Behind a closed chapel workplace door inside a federal girls’s jail in California, a chaplain pressured inmates looking for his non secular steerage to have intercourse with him, exploiting their religion and their powerlessness behind bars for his personal gratification, prosecutors stated.
James Theodore Highhouse was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in jail — greater than double the really useful punishment in federal sentencing pointers. U.S. District Choose Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. stated the rules, which name for a sentence of lower than three years, “critically underestimate the seriousness” of Highhouse’s conduct.
“It’s laborious to provide you with the precise phrases to explain how egregious an abuse of those victims this was,” Gilliam stated.
Highhouse is amongst 5 employees charged within the final 14 months with sexually abusing inmates on the Federal Correctional Establishment in Dublin, California, and the primary to succeed in the sentencing part of his case.
Highhouse, carrying a T-shirt and blue denims, spoke briefly in federal court docket in Oakland and apologized to the ladies he harmed. Gilliam ordered him to start his jail sentence on Nov. 2, permitting him to stay free on bail till then. Highhouse should register as a intercourse offender as soon as he is launched from jail, Gilliam stated.
Highhouse, who was arrested in January and pleaded responsible in February, would inform girls he abused on the Bay Space lockup, that everybody within the Bible had intercourse and that God needed them to be collectively, prosecutors stated.
An Army veteran, he pressured one inmate into intercourse on Veterans Day by telling her she wanted to serve her nation and on Thanksgiving by telling her she wanted to point out her gratitude for him, prosecutors stated.
Whereas Highhouse, 49, was charged solely with abusing one inmate and mendacity to authorities, prosecutors say he engaged in predatory conduct with a minimum of six girls from 2014 to 2019 — together with one he recommended at a veterans hospital the place he labored earlier than becoming a member of the federal Bureau of Prisons, the place allegations had been routinely ignored.
“Highhouse ruined my life — he actually did,” one inmate stated in a sufferer affect assertion. “I don’t even go to Church anymore due to him. I’ve no belief within the Church and actually, I don’t belief anybody due to what he did.”
Highhouse, enabled by a poisonous tradition of abuse and coverups on the jail, warned victims to not report him, telling one among them “nobody will consider you since you’re an inmate, and I’m a chaplain,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
On the identical time, prosecutors wrote, a jail counselor would rail about inmates “snitching” on staff, suggesting they as an alternative “inform Trump about it,” referring to then-President Donald Trump.
Prosecutors had sought a 10-year jail sentence. His legal professionals requested for 2 years, the low finish of the federal pointers, which referred to as for a sentence of 24 to 30 months. Gilliam’s seven-year sentence matched the advice of probation officers who carried out Highhouse’s pre-sentence investigation.
“Inside our corrections system, chaplains are supposed to supply hope and non secular steerage,” Deputy Legal professional Normal Lisa Monaco stated in a press release. “As a substitute, this chaplain abused his authority and betrayed the general public belief.”
Of their sentencing memorandum, Highhouse’s legal professionals famous that he served as an Army chaplain in Iraq and Afghanistan, is looking for therapy for post-traumatic stress dysfunction and cares for his aged mom after his father’s demise this 12 months. He has no prior legal historical past, they wrote.
All sexual exercise between a jail employee and an inmate is illegitimate. Correctional staff take pleasure in substantial energy over inmates, controlling each facet of their lives from mealtime to lights out, and there’s no situation by which an inmate can provide consent.
Earlier this 12 months, an Related Press investigation revealed years of sexual misconduct at FCI Dublin, together with allegations towards the jail’s former warden. The AP additionally detailed steps that had been taken to maintain abuse secret, comparable to ignoring allegations, retaliating towards whistleblowers and sending prisoners to solitary confinement or different prisons for reporting abuse.
After the AP’s reporting, a process drive of senior federal jail officers descended on Dublin, assembly with workers and inmates and pledging to repair issues and alter the tradition. On Wednesday, Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters visited Dublin for an replace.
The 4 different charged Dublin staff are at varied levels of their instances.
The previous warden, Ray J. Garcia, was arraigned Wednesday on a superseding indictment charging him with abusing two further inmates, for a complete of seven counts involving three victims. He pleaded not responsible and is scheduled to go on trial in November.
Enrique Chavez, a meals service foreman, is anticipated to plead responsible on Sept. 14. Ross Klinger, a recycling technician, pleaded responsible in February however has but to be sentenced. John Russell Bellhouse, a jail security administrator, is scheduled to face trial subsequent June.
Highhouse pleaded responsible on Feb. 23 to 2 counts of sexual abuse of a ward, two counts of abusive sexual contact and one rely of creating false statements to federal brokers.
All the expenses stem from allegations Highhouse repeatedly abused a feminine prisoner over a nine-month span in 2018 and 2019.
That lady stated in a sufferer affect assertion that she cried herself to sleep after testifying earlier than a grand jury about Highhouse’s abuse.
“I felt so misplaced, hopeless, nugatory, and betrayal and actually have no idea what to do or who to speak to about my issues,” the lady wrote.
The AP doesn’t usually determine individuals who say they’re victims of sexual assault until they grant permission.
Different allegations towards Highhouse, beforehand saved quiet by Dublin officers, got here to gentle through the investigation, prosecutors stated.
Two inmates stated Highhouse claimed to them that he was a intercourse therapist, requested graphic questions on their intercourse lives and provided to allow them to have intercourse in his workplace, prosecutors stated. Considered one of them stated Highhouse leered at her when she obtained out of the bathe and had a status as a “predator.”
One other inmate advised investigators that she averted Highhouse after he made suggestive remarks throughout a counseling session, comparable to suggesting that the commissary promote intercourse toys.
In Might, an inmate now incarcerated at one other federal jail facility reported that Highhouse raped her a number of occasions in his chapel workplace after she sought him out for counseling, prosecutors stated.
“He took my means to sleep at night time and he took my means to belief within the Church,” the inmate wrote in a sufferer affect assertion. “I might by no means return to Church. I’m always on alert. He performed on my vulnerability and took benefit of me — I’ve nightmares.”
The inmate stated that she tried to report the abuse however that when she did, a jail officer shrugged and reminded her that she would quickly be transferring out of Dublin.
“To me the BOP is an epic fail when it comes to the best way they deal with PREA,” the inmate wrote, referring to the federal Jail Rape Elimination Act. “The system is flawed and damaged.”
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