Fort Worth prison officer gets lighter sentence for assault than victim’s drug sentence
A former federal Bureau of Prisons staff member, who pleaded guilty to raping two women at a prison in Fort Worth, was sentenced to 18 months on Thursday — half the amount of time one of his victims is serving for drug possession.
Lt. Luis Curiel pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse of a ward while he was a lieutenant at Federal Medical Center Carswell. Judge Mark Pittman sentenced him to 18 months for each charge, but the judge ruled the sentences could be served at the same time. According to court documents, Curiel admitted to meeting three women at separate times near a staff elevator and forcing them into sexual acts.
A months-long Star-Telegram investigation published on Aug. 26 shed light on misconduct at FMC Carswell. The nation’s only medical prison for women, Carswell had the highest rate of sexual assault allegations at any federal women’s prison from 2014 to 2018, and the highest number of assault allegations against staff, the Star-Telegram found. In that period, 35 women at Carswell reported they were sexually assaulted by a staff member.
In May, Curiel became the most recent staff member to be convicted of sexual abuse when he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual abuse of a ward.
Betzabel Banda-Martinez said Curiel abused her multiple times a week for four months from June to October 2021. He raped her and physically assaulted her, she said, often leaving large bruises and bite marks on her body. Because Curiel could listen in on her phone calls, she felt she could not tell anyone about the abuse. He threatened her family and children, Banda-Martinez said, and told her intimate details about her family that made her fear for their safety.
The names of the victims are not included in court documents, but one of the women’s initials match Banda-Martinez.
Even after Curiel was arrested, she said, he tried to reach out to her via social media. Banda-Martinez is currently serving a 36-month sentence for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
A staff member reported Curiel to administrators and told the Star-Telegram that she was subsequently retaliated against and fired. The staff member talked to the Star-Telegram under the condition of anonymity out of fear of further retaliation from the Bureau of Prisons.
The staff member said she reported Curiel to supervisors the summer of 2021. Yet, Curiel worked at the facility — and assaulted multiple women — after the reports were filed. The staff member said she never got a response to her initial report about Curiel.
In October 2021, Banda-Martinez was pulled into the office of Michael Carr, who was the warden at that time. The prison’s supervising investigative agent and a federal marshal were inside. They started to ask her about Curiel and told her they knew he was abusing her, she said. “They said they had been investigating him, but they didn’t do nothing?” she said. “If they see something happening, they need to do something then and there … They don’t know the suffering and pain we go through.”
Other staff assaults
Curiel is not the only Bureau of Prisons staff member to receive a lighter sentence for rape than their victims served for drug possessions.
James Theodore Highhouse, 50, a former chaplain with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, was sentenced to seven years in prison on Aug. 31 for repeatedly sexually abusing a woman at FCI Dublin and then lying to federal agents about his misconduct. According to court documents, federal authorities said they have evidence that Highhouse subjected at least five women, including Windy Panzo, to sexual abuse or unwanted sexual conduct. Because Highhouse took a plea deal related to one victim, he was not charged with assaulting Panzo or the other victims.
One of the women Highhouse abused, Panzo, is currently incarcerated at FMC Carswell. In 2017, she was sentenced for possession and intent to distribute methamphetamine — she received 25 years.
“I am shocked at the time that he got,” Panzo told the Star-Telegram over email. “I got more time for a drug charge then he got on a rape charge.”
Highhouse was the chaplain at the federal women’s prison in California. He was tasked with providing spiritual guidance to women at FCI Dublin, but instead, Panzo said, he manipulated and took advantage of her emotionally and sexually from September 2017 through April 2018.
Chantel Dudley’s assailant also received a shorter sentence for assaulting her than she served for drug possession. Dudley was incarcerated at Carswell in 2016, where she was sexually assaulted multiple times by case manager Matthew McGaugh.
McGaugh was sentenced in November 2017. He was given a year in prison.
In 2018, Dudley was released from federal prison after serving her 37-month sentence for a drug conviction. Dudley, who lives in Tennessee with her 7-year-old daughter and her family, said the trauma inflicted by McGaugh and the Bureau of Prisons caused severe PTSD and depression.
“(McGaugh) took from me any strength that I had when I went in there. He took from me,” said Dudley, who filed a lawsuit against McGaugh accusing him of cruel and unusual punishment and excessive force. “And I’m fighting to get (my strength) back. And he only got a year in prison.”
In response to the Star-Telegram’s reporting on FMC Carswell, U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey urged the House Committee on the Judiciary to hold a hearing in North Texas to investigate sexual assaults in federal prisons.
“I am deeply disturbed by these reports and strongly believe the stories of the victims merit further investigation on a national scale,” Veasey wrote in the letter to the committee.
U.S. Rep. Kay Granger has not responded to requests to comment on the allegations of cover-ups and systemic abuse at the prison in her district. The Bureau of Prisons has repeatedly declined interview requests and open records requests involving sexual abuse in federal facilities.
On Sept. 7, the Star-Telegram requested an interview with the Bureau of Prisons director, Colette Peters, who was appointed in July. A spokesman said Peters’ schedule “is very full her first few months, but we can re-visit this request in the future.”
This story was originally published September 20, 2022 at 1:31 PM.
