Former nurse charged with sexually assaulting inmates at Oregon’s lone women’s prison
PORTLAND, Ore. – A former Oregon Department of Corrections employee is facing more than two dozen charges related to the alleged sexual assault of 12 inmates at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility from 2016 to 2017.
The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment Monday charging 37-year-old Tony Daniel Klein, a former nurse at Oregon’s lone women’s prison, with four counts of perjury and 21 counts of “depriving the women of their constitutional right to not be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment by sexually assaulting them,” The Oregonian reported.
Four of the alleged assaults included aggravated sexual abuse, the indictment stated, and Klein pleaded not guilty Monday via video to all 26 charges, the newspaper reported.
The perjury charges stem from false testimony Klein allegedly provided during a 2019 deposition “related to a federal lawsuit alleging he committed sexual misconduct while serving as a corrections nurse,” KOIN reported.
Klein was granted pretrial release, and a May 16 trial date was set, The Oregonian reported.
Jennifer Black, an Oregon Department of Corrections spokesperson, told the newspaper that 27 women have brought allegations against Klein since 2019.
“Today’s indictment shows that the voices of women in custody are heard and taken seriously. Allegations will not be swept under the rug or ignored,” Director Colette S. Peters said in a prepared statement, noting that the department has “zero tolerance” for sexual violence.
If convicted, Klein faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, KOIN reported.
Klein worked for the prison system from October 2010 through January 2018, when he resigned, The Oregonian reported.
