet the rapist/suspect in this case has been diagnosed as mentally retarded, ala the poor youth in the Inglewood case and can't be held accountable for his actions.
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