Arizona Appealing Safety Violation Fine in Prison Rape Case

PHOENIX — Feb 6, 2015, 4:45 PM ET

By BOB CHRISTIE Associated Press

The Arizona Department of Corrections does not believe it should have to pay a $14,000 fine that state workplace safety regulators levied against the agency for failing to protect a teacher who was raped by an inmate in a sex offender unit.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press show the department filed an appeal last week to overturn the fine issued by Industrial Commission of Arizona. A prisons spokesman said the agency believes there is a basis for the appeal, but he did not elaborate.

Arizona has faced intense criticism over the attack. Prison officials sent out only a vague press release that referred to an assault on an employee after the January 2014 rape. The details of the assault came to light only after The Associated Press obtained documents under a public records request and interviewed people familiar with the case.

The attack raised questions about prison security because the teacher was put into a room full of sex offenders with no guards nearby and no closed-circuit cameras. She had only a radio to call for help.

The state found itself facing more scrutiny this week after lawyers for the attorney general's office argued in court that the woman's lawsuit should be thrown out. Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Weisbard wrote that the teacher routinely worked in classrooms and there is always a risk of assault when working with prisoners.

A federal judge on Thursday refused to dismiss the teacher's civil rights lawsuit, writing that the lawsuit raised plausible allegations that the warden and other top officials created a dangerous environment that led to the rape.

The workplace-safety investigation was launched last July after the AP story provided the first detailed account of the incident.

Authorities have said inmate Jacob Harvey, who was less than a year into a 30-year sentence for a home-invasion and rape, lingered after other inmates left the room on Jan. 30, 2014, then repeatedly stabbed the teacher with a pen before raping her.

Harvey remains in prison, and he is awaiting trial on new charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

The appeal of the $14,000 fine levied in January by the state Industrial Commission seeks a hearing before an administrative law judge.

The Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health recommended a fine of $9,000 for two violations of workplace-safety rules. But commissioners boosted that to $14,000 at a hearing last month, with one commissioner saying the violations showed the rape "should never have occurred in that facility."

Commissioner Joseph Hennelly Jr. even suggested the department could be hit with an additional $25,000 fine, but he was told state laws didn't allow it in this case.

A spokesman for the Department of Corrections said the department believes there are a significant number of factual inaccuracies in the worker safety agency's report that it plans to contest.

"The 2014 assault on the ADC teacher was a cowardly and despicable crime, for which the inmate is rightfully facing prosecution," spokesman Doug Nick said in an email. "The safety and well-being of all ADC staff is the department's paramount priority, and the victim has our full assistance and support."

Scott Zwillinger, the teacher's lawyer, criticized the Corrections Department for appealing the workplace safety citations.

Teacher rape case - state wants the courts to drop the case.

The story

the only "integrity" at stake are the facts of this case that need to be heard inside a courtroom by an experienced judge as Judge Bolton. She is savvy enough to smell a cover up and lack of truth in the case as this was not a case of "artificial' impressions but rather an example of the gross negligence of a system that is "deliberately indifferent" to their employees as they show no value or human worth as a state worker and slammed by the very office that is charged to protect them in cases against inmates who commit crimes inside prisons.
I know this Deputy AG. He was once a good man who stood by employees but his comments seem to have sold out their value as state employee "protectors" as he is expected to represent them in depositions and other state represented cases while slamming and degrading them at the same time. What does this tell you about the AG and their tactics?
This was a pre-Mark Brnovich era attorney hired by Tom Horne or his predecessor. Playing both sides of the field is corruptive behaviors as it involves no scruples, integrity and honor. I hope the new AG sees the illogical approach on this case and how it would destroy state employee confidence and morale knowing the AG office won't back them up against inmates who commit crimes such as rape, assault with weapons, and other felonies which occur inside our prisons.
It should tell you that they don't want this case in court because it has flaws and facts that could injure their case and while I have this thought..... they just put out the green light that assaulting behaviors such as this horrific rape is okay and that the state expects you to act this way.
I know this case intimately, this case reeks the smell of fouled fish found to be contaminated with lies and mistakes the public needs to know about because we spent over one billion dollars on running a prison system that has gross deaths, assaults on staff and other disruptive behaviors that nobody wants to talk about or see in a courtroom because they would embarrass the governor's appointment of the man who runs this joke of a "cloak and cover up" machinery as they certainly aren't humane with comments as they have made about this teacher. She deserves dignity, respect and a reasonable level of protection or safety. None that was given in this case.