Ex-FMC Carswell prison employee convicted of sexually abusing incarcerated woman
A former Fort Worth federal prison employee has been convicted of sexually abusing a patient incarcerated at Federal Medical Center Carswell, according to court documents.
The employee, identified in court filings as Marerllis Nix, was employed at FMC Carswell until 2021 as a correctional recreation specialist. He is accused of sexually abusing multiple women during his time at the facility, according to court documents. The woman was released from federal custody in January 2022.
Nix harassed and abused the woman multiple times from May to July of 2021, according to a complaint submitted by her attorneys. In mid-May, Nix ordered the woman to clean his office by herself and the woman refused, saying she would return the next day when she could bring another female inmate with her, according to the complaint. Nix ordered her to clean the office immediately and was overheard by another prison employee nearby.
Nix took the woman to his office, which was not equipped with security cameras, and assaulted her there, according to court documents.
After the incident in his office, Nix raped the woman 10 to 12 times in different areas of the prison facility that did not have security cameras, according to court documents. On each occasion, he was seen by other prison employees taking the woman from her cell or trying to isolate her in different areas, but no employee made an effort to intervene, the complaint alleges.
The woman learned that Nix had previously been accused of sexual assault by other women, to which he replied that people were “always accusing him,” but that “nothing ever sticks,” attorneys for the woman wrote in the complaint. At one point, Nix printed investigation paperwork from his email and showed the woman that another woman had reported him for sexually abusing her.
The woman reported her sexual assault multiple times to various prison officials, none of whom did anything to intervene or investigate, according to the court filings. The woman asked a nurse at the facility to test her for sexually transmitted diseases and the nurse denied her twice. Medical officials at the facility also did not perform any kind of sexual assault examination on the woman after she reported the assaults, attorneys wrote in the filing.
The woman and her lawyers are calling for an outside investigation into sexual abuse allegations at FMC Carswell, according to a statement.
Nix faces up to 15 years in federal prison on two counts of sexual abuse of a ward.
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 9:13 PM.
